National Assembly Members Alhagie Sillah and Mam Cherno Jallow are equally culpable

Alhagie Sillah NAM

Mam Cherno Jallow, National Assembly Member

We wrote as recently as August this year as we have been writing since we creation of the blog over two years ago, see here and here, warning about the impending economic disaster resulting from irresponsible public policy formulation by the regime of Yaya Jammeh with the active support of APRC members of the National Assembly.

Members of the Assembly have been so blindly endorsing every bill that is brought before it by the Executive to have earned them the well-deserved title of "The Rubber Stamp National Assembly.  They will go to the extent of supporting laws that go against the interests of the constituents they claim to represent and their our political interest as long as the bill enjoys the support of the Gambian dictator.

One such law is one that empowers Yaya Jammeh to expel Members of the National Assembly not only from his political party but fro the National Assembly as well, even though they were elected by their respective constituencies.  The Rubber Stamp Assembly supported a clearly unconstitutional law thus giving Jammeh absolute sovereign power over the people who voted the NAMs and Jammeh in power.

We are revisiting the actions of the National Assembly Members because of the concerns raised by two APRC Members of the National Assembly during a recent adjournment debate.  The NAM for Banjul North lamented at the deplorable road conditions in the city of Banjul, while the NAM for Upper Nuimi was worried about the Vision 2016 descending on The Gambia in a few months and wondered out loud when the "expert" consultants were going to advise them on how many tons of rice would need to be imported in 2016, forgetting that Vision 2016 calls for the December 2016 deadline for the ban on rice imports to take effect, and thus no need for advise from consultants.

The road conditions in the capital city of Banjul are both inexcusable as they are an embarrassment. There is not a single passable road; not even the main Independence Drive is passable.  As one businessman put it to me at in August, he said he would not even attempt to drive a donkey cart along Primet Street because of the deplorable state of the road condition.  It s obvious affecting business as well as the health of the people who live in the city as they have to deal with raw sewerage seeping through a dysfunctional system because the main pumping station at Bond Road is in a state of disrepair.

The building that houses the National Assembly costs Gambian taxpayers $ 27 million.  If the Banjul North representative was a member of the Assembly in August 2008, he must have approved a Line of Credit (LOC) with the Ex-Im Bank of India to the tune of $ 10 million to build the Assembly Building.  In October 2012, Hon. Sillah did vote in favor of a supplementary LOC to the tune of
$ 16.88 million, representing a cost overrun of 170% of the original cost estimate which is a red flag in itself worth noting for future inquiry into this ans similar projects under Jammeh.

Jammeh has been saddling The Gambia with very expensive non-revenue generating loans which has been so blatantly obvious that it even caught the eye of The Economist magazine that doesn't pay that much attention to The Gambia.  It did this time by concluding that Gambia's unfavorable debt profile is partly due to our propensity to go for expensive loans with unfavorable  repayment terms.  Procuring such loans for the building of commercial roads leading int and out of the city of Banjul would have repaid itself with little or no burden to the public treasury, unlike the National Assembly Building.

Vision 2016 as well as the National Assembly Building share one thing in common : they are both ideas originated from a single individual who acts on impulse and thus not guided by feasibility studies and blueprints that are well thought through.  And when that happens, you can be rest assured that you will end up in the mess Gambia finds itself today, and you, Mr. Alhagie Sillah and Mam Cherno Jallow, have contributed immensely to our current predicament.  You must, therefore. also take personal responsibility.
    

Gambian dissidents protest against the Jammeh regime, as delegation flees posh hotel

The embattled regime of  the Gambian dictator, Yaya Jammeh, continues to feel the heat from dissidents in New York.  The Gambian dissidents had vowed to provide a fitting welcome to Yaya Jammeh to rival their previous protests during the United Nations General Assembly.  Jammeh had to cancel his trip by delegating his Vice President to attend this year's UNGA that is being attended by a record 141 Heads of State.

The Gambian delegation led by Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy comprises of the Ministers of Foerign Affairs, Interior, Finance, Environment, Inspector General of Police among other senior officials of the regime.

