Senegalese President Macky Sall unilaterally reduces presidential term from 7 to 5 years

President Macky Sall of Senegal 

President Macky Sall of Senegal has announced the reduction of the presidential term from the current seven to five.

The unilateral decision will take effect immediately, preempting the need for a referendum as originally envisaged.

The decision also clears a huddle that parliamentarians were concerned about i.e the cost of conducting such an electoral exercise as well as ending what has been described as "confusion among politicians over the holding of the referendum".

The presidential decree means that the next presidential elections in Senegal will now take place in 2017 when Macky Sall will be seeking his second term,  Should he win, it will be his final term since he is term-limited,

The seven-year term has been constitutional limit since Senegal gained independence from France in 1960.  President Wade promised to reduce it to five during his 2000 presidential campaign but failed to fulfill the promise to the electorate.  That promise is now being fulfilled.

The decision will certainly be welcomed across the continent in general and among President Macky Sall's colleagues in the ECOWAS region, all  but two of whom have agreed to presidential term limits in the 16-Member regional organization.

The United States and the European Union countries will also welcome the decision as a measure that can only strengthen Senegal's democracy which is already the pride of Africa.

Only The Gambia and Togo opposed the proposal - a proposal that enjoys ECOWAS-wide support, especially among ordinary citizens who are tired of dictatorships that have contributed in a significant measure to the general backwardness and lack of economic progress which usually accompanies the absence of democracy and the rule of law.

We hope colleagues of the Senegalese president in the region and across the continent will emulate him by committing themselves to term limits which are a sure and certain way of eliminating harsh and brutal dictatorship that countries, like The Gambia, under a 21-year dictatorship of Yaya Jammeh, are undergoing presently.  

Media role is to protect the rights and welfare of children, says UNICEF Country Rep.

Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF Chief in Banjul

The UNICEF Resident Representative in The Gambia, Ms. Sara Beysolow Nyati, has called upon the Gambian media to provide balanced reporting in general, but particularly in the reporting of the general welfare of Gambian children in The Gambia.

In what appeared to be a mild criticism of the independent media.  The UN official was addressing the journalists who attended the UNICEF - financed workshop when she stressed the need for an independent media that will not only protect the rights and welfare of children but to be treated as citizens at par with the rest of the adult population.

It is important to note (i)  that there are independent media entities in The Gambia and (ii) what is referred to as independent media are those that are the privately - owned.  All those that are in the latter category operate under unwritten self-censored rules.  Although they are unwritten, as an editor of reporter, you know it when you've crossed the line by a phone call from the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) or the Serious Crime Unit.

The regime's favorite targets are journalists as attested to by the numerous journalists in exile across the globe, estimated to be in the region of 200.  Journalism is by far the single most dangerous profession in The Gambia, perhaps outside of being a member of the country's militia and other security units.  The regime has created a deliberately designed harsh environment that even the Yaya Jammeh-owned Daily Observer runs afoul if the unwritten rules of journalistic conduct of the dictator.

Ms. Nyanyi's appealed to journalists by saying that "as partner [in development]...giving the right information will help [UNICEF and the donor community] work together to fulfill the rights of people, especially children." To say that her appeal fell on deaf ears will not be accurate but it is safe to say that it fell on cautious ears because the journalists in the room know very well what "giving the right information" that is inconsistent with the official government narrative will cost them.  They are walking an extremely fine line and donors must be cognizant of the plight of Gambian journalists.

There is no doubt that Gambia journalists practicing their profession in The Gambia are experts in accentuating the positive that keeps them out of trouble with the dictatorship.  Unfortunately, this instinctive maneuver by journalists comes at a cost of omitting what the UNICEF Country Representative refers to as "good and correct information" which can easily land a  journalist in real trouble.  Veteran journalist Deyda Hydara was assassinated to exactly the same reason - reporting "good and correct information."

