In The Search For The Lost Identity For The Rebirth Of A New Nation

In The Search For The Lost Identity For The Rebirth Of A New Nation

Dawda Jawara and his cohorts cultivated "Tesito" Classicism after been propelled to the helm of our nation by the rural masses who dreamt of freedom, liberty, happiness and prosperity at the dawn of independent nationhood.

The illegally constituted Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) led by Yahya AJJ Jammeh forced its way to the helm of our nation with arms and ammunitions bought from our taxes to introduced "autocracy and neo-acculturation" instead of the promised accountability, transparency and probity.

In February 1965, a nation was born with a vision and mission in a national anthem known by many as "Foo-Daa" Gambia. For some especially those not schooled in English never heard of it except when Jawara/Yahya is arriving/leaving town, welcoming state visitors, and at the annual national day celebrations. Besides ceremonial purposes this national identity has been sidelined all through the four decades of our independent existence. It is not use(d) to guide unity nor was it use(d) to inform development and prosperity. Majority of the people don't know it exist nor do those who knew its existence know its purpose. The result is a nation lost with people going in different directions. Except for old age catching up him Jawara as one of the founders of independence can read the national anthem but I bet Yahya even today and many years in the army cannot read the anthem on top of his head.

DK Jawara and his PPP dreamt of making Gambia Singapore, I guess through the returns of the much talk-about re-export trade. This could only be a good dream if it take into account both the socio-culture and socio-economic of the diverse people of our nation heralded by the national anthem. Instead Jawara was looking at only the returns of this trade. Unfortunately, the "tesito" classicism was looting whatever good was coming from what seems promising at the time. They did not account for the simple fact that a simple embargo by Senegal such as border restrictions and turning the Dakar Sea Port to a free port as it was the case in Banjul could instantly kill this venture. Additional problems of this trade are sub-regional conflicts resulting to refugee management in accordance with ECOWAS protocols instead of sending goods to those people for profiteering.

Yahya aided by Hendry Mendy and other technocrats put up what was called Vision 2020. It is no surprised Vision 2020 is already abandoned. At the last July 22 celebration he jumped on the Singaporean Dream of Jawara. All visions are good as long as they are a subset of the national vision. This is not the case for Vision 2020 that is formulated out of sycophancy to the autocracy and the Oil Hallucinations of Yahya. It a meaningless vision for the people of The Gambia and only good to magnify Yahya's autocratic rule to the largely illiterate Gambia. It is a bad vision because it completely failed to put into account our potentials of production (land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship) which are enticed to our socio-culture and economic realities as recognized by the national anthem. A nation cannot develop from loans and gifts especially from those with much more major problems of their own.

The Gambia was granted independent nationhood on February 18, 1965, with the following unique identity:

For The Gambia, our homeland

We strive and work and pray,

That all may live in unity,

Freedom and peace each day.

Let justice guide our actions

Towards the common good,

And join our diverse peoples

To prove man's brotherhood.

We pledge our firm allegiance,

Our promise we renew;

Keep us, great God of nations,

To The Gambia ever true.

Thereupon the nation went into a search for a leader when most doubted the ability of such a small pieces of land carved along both banks of the river Gambia and over ¾ surrounded by Senegal to exist on its own. The average Gambian at 1965 see self determination and rule second to nothing, however over 40 years down this road we now know the then educated Gambians used the aspiration of the masses to switch from translators/interpreters to rulers/decision makers by suppressing the poor to create their own social classes.

The colonies (generally speaking what is known today as The Greater Banjul Area) identified their premier hopeful and the protectorates (generally speaking the rest of the country – provinces) came up with premier hopeful in the person of Dawda Jawara, son of Alimamy Jawara of Barajally-Tenda. This is probably the dawn of the argument of Mandinka tribalism in The Gambian body politics. The PPP is an Up-country political party, more specifically a Mandinka party. Its main thrust was to cut down the control of the people of colonies which where mainly inhabited and/or influenced by Wollofs. As much as this may look tribal, democracy is anchored on the consent of the people that reflect the will of majority as long as the rights of the minor are not suppressed.