To avoid the wrath of the dissidents who succeeded last year in barricading Yaya Jammeh in his hotel for a good part of his three-day stay in New York, this year's delegation vacated their posh mid-Manhattan, The Ritz-Carlton, very early in the morning for the Gambia UN Mission offices located within the frozen area that cannot be accessed by unauthorized persons, including the protesters.

This year, the demonstrators include other African nationals, including Sierra Leoneans, Senegalese and Congolese who expressed solidarity with the Gambians demonstrating against dictatorship.

The Vice President of The Gambia is scheduled to deliver her speech at 20:00 GMT.  Meanwhile, the Gambian dictator is holed up in the Gambian capital city of Banjul.  

"Protocol girls" or sex slaves in Gambia's State House

Mrs. Zeinab Jammeh 

Dictator Yaya Jammeh

They were ten in number, the so-called "protocol girls" posted at State House at the direction of the Gambian dictator, Yaya Jammeh.  Their standard job description is to provide normal protocol service to official visitors at the official residence of the head of state.  In actuality, they are there to serve one person and one person only - the Gambian dictator, Yaya Jammeh.

Who are these "protocol girls"?  They are Gambians between the ages of 16 and 25 years who are lured into the dictator's harem by female prostitutes, who are, themselves, part of an intricate prostitution ring all in the name of to satisfy the huge sexual appetite of a tyrant who preys on the very young and vulnerable section of Gambian society.

These girls are victims of a criminal syndicate created, maintained and operated for the singular purpose of satisfying the sexual urges of a single individual who will use the state security machinery and the judiciary, as we will see in this particular instance, to ensure the total and unfettered sexual pleasure of Yaya Jammeh.

These "protocol girls" are recruited through an elaborate system of a state-sponsored national beauty pageantry where beautiful young children are "selected" using the school/educational system under the supervision of the Minister of Basic Education and other education authorities.  The national search culminates in a national pageant contest held in the dictator's home village of Kanilai with government officials, including the country's Vice President, Isatou Njie-Saidy, a woman, the Minister of Basic Education, Fatou Lamin Faye, another woman, the Minister of Interior, the country's prolific torturer of the regime.

Jammeh uses the educational system as official cover to justify the use of state funds to finance what is essentially a non-educational activity that has the sole purpose of feeding the sexual industry built to satisfy the dictator.

Many of the "protocol girls" are products of these beauty pageant shows that have become an industry in themselves that end up at State House, as protocol officers with no job experience of any kind.  In fact, the only qualification appears to be their beauty and physical endowments which explains why every applicant must include full length photos of different poses to ensure all bases are covered before the employer makes his final selection of a new batch of protocol officers.

Two protocol girls have since fled The Gambia and a third is reportedly on her way to safety and away from the sexual predator.  When one of the victims was asked what was her job description as a "protocol officer",her response was "to satisfy the sexual pleasure of the president." These girls are housed in the State House, and one has her parents housed close to the president's official residence.

Jammeh's victims are not only limited to the "protocol girls".  The boy friends of these girls are sometimes victims as well.  In the case of Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay, the radio journalists, who is facing six sedition charges and one count of publishing false information, is a case in point.  He was the boyfriend of one of the young women who have since fled and who was recruited as a principal prosecution witness to testify against him.

Boyfriends are victims as well.  When Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay was in court and watching his girlfriend concocting a story that was obviously a lie, she turned to Director of Public Prosecution and said her conscience will not allow her to continue lying against someone she knew was innocent, Mr. S.H. Barkum responded "remember, this is a State matter."

In short, the DPP was encouraging her to continue to lie to Judge Mohammed D. A. Balarabe who was recruited to the very position he now occupies in judgement of Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay.  Both S.H.Barkum and Judge Mohammed Balarabe are unfit to occupy their respective position and should resign honorably and leave The Gambia.