Gambia journalists are aware of the serious public health issues facing most parts of the rural areas, especially as it relates to nutrition that has particularly hit the Central River the hardest. but they are afraid to report the problem for fear of being killed or made to disappear.

Gambian journalists operating in the Gambia are equally aware of the results of UNICEF's own study of child education which shows that while access to primary education is high - and the regime should be commended for that - quality and rate of continuity are low, particularly for girls.  Not all children make it to the Upper Basic.  "Of the 69 per cent of the children starting school, only 63 per cent reach 9th Grade and only 17 per cent achieve a pass in mathematics, which indicates a major problem relating to quality.  Journalists would rather self-censor themselves than go against the regime mantra of building schools in every village to increase access even if it means the end product is not suited for competition in the local job market much less the regional or international job markets.

Journalists are not the only ones fearful of the regime.  NGOs working in this area are working equally in fear and thus very cautious of even sharing information with outside journalists for fear of expulsion.  Well speaking of expulsion, the United Nations Family in The Gambia has had it own fair share of the wrath of a ruthless and idiosyncratic dictator.  Amnesty International got it right when it aptly titled its seminal 2008 Report on the Gambia - "Fear Rules".    

     

Yaya Jammeh on a conference call to Gambians residing in Atlanta in February 1995 (AUDIO)

In less than a year after he seized power illegally and immediately following the arrest of the Junta's Number Two strongman, Sanna Sabally and the then Interior Minister, as suggested by the audio recording, the Gambian dictator was on a telephone conference call with some Gambians resident in the American city of Atlanta in Georgia.

While a transcription of the audio is being made and further background information regarding events leading up to the conference call, I invite readers to listen to the raw tape and make up your own minds about this character named His Excellency Doctor Professor Alhagie Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jamus Junkung Jammeh Naserudeem.

The spectacular failure of a dictator

His Excellency, Dr, Sheikh, Professor Alhagie Yaya Jammeh, Naserudeen

When the Gambian dictator seized power illegally in July, 1994, he promised to return to army barracks after overseeing the transition from the Jawara government to a new replacement government.

He also promised an unsuspecting citizenry an accountable,transparent and a probing government with the assurance that he will never introduce a military dictatorship.  Instead, Gambians were treated to one of the most corrupt, incompetent and opaque dictatorship in Africa by one of the least prepared and most vindictive individual Gambian society had on offer.

21 years ago, His Excellency Sheikh Alhagie Doctor Professor Yaya Jamus Junkung Jammeh inherited an agriculture sector, the single most important sector in terms of employment - employing over 70% of Gambians -  and foreign exchange earning capacity - contributing 20% of GDP - that appears to have been abandoned by a regime that is over its head, a regime that lacks both capacity and the will to govern.  It is a regime that has been overwhelmed by the sheer size of the problem that the dictatorship created.

With the exception of the effects of the Ebola scare on Gambian tourism, the troubles of the Gambian economy are mostly self-inflicted. From the insistence on the dictator to interfere in the monetary sector to his lavish spending habits on official celebrations and festivities that are mandatory for all ministers and senior-level government officials to attend or risk dismissal and/or imprisonment.     When these festivities take place, the entire government machinery or what's left of it, shuts down.  In a country that has a four-day workweek, you can imagine the toll on one of Africa's smallest economy.

Gambia's per capita GDP  in 1994 was the third highest in the 16-country ECOWAS community at US $ 720, behind Cabo Verde and Cote d'Ivoire.  In 2013, the figure plummeted to US $ 488, the lowest of any ECOWAS country.  Yaya Jammeh succeeded in pulling The Gambia from the top of the ladder to the bottom of the heap in 20 short but devastating years.

Gambia's downgrade is not limited only to the economic sphere.  Its human rights record was dragged through the mud as well.  When Jammeh came to the scene, The Gambia was touted as a bastion of human rights where the independence of the judiciary and rule of law reined supreme. Today, The Gambia is being compared to North Korea, both for its human rights record and its dark and sinister style of governance characterized by forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, exiling and imprisoning of journalists, among other forms of torture and mistreatment of ordinary Gambians.  Non-Gambians have been victims of this vicious regime as well.

