Impeach Jammeh

Yaya Jammeh looking ill 

Jammeh has done it again. This time, he skipped the ceremony that signals the start of a new National Assembly session, leaving his distinguished guests comprising of Ambassadors from America, Britain, Nigeria, European Union, cabinet ministers, Supreme Court Justices and numerous local dignitaries scratching their heads in wonderment, and for good reason.

The ceremony also referred to as the State Opening of Parliament is a post- Independent legacy borrowed from Britain that has been observed continuously since 1965, except in 1994-95 when Jammeh headed the military junta that seized power illegally from the constitutionally elected government of Sir Dawda Jawara.

The State Opening of Parliament is a constitutional requirement.

The second interruption of the tradition occured yesterday when the guests, who were already seated, were asked to disperse.  The Speaker of the National Assembly informed a very surprised group of dignitaries that he's received word from the Office of the President announcing that the "State Opening of Parliament has been postponed until further notice."

Invited guests leaving the Assembly Building

No reason was advanced by authorities for the abrupt change, inviting speculative chatter across social media, including the suggestion that Jammeh is gravely ill. Jammeh's mental and physical health manifested by irrational and bizarre behavior have been the subject of discussion and a source of concern for Gambians.

After the postponement was announced, the presidential motorcade was seen speeding towards Jammeh's home village of Kanilai with a figure in white robe in the cover of darkness, waving at onlookers along the road.

Jammeh has effectively abandoned his duties as Head of State by sending an inordinate time in Kanilai instead of State House at the detriment of the security of the state and the welfare of Gambians.  Postponing the ceremony will cost the public treasury millions of dalasis that a struggling economic can least afford - an act that exceeds the threshold  "economic crime."

Section 66 of the Constitution provides for the removal of a president for infirmity of the mind.  Both of Jammeh's physical and mental health has deteriorated over time, the consequent of which is the negligence of national duty that threatens the security of the state.  National Assembly Members - especially the 45 National Assembly Members of the ruling party -  must, therefore, assume their collective constitutional responsibilities of putting up the motion to impeach Jammeh for not being of sound mind and body.  

Is the resumption of diplomatic ties with China another election year ploy?

According to Reuters news agency The Gambia has resumed diplomatic relations with China after the Gambian dictator abruptly and unceremoniously broke off relations with Taiwan in November 2013.

True to form, Jammeh has done so without notice or national debate, even though many Gambians would support the move.  Gambians had opposed Jammeh's Taiwan move in 1997 and in favor of the Chinese who have been actively involved in the agriculture sector - particularly rice cultivation under the deposed government of Sir Dawda Jawara

When Yaya Jammeh seized power in July 1994, he an faced international backlash that saw development assistance withheld and the British issuing travel adviser to British tourists.

The economic sanctions were partly responsible for Jammeh's decision to look for a diplomatic suitor outside Gambia's traditional development partners which he quickly found in Taiwan - a country that the international community (with the exception of few countries) recognizes as being a province of mainland China.

Yaya Jammeh was also attracted to Taiwan because of the island's unorthodox - some would say lax - system of management and disbursement of development funds.  The checkbook diplomacy that Taiwan practises is a main attraction of some of the world's most corrupt leaders so as to fill their pockets at the expense of the citizenry.  

In fact, the decision by Jammeh to sever ties with Taiwan was over his incessant demand for money which finally proved intolerable to the Taiwanese who, in the end, described his as "the idiosyncratic leader." For example, Jammeh demanded $ 10 million ( others in Taipei have suggested a higher figure) from Taiwan and insisted that the sum neither be recorded nor receipted in any form.  When his demand was refused, he broke off a diplomatic relations that has been mutually beneficial to Taiwan and to Jammeh, personally.

Although the presence of the Chinese in The Gambia has been reported since last year, little by way of public pronouncement was issued by a regime that is notorious for its lack of both transparency and accountability.  Gambians are probably hearing the news for the first time of the resumption of diplomatic relations.

Are the Chinese going to continue pursuing the checkbook diplomacy that Jammeh has grown use to relish? If they do, the support of the Gambians for the move will be short lived.  meanwhile, this is further signal to the opposition that Jammeh will use his new-found friendship with China to further his electoral ambition of a landslide victory at the polls next December.

Gambia's First Lady is at the disputed territory of Western Sahara to solicite funds for her Foundation

Mrs. Zainab Jammeh 

Gambia's First Lady, Zainab Suma Jammeh is at the Crans Montana Forum in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, purportedly to solicit funds for a recently-form Cancer Foundation and her other Foundations.

The Forum is being held at the city of Dahkla in the disputed territory of Western Sahara which has been dubbed at Africa's last colony.

Both Morocco and Mauritania claim ownership of the territory that has been since extended membership by the African Union and numerous African and Asian countries.