The Federal Judicial Commission of Nigeria has been notified of the role of these two Nigerians in the dictatorship of Yaya Jammeh.    They are helping the brutal, corrupt and incompetent regime perpetuate itself at the expense of ordinary citizens who are being tortured, murdered, executed extra-judicially, exiled and made to disappear.  They must stop collaborating with the only remaining military dictatorship in ECOWAS.

An apology : We have decided to pulled the two photos down after a strong reaction from a reader in Banjul even though the photos have been in circulation previously.  Since the individuals in question are victims, we should not be seen to be further victimizing them.  Our sincere apologies to them and their families and friends.

Please, Go Away, Yaya Jammeh

Jammeh, the Gambian dictator, the way he looked 21 years ago

His Excellency Sheikh Professor Doctor Alhagie Yaya A.J.J.Jammeh, Balilimansa Nasurudeen is the only military dictator left in ECOWAS.  Please join us in demanding that he resigns the Office of the President and negotiate his exit with the Gambian people whom he has wronged and lied to for 21 years.

This man has failed in every aspect of governance.  He has maimed, killed, tortured, raped and stole from Gambians.  It has been 21 years of mayhem.  It is time to ask him to leave, but not before he negotiates his way out with his wife and kids.

This man does not, in any way, reflect the national character of a once peaceful and reasonably well off country with an equally well-managed economy that was the envy of our neighbors.

GO AWAY YAYA JAMMEH

Gambia's judiciary continues to be plagued by the dictator's use of mercenary judges and prosecutors

Gambia's Director of Public Prosecutor -  S .H. Barkum 

Judge Mohammed D.A. Balarabe

One would have thought that after Gambia's experience with former Chief Justice Joseph Wowo (Nigerian) and Special Criminal Court Judge Emmanuel Nkea (Cameroonian), both recruited literally off the streets of Banjul with little or no qualification to be magistrates much less judges, the Gambian dictator would have had enough of utilizing the services of mercenaries to further crush a citizenry that is already under siege from a judiciary that has been used as a blunt instrument of repression.

S.H. Barkum who hails from Kano is one such prosecutor employed by Yaya Jammeh to concoct charges against political opponents of the dictatorship.  He is the latest Director of Public Prosecutor (DPP), hire to do the bidding for Jammeh.

S.H. Barkum, (also referred to as Barkun) is listed as former employee of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja who served previously in the Kano State Ministry of Justice.  It is unclear whether DPP Barkum is an employee of the Federal Nigerian government - our inquiries are still ongoing -  or whether he's been hired off the streets, like many of the dictatorship's foreign judges and Justice Ministry's senior officials and prosecutors.

What is evident, is that the current High Court Judge, also a Nigerian national, was hired upon the recommendation of the Director of Public Prosecution.  It is the very same Judge Mohammed Dan Azumi Balarabe that is sitting in judgement of Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay, the radio journalist, who is facing six counts of sedition and one count of publishing false news.

We have suggested that the case against the 25-year old journalist is a travesty of justice, and as a result demanded the resignation of Judge Balarabe.  We have now unearth further evidence to strengthen our case against the regime of Yaya Jammeh.  We will accuse S.H.Barkum of conspiring with Judge Mohammed Dan Azumi Balarabe and the notorious National Intelligence Agency to send Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay to prison by fabricating charges against him at the instruction of the Gambian dictator.  Consequently, we are also demanding the resignation of the Director of Public Prosecution for his corrupt and unprofessional behavior in the conduct of his prosecutorial functions.

The conspiracy is intricately and inextricably linked to the two "protocol girls" who fled last week from the Gambia and are currently and safely outside The Gambia.  We will show the real reason why Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay is in trouble with the regime of Yaya Jammeh has nothing to do with his job as a radio journalist but as something totally devoid of his professional/journalistic duties.

And Judge Mohammed Dan Azumi Balarabe is part of the larger conspiracy by being in cahoots with the Director of Public Prosecution who helped recruit him to the position he now occupies.  The two thus are fulfilling the wishes of the Gambian dictator by incarcerating innocent Gambians perceived as opponents of a vile, corrupt and incompetent regime for a price.

