By Da One
I am going to address you directly, Fatoumatta. A constitutional amendment was undertaken in the legislative assembly of The Gambia for the sole purpose of rewarding you with the vice presidency. Gambians waited for months before that amendment bill was drafted, and eventually voted on in the National Assembly. That was done because your really age — which you have previously lied about and may have also committed fraud by producing documents with reduced age to be appointed as vice president — surpassed the limit set by the constitution.
The amendment, in itself, is a laudable action. But, and that’s a very big BUT, it was insincere and immoral of you, the president, the whole cabinet and even the National Assembly to entertain that bill. You, Fatoumatta, are not the only qualified Gambian who was capable of replacing the president should the need had rose. Just because you played an important role in facilitating the coalition building does not mean you must be rewarded with a position as if the “coalition” had a kill before it, and that each member was entitled to grab a portion. The actions to manipulated the nation for your personal gains was ethically reprehensible and exhibit the height of a self-centeredness.
The constitution of The Gambia is still full of draconian and archaic provisions. Therefore, one of the major reform agenda of the coalition was to amend the constitution as a whole, that should have been the top most priority of the newly constituted government. Yet, you and some of your colleagues and even the president felt a piecemeal amendment shall suffice for the moment. All along with the conviction that they could need some of the provisions that will strengthen their executive powers, the issue of the whole and organic amendment of the constitution took the backseat. Those were the days to prove your highest degree of honesty and dedication to the course of change for the Gambian people. You missed that opportunity.
Ousainou came out of prison and the first thing he did was to attack and tear down the agreement that saved him and his followers from perishing in the dungeons of Mile Two Central Prison. You claim to be the architect of the coalition, yet, you kept quiet on his destructive pronouncements because you did not want to upset the status quo that was slowly but surely regressing into nepotism and corruption. Meaning the coalition agreement and agenda have been toppled and replaced with a party (UDP) agenda. The narrative also turned to creating heroes who were neither present at the planning stage of the battle no at the battle proper. Clarity of purpose and direction once again gave way to uncertainty and a path still to be defined and charted.
When you became Vice President, the trophy for you has already been secure and the wining, the dining and the underhand deals could begin. You bunch make me want to puke. You promised France that the French language will become our second official language with the hope that it will become the financiers of your misplaced project priorities. I have to make a conscious effort to control the sickening feeling in my guts as I write this piece.
Then you got fired from a position that was on the whole reserved for someone else. In order to stay relevant, you maintained a semblance of a cordial relationship with power for your own privileges.
Now that the reaction of the populace is becoming increasingly unpredictable moving towards the end of the agreed three-years transition, you feel it’s now more than ever prudent to appeal to your constituency for a mass consensus building for whatever agenda you have in your bag. Let me not hasten to cut to the chase: it will not work.
You, Fatoumatta Tambajang Jallow, Isatou Touray, Lamin Dibba, Ousainou Darboe, Mai Fatty, Hamat Bah, Omar Jallow, James Gomez, Fatoumata Bah-Barrow, Adama Barrow, etc., have all taken us for a ride to beef up, even if just a bit, your bank accounts. There won’t be a second chance. The bridges have been burnt beyond repair.
With or without you and all the “coalition partners”, Adama has only one thing to do and it’s the only right thing to do if he does not want a similar legacy as his predecessor, Yahya Jammeh. He should step down after his three-year mandate. Failure to do so has the potential of creating chaos and civil strife.
If you so much have faith in Allah as you claimed, you must be sincere to yourself by admitting that you failed Gambians. That should be one of your many political apostasies to seek for forgiveness.