Crans Montana is a Swiss International Organization, according to its Linked In page, that took its

name from the town it was formed in the mid-80s.  Form its promotional brochures, the  organization is "committed to a more humane world through international cooperation and contributes to global growth while ensuring a high level of stability, equity and security."

First Lady Suma Jammeh flew in from Dubai yesterday to canvass the well-healed patrons of the event that includes King Mohammed VI of Morocco which he officiated today.  It is unclear if Mrs. Jammeh will stay for the entire 6-day affair.

Our sources tell us she is accompanied by Lali Diab, and probably Mrs. Fatou Mass Jobe, the Executive Secretary of the Foundation and Tarik Musa, a former business associate who had fallen out with the unstable of Gambian dictator.  The Forum's theme this year is Africa and South-South Cooperation.

If the purpose of the trip which is financed by Gambian taxpayers is to solicit funds for her Foundation, she is expected to account for every dollar donated in the name of the Gambian people.

This trip, like most of her foreign trips, is kept under wraps because of the controversial nature of the history of Western Sahara which is a disputed territory and for this reason it is a no-go area for many political and cultural figures.  

Jammeh options narrow as border problem deepens

The Sene-Gambian border closure is on its third week with little sign that it will open soon.  

Unscientific but credible on-the-spot observations and interviews of ordinary citizens on the Senegalese side of the border seem to suggest the end of the crisis is not in sight.   

Ordinary Senegalese interviewed expressed their frustrations at the frequent traffic increases by Jammeh which usually result in the temporary closure of the borders. 

Travelers complains include arbitrary rules imposed at the Gambian side of the border by authorities that limits accessibility by imposing a 7:00PM daily closing of ferry services, forcing them to spend the night around mosquito-infested areas in the open air.   This inconvenience and uncertainty of travel , not knowing when to arrive in the capital city of Dakar has forced many interviewed to embrace the longer route at greater expense but with a greater degree of certainty of arriving at your final destination. 

There is also an element of nationalism displayed by some borne as a result of the constant threat of closure by the Gambian dictator which he uses as a cudgel against his neighbors.   Freeing themselves from the hassle has become, it seems, not only the official position of the Senegalese government but also of the general traveling public.   

The Executive Secretary of the Senegalese Transport Union is echoing similar sentiments but much more forcefully with a degree of belligerence never seen before thus signaling an end of an era when Jammeh sees the Trans-Gambia highway not as an integral part of a regional integration strategy of ECOWAS but as a national strategic military-cum-security asset that is used increasingly as leverage against a bigger neighbor. 

The endless postponements and/or interference in implementing the bridge project across the River Gambia in spite of its multinational character - with Senegal putting up two-thirds of the cost, and rightfully so -  is seen as a manifestations of Jammeh’s intent to continue using it as leverage to gain concessions from Senegal, be it political, diplomatic or economic. 

It appears that Senegal has finally grown tired of being blackmailed by Jammeh and it intends on putting an end to it with the enthusiastic approval of both the transport union and the Senegalese traveling public.   

Senegal has rebuffed several attempts at negotiations.  The latest victim of Senegalese resolve to maintaining the current status quo was the proposed mission comprising the Director of Gambia Revenue Authority and the Managing Director of the Ports Authority to negotiate terms to resolve the stalemate which was emphatically rejected by Senegal.  Jammeh’s next move is anybody’s guess as his options narrow.

Jammeh must release the Bamfor Commission Report

During the recent retreat of Jammeh’s cabinet at his home village of Kanilai, he justified the decision of the Military Council he chaired upon seizing power on humanitarian grounds and the protection of the reputation and presumably good character of the Jawara ministers whom he accused of corruption that justified the 1994 coup.

The incongruence of Jammeh’s logic is again on full display.  After railing about the corrupt nature of the Jawara regime, including Jawara, whose members and inner circle were consumed and blinded by a “flamboyant lifestyle” resulting in the impoverishment of the many by the few.  

To remind Gambians of the military regime’s disdain for these members of the privileged class and the military junta’s commitment to redressing an unacceptable and exploitative condition brought about by a corrupt regime, Jammeh loaded some of these cabinet ministers and senior civil servants in open trucks around the city of Banjul in broad daylight.  

Where is the empathy that was obviously absent in 1994? Jammeh’s regime can boast of inflicting more physical and psychological harm to Gambians than the combined toll of the Jawara and colonial administrations.   Gambians have suffered more murders, assassinations, tortures, forced disappearances and exiles than the British ever could inflict on the Gambian population even if they tried. 

It is therefore incomprehensible, illogical and an outright lie to claim that the conclusions and recommendations of the Bamfor Commission have been withheld to protect Sir Dawda Jawara’s reputation and integrity and those of his former ministers and their families by saving them from further embarrassment should the findings of the Commission be published.   This is a warped logic and therefore makes no sense.  