Jawara won the elections and assumed the mantle of our great nation as the first president. He abandoned the (Hoe and Axe people) by changing his religious, befriending the old political foes and cross-carpeting them into their party without their knowledge and/or permission, placed them in positions of power/influence and listened to the sweet praise singers. Wisely, he controlled the minds of the hoe and axe people by nurturing culture, tradition and religious tolerance while creating his super "tesito" class in Banjul that every body to go for jobs, belongingness and livelihood. He has suppressed tribalism and instead opens up the gates for nepotism (whom you know and not what you know). Nepotism was the tool that entrenched the "tesito" class while tribalism is divisive. Without an alternative for comparison, Jawara hanged on to power without much opposition for 30 years. He continued to enjoy their support at least on the surface even though the average person knew the inefficiencies and looting of national resources by officials of his administration. Probably true also is the fact that there was no true opposition. Only PDOIS has a different ideological stand while the rest are mainly splinters of PPP with little or no difference except the personality factor that causes the break away in the first place. PDOIS message however never resonant well with the average Gambian voter as they have never secured more than 2/3 % of votes cast on their own and only account for about 7% at the PDOIS-led NADD in the last elections. PDOIS also compared worse at the polls to UDP and NRP that are formed over 20 years later.

Yahya and his clique are very important criminals in our political history. They are a by product of the failures of "tesito" classicism. AFPRC was the product of PPP lust for power and creed for self aggrandizement that distant them from the people they were supposed to serve and as well the in-fight for higher placement in the class hierarchy and control of its resources that jeopardized group coherent. The soldiers took to the streets to express dissatisfaction over service conditions and unmet promises especially those over tour of duties to Sierra Leone/Liberia. The perceived strong and popular PPP was in complete disarray, Jawara ran to a US boat off-shore and the soldiers seized advantage of the vacuum of PPP emptiness. The rest of "tesito" fled, surrendered, and/or become sycophants to the new guy in town. Upon initially bashing and castigating PPP for mismanaging the affairs of The Gambia for 30 years, the poor ragged kid quickly realized the sweetness of power and wealth. He changed the constitution to fit in the age bracket, deleted the term limit provision and manipulated local institutions and their opinion leaders to require his candidature for president. He introduced autocracy to rule Gambia with Kanilai kids (you call it tribalism, for Yahya it is more to do with surrounding himself with those who will not think different or do otherwise) and played double standards on religion and culture. He initially blamed Islam for all the social vices and turns around to built a mosque on state property in a secular nation. He hailed from a Christian background but display Holy Quran (maybe fake copy) at public gatherings, always masqueraded in traditionally Muslim outfits and recently claimed to have means to cure HIV/AIDS from herbs and the Quran. He has trained and turned a selected group of youths as terror and killer machines against whoever found not supporting him. He took control of the hiring and firing of local and traditional administrators from a village "alikalo" to Divisional Commissioners/governors. He transferred the ownership of public corporations to his name and/or act like one. Gifts to the presidency are claimed to be his personal belongings. He denounced the existence of tribes; he claimed he is not a Jola but did not know what he is; he said there is no Mandinka, they are Jolas (the two are in fact contradicting). He transferred the national zoo and tourism's Roots-Home-Coming annual festivities from its rightful home of Juffureh to Kanilai. He frequently dished out millions of Dalasis to praise singers, donated the police force across the country with countless number of trucks costing over a quarter of million Dalasis each, and recently gave each member of the soccer team $5000 US under the zoom lenses of GRTS TV cameras. This is against the background, Gambia, the employer of Yahya cannot meet such national costs. An employee who has never rescinded his claim of his pay check even for one month can foot the nation's bills. Tell us where those monies are coming from. There is no difference between Yahya, AFPRC/APRC and the state. The Gambia is turned into a security state like the 70s and 80s in Libya, the Nazi Germany and/or communist Soviet Union. Today every Gambian is closely monitored by a neighbor, what are said, what are wore, who are friends, what newspapers are read, etc. Gambia became a living hell for an average Gambian including Edward Singhateh who helped him go to the state house. On the surface it may appear rosy with pictures of Yahya in every office building and many other public places. Underneath we are turned enemies of one and another by reporting, jailing and killing to satisfy Yahya in other to keep a job and/or some kind of favoritism. Religious houses that stand on divine gospel and truth equally collapsed to this all out terror leaving most to doubt faith based on holiness. Imam Fatty can publicly condemned an unproven attempted coup but mute over the continued arrest and detention of fellow citizens without legal bases and a complete disregard to due processes. The Bishop of the Anglican Church and former electoral chief, Telewa Johnson, promised the nation to talk about his sacking after Ramadan; it is over 5 years we are waiting. The former Bishop of the Roman Catholic mission, Fr. Michael Cleary, does try to maintain the gospel though not as blunt as one would expect. Both the bases of the authority of the so called Supreme Islamic Council and their sincerity is doubtful by many Muslims and not surprising they can only praise sing through the mouth-piece president in the name of Alhagie Banding Drammeh. All over the place Islamic teachings and moral standards are corrupted by this government without a single public stand from this body. The arrest, detention and firing of Alhagie Karamo Touray as the Imam of Brikama Central mosque are still fresh in our minds. Also the detentions of Imam Baba Leigh over alledged government dislike of his Friday sermons. This is the neo-acculturation by Yahya.