As we close the year, we must renew our resolve - as Gambians and friends of The Gambia - to fight for the restoration of democracy in the tradition of Sir Dawda Jawara, freedom, justice and the rule of law in a country that has been degraded to the point of devastation by a regime that has clearly demonstrated that it's over its head.  A change is thus inevitable in 2016.

"Are your hands clean?"

The Gambia Christian (multi-denominational) Council 

Our attention, of recent, has been focused disproportionately - and rightly so - on the role played by the Supreme Islamic Council in perpetuating the brutal and corrupt regime in Banjul.  Jammeh has become an international embarrassment and a pariah within the comity of Nations.

The SIC has been complicit by compromising the Islamic teachings and principles in exchange for worldly possessions in the form of bundles of cash in  addition to government-issued and -maintained vehicles to accompany government allowances and spacious offices at the expense of the poor and heavily-taxed Gambian taxpayer.

The behavior of the Gambia Christian Council (GCC), as a body representing all of the denominations, has been considered measured and cautious in its dealings with the Jammeh regime up to this point, particularly when compared to its Muslim counterpart.  However, recent events are cause for concern.

Accepting bundles of cash a spectacle that has become a hallmark of the Jammeh regime and - quite frankly - an obscene and boorish sight to watch on national television when 70% of Gambians are food insecure and an equal proportion live on less than a $ 1.50 per day.  It is, in our view, beneath the dignity of the Church, as it should be with the SIC, to allow to be manipulated in such a manner and in public view for a view propaganda points by an corrupt and incompetent regime.

We wonder what would have been the reactions of the late Reverend Ian C. Roach - of "Are your hands clean fame" - and the late Archbishop Solomon Tilewa Johnson to being awarded a D 1 million as Christmas gift as opposed to the traditional turkey.

We have suggested in our Facebook page that we will be directing more of our attention towards the GCC as we commence to draw attention to what we consider to be a growing concern of the Church's relations with a regime whose human rights record is among the worst in the world.

Until such time and as The Gambia continues its slide towards political instability, it is time for the Church (through the GCC) to speak up or forever hold its collective peace.  

UDP Leader's Christmas Message

Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, Leader of UDP

Christmas Message by

ANM Ousainou Darboe
Secretary General and Party Leader - UDP

Fellow Gambians, as the year comes to an end, we all look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.  His birth represents peace and harmony to mankind.  His message was and still is one of peace, enthronement of the truth and rejection of injustice.   The hallmark of his teaching has defined the lives of a huge number of people in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia

This year’s Christmas is a special one.  We celebrate the birth of Christ the day after we celebrated the birth of prophet Muhammad (PBUH) – the last messenger of Allah and the seal of the prophets.   The prophet of Islam like Christ has preached the values of peace, tolerance, justice and good neighbourliness.

For Christians and Muslims the world over,  Christmas season is a unique one, but it is more so for us Gambians as Muslims and Christians live together in the same household, attend the same schools, marry into families of different faiths and take part in each others feasts and festivities.

Fellow Gambians, it is this special relationship that makes The Gambia  a unique society whose citizens do not only believe in the values of peace, tolerance, justice and good neighbourliness but practice what they believe in.  We have always been an example of inter religious harmony worthy of emulation.   Gambia’s religious pluralism is in eclipse and its future uncertain.   It is a matter of regret that the President of The Gambia who took the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of The Gambia and other laws will declare Gambia as an Islamic state at a time when Christians of the various denominations in The Gambia are preparing to celebrate Christmas.   The ill-considered declaration, influenced by ulterior motives could be seen several years ago when the President  that Sharia will be made applicable to every Gambian.