The justification for the coup, according to Jammeh and his colleagues, was “rampant corruption” and the “flamboyant lifestyle” led by Jawara and his ministers.  What sense does it make to suppress publication of a Commission’s Report that was created by law with the proviso that its findings must be made public.  The mere act of not going public is contravention of the law, not that it matters to a dictator to contravene the law.    

Based on reports, the Bamfor Commission found that corruption was not endemic as claimed by Jammeh and his group of power hungry putschists to warrant removing a legitimately elected government.   To accuse the ousted government of corruption would guarantee quicker acceptance of the junta by populace than to complain about maltreatment of Gambian soldiers at the hands of the Nigerian army commanders who were running the Gambian army under a bilateral technical cooperation arrangement basis.  

Why were they - Jammeh and his cohorts - advised to lie about the true reason for the coup by “dishonest Gambians” – to borrow Ebrima Chongan’s description, one of the few Gambian military officers who resisted the coup – some of whom are still active in one way or the other in the affairs of the Jammeh regime.  Without their role as advisers to the young, inexperienced and ill-educated soldiers on how to cling on to power for longer than required, Jammeh and his fellow putschists would not have entrenched themselves in power for twenty two years and counting. 

The Bamfor Commission’s Report’s conclusions and recommendations were suppressed and never made public to this day, despite many demands from Omar Jallow (OJ) a former minister in the Jawara government.  The refusal to comply is because it’s conclusions did not support the reasons advanced by Jammeh justifying the coup.  He lied then.  He’s lying now.  His condition is pathological.   

Banjul Mullahs suddenly see the need for Sene-Gambian relations

Senegambian border closure has suddenly attracted the attention of the Banjul Mullahs, this time, led by Imam Ratib of Banjul, for the need to strengthen the ties between the two countries.

At funerals, the Mullahs are increasingly preaching about the virtues of good neighborliness and the need to further cement the historic ties between Senegal and The Gambia - a commendable effort, albeit a hypocritical one at that.

The hypocrisy displayed by these so-called religious leaders is brazenly distasteful because staying silent and aloof when the Gambian dictator was unilaterally slapping a 1,000% tariff increase on Senegalese trucks using the TransGambia highway only to plead for mercy after the fact is disingenuous.

For Gambians in general and Senegalese in particular to take the Mullahs seriously, they must start speaking truth to power.  These religious leaders have become political at the expense of their individual and collective religiosity.

These Mullahs, like many other Gambian "leaders", have been compromised and co-opted by the dictatorship to advance the interest of Jammeh who uses the carrot and the stick to bring them in line.  They are, therefore, extremely cautious in their dealing s with Jammeh and are thus likely to look the other way when ever Jammeh misbehave.  No one dares advise him that the tariff increase was a bad idea.

The Senegalese religious and political classes are aware of the fact that the Banjul Muslim Elders have been compromised, and as long as Jammeh continues to hold sway over them, any pleading eminating from them will fall on deaf Senegalese ears.

A source described a scene at a recent funeral service in Banjul which aptly sums up the mood in Banjul among the Mullahs when he observed that "at the FIRDAW, the Imam had nothing to talk about except the closeness of the two countries.  Likewise, at the home after the funeral, all the talk was about the two countries.  Panic is setting in", he concludes.

Yaya Jammeh : Tax Evader-In-Chief

Yaya Jammeh 

Gambia's Finance Minister was out on Saturday distributing tax compliance certificates in recognition of Gambian businessmen and women who pay their taxes regularly and on time as expected to every honest and good Gambian.

Speaking at the Taxpayers Award and Recognition Night, the Minister implored Gambians to pay their taxes and "recognized the need to celebrate the complaint taxpayer."

However, he went further by emphasizing the determination of the regime "to take a firm stance on the non-payment of taxes", a statement that would not have been ironical had it not been that the single biggest businessman in the country hardly pays any tax whatsoever.

That businessman is Yaya Jammeh, the Gambian dictator.

Public records show he owns the biggest businesses in the country, ranging from importation, distribution and retail of petroleum products to mining, farming and real estate, to name only a few, cost the public treasury hundreds of millions of dalasi annually.

As Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council prior to exchanging his military fatigues for the grand boubou as 'civilian' leader, Jammeh ensured that the 1997 Constitution permits the new president to engage in "farming", a provision that was subsequently expanded to exclude nothing.

Jammeh pays little or no taxes and for this reason, and the fact that he is president, it made it hard for the competition to stay in business.  Jammeh pays zero custom duty and excise, zero sales and value added taxes and thus can and does undercut the competition all the time.  The only tax he may be paying is taxes on his annual income, but even this has to be verified.

Gambians are among the most taxed humans on earth and as long as the economy is tax-based there is little chance in the horizon for any relief coming their way. Meanwhile, the single biggest businessman in the country and the most powerful is getting away with murder, both literally and figuratively.