In playing ball with Jammeh, the two are willfully engaged in the destruction of young Gambian lives and, in the process, the development prospects of an entire nation for a few bucks and some worldly conveniences.  We must stop them, and Jammeh, from further destroying our country.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the active support of the Gambia's female Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mama Fatima Singhateh. In subsequent installments, we will provide the real reason for Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay's troubles with the dictatorship of Yaya Jammeh.

FREE Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay  

This is a developing story ....

Can Jammeh learn from Pope Francis and U.S. Speaker John Boehner?

Pope Francis 

U.S. House Speaker Boehner 

Pope Francis is only in his third day of of his U.S. visit but his physical as well as his spiritual presence is reverberating across the American political divide that no American politician or personality can ever exert or influence.

After addressing a Joint Meeting of the House and Senate yesterday, the Republican Speaker John Boehner decided this morning, to resign his Speaker position and his seat in Congress next month. He revealed today that he made his decision this morning. But in retrospect, he hinted that he will resign yesterday when he responded to a journalist's question about the papal visit by suggesting that after he was able to bring the Pope to America, what else was there left to accomplish in Washington.

It is an open secret that Speaker Boehner is presiding over a deeply divided Republican Party in a deeply divided country over just about every major issue of consequence ranging from immigration, climate change, income inequality to capital punishment. In fact, Boehner is so unpopular within his own party that kinder words were coming from Democrats like President Obama, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Pelosi than from his own party members, most of whom were busy dancing on his political grave.

The Pope meanwhile continue to preach humility, compassion for the powerless and economically deprived while counselling against zealotry which he seems to be directing against the right wing of the Republican Party that has grown increasingly hostile towards minorities who are gaining increasing political power in proportion to their numbers. The fact that by 2050, they will become the majority in America appears to make a section of the base of the Republican Party very nervous about the prospect.

Boehner's success in getting Pope Francis to accept his invitation to address the Joint Meeting of the House and Senate - a first by any Pope - appears to have been the icing on the cake, and coming in the face of growing disquiet of a very nervous and increasingly hostile GOP toward his leadership, it made his decision to quit easier than it might have otherwise been.

Is there a lesson here for Jammeh. Can he learn humility and against zealotry as preached by Pope Francis. What of showing compassion for the economically downtrodden that is of Jammeh's own creation. Is Jammeh capable of borrowing a leaf from Speaker Boehner's playbook by resigning in the face of mounting opposition to his brutal, corrupt and incompetent rule? I wish the answers to these questions were in the affirmative. Unfortunately, they cannot be because the questions were more rhetorical than anything else. So, we are back to square one, at least as far as Gambia is concerned.

Why nothing coming from Jammeh matters

Mubarak and Jammeh - in the beginning 

Well, almost nothing, except if he comes out saying plainly and straightforwardly: "I am resigning, and I want to negotiate with the Gambian People the terms and conditions of my vacating State House."

My inbox is full of messages about what is purported to be an impending announcement - an announcement initially scheduled for the eve of Tobaski, then it was for Tobaski day, now it is to be on Sunday -  which suggests to me to be more of another typical Jammeh distraction tactic.

All of the scenarios in my possession involve Jammeh dictating his own terms and conditions, including selecting his successor which, in one case, involves a leader of an opposition party.  None of these scenarios make any sense to me because, among other anomalies, Jammeh is not or will not be leaving on his own volition.  He will leave because he is being forced out, and just like Burkinabe General rudely discovered, when you are forced out, you don't get to dictate your terms and conditions.  The People decide, they dictate the terms and conditions under the aegis of the United Nations and European Union.

Jammeh has ruled The Gambia, unfettered and unchallenged for almost two decades, during which time he had killed, maimed, tortured, made to disappear, extrajudicially executed and exiled thousands of Gambians and other nationalities.   To suggest, for one minute, that he will be accorded the privilege and luxury of framing the narrative of his inevitable exit from the stage is preposterous and wishful thinking, at best.  The Gambian People will decide that and not the leader of a failed regime who has brought nothing but pain, misery and hardship to two million Gambians.