By Da One
From the inspector general of police to the president and even to the Director General of the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) are warning Gambians to be “law abiding” under the false pretense to maintaining peace and tranquility in the country.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) has recently put out a statement indicating that unauthorized demonstrations will be quelled with the all too familiar force and the brutality of The Gambia Police. The warning and threat of violence, according to him, is necessary because there is an audio message in circulation on social media for a purported demonstration without a police permit.
One needs to remind Mamour Jobe that the Occupy Westfield Movementwas granted a permit to organize demonstrations by the constitution and other laws of the republic. That demonstration, where citizens want to rightfully vent out their frustration with the regime of the inept president was cut abruptly by the corrupt underperforming-and-brutally-beastlike Gambia Police Force and other corrupt Gambia government officials.
If people demonstrate without authorizations, it will be because they have no trust that the government will issue them permits. In addition, even if they are issued permits the police might turn up at their demonstrations asking them to leave under some false premises of clear and imminent danger or other gradations of security threats. Of course, all of these claims will be based on blatant lies.
What I am getting at is this: if the police will desist from corruption and serving only a few, such as the interest of a particular political party or a group of personalities, the public will reward the institution of law enforcement with trust and respect.
Second, the president will be a fool not to realized that his silence on his three-year mandate is a ticking time bomb. The people voted for a three-year term for him to undertake sectoral and institutional reforms. As of now and by all indications, he has ditched that agenda to focus on a host of so-called “development projects” which wasn’t part of the coalition agreement that brought him to power.
If the IGP wants to stop flash demonstrations in the coming months leading to Adama’s three years mandate winding down, then he must brace up for a hell of a task ahead of him. The easiest way will be to once again use fire arms against innocent citizens to shed blood and unjustly take lives. That will be from Yahya Jammeh’s play book of brutality and savagery.
Adama is gradually but surely metamorphosing into a clown dictator. That’s not the way to build and maintain peace. Of course, the general public would like to live in peace and tranquility. It’s just that our governments make that impossible, which will force us to ensemble in the streets.