The new nation.

By now with two sets of administration and over 40 years of self rule it is clear that we are not moving or very slowly towards the dreams of independent nationhood. The main reasons for the stagnation of progress are in the inadequacies of governance systems and its resultant abuse by those in charge. In both cases the Banjul governments were (are) not limited governments and people have no way of instituting working checks and balance that could made wrong doers accountable. Instead of the people of The Gambia be the source of power and authority it is the servants acting like godly creatures destiny to rule. Hence, we the people of The Gambia are demanding and will make a U-turn from the status quo. This demand derived its power and authority from the people.

This U-turn is in line with the national pledges and promises we set forth in the national anthem. That is "in unity we will work and pray for our freedom, peace and justice within recognition of the diversity of our people for the common good". Against this background skeptics asked us not to expect Downing Street and/or Pennsylvania Avenue democracy, we said they are wrong. We are not carbon copying anybody's democracy but we are people who deserve and will ensure our natural rights (the unalienable right to life, liberty and happiness) through laws we set to govern our affairs. We are no lesser people and although different circumstances Europe were re-built from the destruction of the Second World War within a span of less than 50 years. For us 40 years passed with stagnation and we are looking at the next 10 years for a turn around.

The goals of the new governance structure and systems are PROSPERITY

1. Proportionate allocation of national resources
2. Resulting into improved quality of life, freedom, peace, justice, happiness and prosperity for all residence of The Gambia
3. Our scars productivity potential will be put to near full utilization
4. Secularism and representation with bottom/up approach will address issues on minority/majority (tribal) arguments
5. Potential for job creation and more robust local economic activities
6. Ecological balancing (both environmental health and degradation) largely due to population over crowding in the Greater Banjul Area will be alleviated through self relocation
7. Representation a justification for taxation – an essential argument for democracy
8. Instill unity in diversity
9. Take decision-making to the people
10. You and me - (diversity) representation will instill in-built checks to both supplement/complement the legal accountability systems

The aforementioned Ten Commandments (PROSPERITY) are all local and derived from the national anthem. Any foreign assistant and support will just be an add-on and not the foundation of our development.

Achieving/realizing the goals? Blue Print – Gambia 2020 – People Power (PP) at work

Certainly Jawara is history. However we have to deal with his legacy. Yahya and his autocracy have to go and eventually brought to court for the treasonable offenses against the people of The Gambia on July 22, 1994. As ridiculous as it may sound we cannot establish rule of law when others are let free because of their position and/or the complexities surrounding them just to pound on the poor and weak. We can no longer live on "by-gone be by-gone". It is now equality before the law, "no-more no-less". Yahya and clique will be subject to the constitution (1971) in place on July 1994 – no ex post facto law. That is justice and that is what our anthem required on us.

The Banjul government, a government structure left behind by the British colonial administrator is inadequate for the now over an estimated 1.5 million people. The Banjul based government will be broken down and strips off everything except executive presidency and administrative functions. Everything else will go to the people (peripheral rule). The people of The Gambia will elect the president, national assembly members (no presidential nominee at this body), divisional commissioners/governors, district representatives to the divisional assembly, head chiefs, and village heads ("alikalis"). This system do not recognized the current area council system and the redesigned revenue management sector will be an integral part of the divisional government.

