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| Sidi Sanneh |
We have the cause to repeat our call, once more, for Jammeh to step down at the end of his term.
We are prompted to reiterate our call, following the release of the United Nations Special Rapporteur's Report on torture, cruel and other inhumane treatment of Gambians, the latest of many reports by Amnesty International and the Robert F. Kennedy center for Justice and Human Rights, for Jammeh to step down at the end of his current term.
All of these reports share one common thread : a systemic abuse of human rights that is growing worse instead of getting better, and with the events of 30 December 2013, the UN Report suggest that the regime in Banjul will grow more repressive to maintain control.
It is not only the human rights of Gambians that raises concern among the international community. The management of the economy has been a prime source of concern of the donor community which the European Development Fund has linked to its disbursement of future development assistance with its 17-point demands.
The economic decline has been extricable linked to the high level corruption that has become endemic, driving investors into the hands of friendlier business/private sector environments in the neighborhoods of Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Guinea. The business and private sector advantages built over the first thirty years of independence have been squandered by the current regime through corruption and ineptitude.
Yaya Jammeh should be barred from taking part in the 2016 presidential elections because 20 years at the helm is enough. He seized power because he felt Sir Dawda Jawara overstayed. Jammeh has also overstayed his welcome and should leave so that a new political dispensation is constructed to start reconstructing a New Gambia.
