By Kebba Ansu Manneh
Madam Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang, former Vice President of the Republic of The Gambia, said the accusations that she wrote a letter to the United Nation to pressure President Barrow to hand power over to her after he would have served only three years in office were fabricated lies by her opponents to dismiss her from office as Vice President. But despite the machination of her opponents she said, however, she has forgiven the people who manufactured these blatant lies to bring her integrity into disrepute.
The former Vice President was also the Co-chairperson of the Coalition 2016 that put Adama Barrow as a candidate against former President Yahya Jammeh. Mr. Barrow defeated Mr. Jammeh in that election on 1 December 2016. The agreement by Coalition 2016 members was that whoever was selected and won the election as president would resigned after serving only three years presumably handing power over to the Vice President to facilitate new elections. Ms. Jallow-Tambajang dismissed the accusations against her in an exclusive interview with The Times on, Saturday 29 December 2018, in Jarra Soma at the sidelines of the National Congress of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP).
After her firing from office in June last year without any official explanations, activists and supporters of the United Democratic Party (UDP) circulated on social media purported reasons for removal from office. The accusations included charges of nepotism, tribalism and self-dealings in appointing her children and family members who were operating a consulting firm in Senegal that served as a gateway for foreign investments into The Gambia. One of the most plausible explanations they advanced was that she wrote a letter to the senior members of United Nations to pressurize President Barrow to the honor three-year transition stipulated in the MoU of Coalition 2016. The activists alleged that Mamadou Tangara who was serving as the Gambian Ambassador to the United Nations was summoned by UN officials about the contents of the purported letter. Mr. Tangara, they claimed intercepted the secret letter and sent it, through diplomatic cables, to his boss—Mr. Ousainou Darboe who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. After her firing from office, Mr. Darboe was promoted to become the Vice President, and Mr. Tangara to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The Times asked if her firing from office as Vice President resulted from the purported letter she allegedly wrote to the United Nations to pressurize President Barrow to handover the presidency to her as his constitutional successor at the time.
“My son, if you bring a Holy Quran here I will tell you it’s not true, and if you ask the president he will tell you it’s not true. People have fabricated lies against me, but I forgive them. I know those who fabricated those lies, but I have forgiven them as Muslims. I am happy that His Excellency President Barrow has known the truth. He stood by the truth, and he has invited me on the 16th of August. We spoke about the letter and it was never a letter I wrote,” Ms. Jallow-Tambajang disclosed to The Times.
She contended that she never wrote a letter to the UN, but rather to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which she did for a Gambian seeking for a job at that agency. She wrote a recommendation letter, she said, on behalf of the president and in her capacity as the Acting President at the time. She stressed that she drafted and signed a very good letter of recommendation for the person which was not sent directly to the UNEP. The recommendation letter was sent as protocol dictates, she disclosed, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where she alleged officials of that department tampered with the letter. People at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which was then led by the current Vice President, she alleged, forged a letter with the contents and statements they accused her of making.
“I want to clarify this to the nation that this letter of recommendation I sent to UNEP through the Foreign Affairs was tampered with, recommendations removed and replaced with a note that I knew nothing about. I investigated what went wrong and discovered the truth and those involved in it, but HE President Barrow knew this,” Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang said. She alleged that foul play was concocted against her by some key figures at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to orchestrate her sacking from the Barrow Administration.
Madam Jallow-Tambajang said she has forgiven, wholeheartedly, all those involved in the clandestine activities against her, adding where Prophet Muhammed forgave his enemies what of her not to forgive people who committed foul play against her person.
“I never feel angry for being relieved of my cabinet position, I will never be angry because HE President Barrow respects me more today than any other time. President Barrow knows that I have worked for this country, and I love my country and I am ready to go anywhere I am invited to. A leader should never be angry, once you are impulsive then you are no longer a leader. Once you are a leader then you must go down, humble yourself, and fear Allah. Lead by example, and the rest will be fine,” she affirmed.
Madam Jallow-Tambajang is seen by many of her critics as equally dishonest with dubious character. They alleged that she lied and manipulated the inexperience President-elect Barrow to appoint her for Vice President in January 2018 when she knew she was constitutionally over the age-limit to hold that office. She was accused for allegedly forging her documents to put her age under sixty-five years. Media organizations showed her official documents she had submitted to international organizations over the years which indicated a different age. President Barrow held the position of vice president vacant for nearly a year until after the constitution was amended to pave the way for her to legally serve in the office. She was removed from that office in June last year. Her critics also accused her forgery she’s accusing her detractors at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Elaborating on her assessment of the political situation of the country that Coalition 2016 inherited when President Barrow took over the reign of government , the former vice president said, “two years into governance we are facing lots of challenges, challenges that are natural, challenges that are man-made because challenges that you inherited from twenty-two years of dictatorship is not a normal ground, not that of an enabling environment. This government inherited a bankrupt economy, we didn’t find anything in the coffers, democracy was none existence, nobody was free, no freedom of association, no freedom of affiliation to join political parties.”
Madam Jallow-Tambajang also spoke about the human rights abuses that the former president and his regime subjected many Gambians. According to her, the twenty-two years rule of Yahya Jammeh witnessed the disappearance of many sons and daughters of this country, which included the raped of women and castration of men among many other atrocities committed during the darkest age in the history of the nation.
“Many people die here—not only Solo Sandeng, there are so many other peoples. The unsung heroes are many, and I will recognize everyone. And His Excellency Adama Barrow recognizes those who have worked and yet never witness this day,” Madam Jallow-Tambajang said.
Madam Jallow-Tambajang remains optimistic about the future of The Gambia stating that the National Development Plan (NDP) of the Barrow Administration is high in gears with 1.7 billion Euros pledged by the European partners to implement projects to improving the lots of the citizenry. She said the government is on the reforms of the civil service, constitutional review in progress, the security sector reform, legislative and legal reforms.
“The economy is now growing and now what we want to see, is to see decentralization works to start for the people. And these are things that will take quite a lot of time, and what I would urge the public is to be patient and support the government in its endeavors in whatever little way one could do for the greater interest of the country,” Madam Jallow-Tambajang concluded.