A new constitution will be drawn to provide for all appropriate changes. The constitution will establish the seat of government which was not the case now to avoid people moving government around their homes at the expense of tax payers. Banjul will have an executive president and his advisors in Foreign relations, Economy and finance, Services provision, Law/justice and Divisional Commissioners/governors. This can be reviewed periodically to accommodate changing needs with the approval of the national assembly.

At the side of Banjul establishment is democracy at work. The people will install their governments at each of the divisions/regions with Banjul and Kombo St Marys joining together. Each will have an elected commissioner/governor, elected district representatives who will as well work in teams to advice on technical matters. The commissioner/governor has a cabinet portfolio hence a direct representative of his/her people at national level and at the same time a presidential advisor of his/her division/region. The national assembly members will bear seats in their respective divisional assembly for both horizontal and vertical legislative processes. This is a full time job and no body will be paid by tax payers just to attend and sleep at one/two sitting the whole year. The head chiefs and village heads will as well be elected and subject to the legal requirements of their jobs along side its traditional roles. This stratum of representation is and will be more important in the new structure. Such importance will start with record keeping/generation on births, deaths, population, agriculture, etc. which are matters of primary data requirements for appropriate planning. They will work with district representative to carry issues up and down the administrative hierarchy more importantly they represent the voice of their people.

The president has no authority under any law to hire/fire any of these elected representatives and the national assembly under law can impeach him/her for wrong doing(s). Justice administration will also be broken down all the way to the village and people can seek justice at the next higher levels if not satisfied with the initial outcome. The cornerstone of the judiciary's checks and balance will stem from it judiciary review and interpretation of the law functions. They can therefore declare legislated bills unconstitutional, hence null and void. The Commissioners of elections will be periodically elected by people along side the other representatives, one for each division to be supported by one from each district. The elected commissioners will constitute the independent commission at each division. They cannot be removed by either the president and/or divisional commissioners/governors except in case of wrong doing the elected representatives of the division will dislodge him/her on the provisions of the law. They will engage the services of an independent legal advisor and they derive the operational authority from only the constitutional electoral provisions. There will be no decrees whether on elections and/or any other matters of law. All elected representatives from the president down to the village head can only serve two term of five years, s/he can seek re-election after the first term and not eligible for a third term. Those who desired a come back has to wait for the elapses of two five periods to past (meaning a third period). All offices and officials, public and/or private will work as prescribed by the constitution/law and/or thereafter the approved work codes and rules. Employment and matters relating to employees will be treated within the law at all times. Land and tree tenure laws will go back to the drawing board to balance people and divisional needs.

Funding the new establishments? Taxation and representation are twins

Noticed that our people are already heavily taxed but little more than debt servicing is attained at the expense of improving quality of life. The Gambia is among the highly indebted nations and life expectancy is as low as mid to upper forty's. Again we need a U-turn and complete reversal of this trend. At Banjul under the Economic/finance advisor will be a Controller. S/he and the Ministry will advice the nation on both tax quotes and standard. They will directly take charge of corporate taxes and customs and excise duties including tariffs. Elsewhere in the same Ministry will put up standards of collection and accounting to be aided by developments in information technology. The Audit Unit will verify these systems in term of their acceptability as per already established standards and their own capacity to keep eye on adherence. The rest of taxation will be deferred to the divisions with same appropriate standards. The Banjul office will have an overseer role over their activities recognizing that they form the bases of the national budget. The new system is likely to spread banking services across the country that will enable use of both paper and electronic financial transactions to reduce the temptation caused by physical contact with money. Misappropriation is a serious crime that is punish by the full force of the law. The poor farmers Dalasis is not to transport anybody's kid to school and/or pay for the entertainment of a wife or girlfriend at some hotel/bar.

