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Momodou
Denmark
11627 Posts |
 Posted - 10 Oct 2024 : 11:15:02
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Political Partnership And Trust
By Mamjiky Saidy-Barrow
For those of us who pay attention to politics in different African countries, the animus between President Williams Ruto and his Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, is indicative of the dictum credited to the racist Englishman Alan Clark who said of politics: There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water. As cynical as one may think Clark’s position is, one cannot totally dismiss it because it definitely appears to hold true in our politics where “what’s in it for me” matters far more than “what’s in it for the people.”
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has been impeached in the Kenyan House of Representatives and unless the Senate backs him, he’s going to lose his position as Deputy President and his former ally and partner President William Ruto will have to replace him. Less than three years ago, the two men were partners politicking on the same platform. Today they are political enemies. Rings a bell? Reminds me of the fall out between Mr Ousainou Darboe and President Adama Barrow or the animus between former the President of Botswana Ian Khama and his handpicked successor Mokgweetsi Masisi. Those who follow Senegalese politics will also recall that Abdoulaye Wade and Macky Sall were once partners. Macky would go on to come after Abdoulaye Wade’s son and imprison him. It’s similar to what current Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço is doing to the family of his predecessor and onetime ally President Dos Santos. In the DRC, current President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi and his predecessor Joseph Kabila are no longer at ease. Examples abound but you get the point.
I am sure there are converse examples where power changed hands and political partners remained on good terms but if we go by the statement that “there are no friends in politics,” then one can understand why my Bandam President Adama Barrow is all worked up about the very public claims that he wants to choose Mohammed Jah as his successor. Succession is a touchy subject not only in the APRC/NPP but also in the UDP and PDOIS. Importantly, Barrow knows that many around him, and many supporting him today, are doing so because of their own interest and not because they share any political beliefs with him. He knows that many associating with him today do so only because he is in power. When he is out of power, most of those cheering him on will abandon him just like they abandoned Yaya Jammeh. It cannot be lost on Barrow that the two people in charge of the organ that passed a law to prosecute Yaya Jammeh are the same two people who swore allegiance to the same Yaya Jammeh. If Seedy Njie and Tombong Jatta can betray Yaya Jammeh, they won’t hesitate to burn Barrow at the stakes!
The lesson in all of this is that in politics, especially in Gambian politics, choosing a successor requires astute judgment and gamesmanship because no former president would want to be in a position where the one holding the knife to their back is the one they chose to succeed them. Choosing a successor is even more critical when an outgoing president knows that their hands are not sparkling clean. Even outside the Presidency, in The Gambia, we have seen how political party leaders cling on to their leadership positions for dear life. We have never heard of a political party whose leadership passed the baton to others within the party! If the believe is that “there are no friends in politics,” then you can understand why political party leaders and presidents adamantly guard their turf and never pass the baton. You just don’t know if the one you pass the baton to will use it to crack your skull! And in this country where loyalty is only skin deep, you have to be extremely calculating about who to trust! Here’s my unsolicited advice for my Bandam: If they were once in Jammeh’s circle and effortlessly switched into your circle, sleep with both eyes open when you are around them.
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Political Partnership And Trust