The reason for the President’s anti-religious pluralism is ostensibly to fight so called imperialism but this is no justification for disturbing the peace and harmony built up in our country for centuries.   This is a sinister attempt to distract the Gambian people from the real problems that they face daily.  Problems such as the skyrocketing prices, collapsing economy, inadequate health services, poor education standard, mass exodus of youths to Europe by the Back Way, threats to the independence of the judiciary, and dismissal of public servants on executive directives.

The secular status of The Gambia is not only spelt out in the Constitution but ensconced deeply in our way of life long before we became a Nation.  It has always been live and let others live.  Pray to your God and let others pray to their God.   Christmas has never been an affair for Christians only but for all, just as Tobaski or Banna has never been an affair for Muslims only.

Fellow Gambians, Christmas this year falls on a Friday, let all Muslims therefore turn out at the mosques for Jumaah prayers and our Christian brothers and sisters in their churches and we all prat for One People, One Gambia united and indivisible.  Let us after offering prayers for the well being of The Gambia,  go out and enjoy our traditional makalos, kankurangs, kumpos, gessehs, hunting etc. in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sister as has been done many generations before us.  This is what we have been born into and no pernicious religious falsehood will change that.  This Christmas is a defining moment for all Gambians.

On behalf of the United Democratic Party and on my own behalf, I wish you all a Merry Christmas

LONG LIVE THE GAMBIA

LONG LIVE GAMBIA’S RELIGIOUS HARMONY

LONG LIVE THE UDP

UDP Secretariat

December 24^th  2014 

Damfaye Primary School Headmaster arrested for refusing to bribe Police Sergeant 844 Bayo

Principal Lamin Camara, Damfaye Primary

Sgt. Bayo's note

Sgt. Bayo's note

A little over a week ago, we published a verbatim blog post written by Karamba Touray, a Gambian resident in the United States about the ordeal of trying to help his home village's primary school at Damfaye in the Central River Region.  You can find his original story here.  Unfortunately, what was supposed to have been an act of good citizenship ended up in a Headmaster being arrested and held in custody at the Bansang Police Station.

According to Mr. Touray's original account, a forty-foot container-load of "assorted materials for a school project" he and others who are from Damfaye village in the CRR and currently resident in the US was shipped to Banjul.  Upon arrival of the shipped items, a number of villagers accompanied Damfaye Primary School Principal, Lamin Camara, to Banjul to collect the container.  But since the items consisting of donated items for a school project are non-dutiable items, they sought and eventually received duty waiver from the Ministry of Finance.

Sergeant 844, Bayo, Kaur Police Station

While transporting the items in two trucks to Damfaye village, the convoy was stopped at a Kaur checkpoint that was manned by two police officers.  At this point, acording to Karamba Touray, one of the officers who identified himself as Sergeant 844, Bayo, took the driver's licences of the two drivers and demanded  D 3,000 for them to proceed on their journey.  When they refused to pay the bride,  Sergeant Bayo drafted the notes seen here instructing the drivers to return to Kaur police station after off-loading the materials at Damfaye.

Mr. Touray called Sergeant Bayo and demanded the return of the drivers' licenses " he illegally confiscated and...also told him he wasn't going to get a butut from the drivers." It must be noted that Sgt. Bayo is a graduate of Yaya Jammeh's Green Boys, fashioned after the late Colonel Qaddafi's vigilante enforcers unleashed to terrorize the general population.

The frustration in Mr. Touray's written account is reflected in a rhetorical question he posed after his experience with a criminal enterprise that Jammeh has created when he asked " [w]hy should government officials pose deliberate and obtuse hindrances to ordinary people trying to make their communities better."

The latest report from Foroyaa newspaper is that Laim Camara, the Principal of Damfaye Primary School has been arrested Friday 18th and taken into custody at Bansang Police Station.  The Police Commissioner Sankareh could not say what crime the principal is being accused of.

Principal Lamin Camara's only crime is his refusal to pay a bribe to Sergeant Bayo of Kaur Police. He must, therefore, be released unconditionally and without delay.