In light of the recognition of participatory democracy, service facilitation governance structures and the absolute need for improved local productivity we are going fully free/private market economy. Except in few areas that are related to monetary and fiscal policies to control the direction of the economy and as well some few known areas markets usually proof inefficient, the market will be the determinant of the economy. Hence corporate ownership will change in Banjul. All publicly owned parastatals will issues stocks and bonds for public purchase to pay the government and transfer ownership. The same will apply to privately held business that would like to go public. First government will support the process with adequate regulatory mechanism to facilitate such transfers and protect the general investing public, business, employees and other stakeholder interests. Equally government will institute and advice on impeccable financial reporting systems that serve the interest of the business, owners and people of The Gambia. This process will trickle to smaller and personal businesses and income generation activities mainly for appropriate taxation purposes. Certainly tax evasion and/or an attempt to evade tax will be a serious crime punish by law. Equally misappropriate of tax funds is a crime punish by law. We may consider broadening the tax regime such as sales tax (will be difficult to account for lack of sales reports) and livestock. Equally tax concessions can be given to businesses and individuals who are willing to take certain risk to bear more social benefits. An example of such undertakings will be a company willing to re/establish plants up-country with positive impact on local economy and demography, although such a business will incur additional cost such as transportation of raw material, relocation of trained staff, finished goods movement to markets, etc. However, for now the main focus will be on the collection and management of what is coming out of the current sources.

Important to mention in the new nation is national security. The current security arrangements are ill conceived with exorbitant burden on the meager resources while serves no benefit to tax payers. Gambians have been killed and some disappeared mysteriously over the past decade without an authentic report on these circumstances. Yet still Gambia's annual security budget is on the raise than any productive sector. The new nation will only keep a well trained, equipped and disciplined police force that will include a handful of Field/Para-military police just for major public unrest that result in break down of law and order beyond the control of regular policing functions. Men and women of the army will be re-designated to police and based on knowledge and skills to other national and divisional functions. The military hardware will be disposed as prescribed by national/international laws. A country surrounded by a 6-10 times bigger and stronger neighbor (Senegal) except about the 48 kilometer opening on the Atlantic coast line has no reason to line up an army. This is one of the ill-hurriedly-put-in-place projects of Jawara for self comfort. There is no territorial claim between these too nations hence we cannot anticipate an arms conflict and if there comes one we can rely on international law for redress. This is why Senegalo-Gambian foreign relation should be the gate-way of our foreign relations. Any Gambian leader who cannot see this must be a sick despot. The only difference between these two nations is the colonial boundaries.

The need for appropriate human resource knowledge and skills to man these complex arrangements in other to bear the desired fruit cannot be over emphasized. Equally needed is a continuous flow of these resources and hopefully the University of The Gambia and other tertiary educational institutions will serve these purposes. Important to notice here is that the task before us required knowledge, skills and analytical abilities. Mediocre officials running all over the place as is has been the case for most of Jawara's 30 years and all of Yahiya's 13 years will not be tolerated. Efforts will be made to upgrade these institutions to meet recognized international academic standards to ensue our competitiveness. Ours is no lip service ('sky is the limit") to education and you turn around to engage services of those whose completion/attendance of Bwiam Primary/Secondary School could not be authentically verify.

I must conclude that this is not about Yahya out and Ousainou or Halifa or Sedia and/or any other presidential aspirant to come in. Certainly it has been critical of both the past and current governments for their lack of conscience and sincerity to lead the nation to the dreams of independence. Equally I am weary of the ability of the current aspirants because of the inadequacies of their messages to the voters (the narrowness of how they see the problems). In fact it is as a result of systemic inadequacies ballots doesn't make a difference in The Gambia. This is reverse of what we calling for, instead of government driven authority we say people power. I therefore call on all Gambians especially those you who took the responsibility to lead people in the persons of Yahya, Ousainou, Halifa, Sedia, Lamin Waa, Omar (OJ), Hendry, and Hamat to come back to the table to discuss The Gambia as aspired at independence. This will require a full fledged civil rights demand on everyone for common good based on the pledges and promises of the national anthem. In good faith the only interest at stake is Gambia and those opposed to that should be thrown out with people power.

I have just provided the skeleton of these duo governance arrangements (people power) with power residing at the periphery. Readers who may share similar views with me or otherwise are invited to be engage in this national debate to find answers for our common problems. It doesn't matter what political party you subscribed and/or what opinions you hold as long as the issue is Gambia we can discuss to find answer(s) that will take us to the dreams of independence. I can be reached on bjammeh@emich.edu or bjammeh@comcast.net and/or on skype BFL Jammeh for live chat. I will encourage people to download free skype for free calls to other members worldwide. Real time communication is made cheaper (actually free) and easier.

Thank you on behalf of The Gambia for your time to read this rather long piece.