The Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, has reportedly backtracked over his resolve to hand over power to his successor, Adama Barrow, after ruling the West African nation for 22 solid years. In a speech broadcast on the state-owned television, the coup maker, turned constitutionally elected leader, claimed investigations since the December 1 election have revealed to him, a number of voting irregularities, which is unacceptable.
“I hereby reject the results in totality. Let me repeat: I will not accept the results based on what has happened,” he said. The constitutional dictator’s rejection of the results comes barely a week after he had called Adama Barrow to concede defeat and promised to hand over power peacefully. “You are the elected president of The Gambia, and I wish you all the best,” Jammeh told Barrow at the time, adding, “I have no ill will.”
After seizing power in 1994, at the age of just 29, and forcing prominent citizens into exile, the despot ruled The Gambia with an iron fist until he decided to drop the army garb for that of a civilian leader. Since then, he has won several disputed elections, but, in the name of sovereignty, nobody said anything about him. Now after losing the December election and accepting defeat, this tyrant has decided to eat back his words, and is now saying he would no more accept the election results.
The Chronicle finds the conduct of Yahya Jammeh unacceptable and a complete disgrace to the already battered image of Africa when it comes to democracy. The Gambia is not the personal property of Jammah and his family, but a state whose sovereignty resides in the people, and the latter have decided that they no more need him as their leader. He cannot, therefore, arrogate to himself the powers to annul election results, without recourse to Gambian laws.
The Chronicle is, therefore, calling on the African Union, United Nations, European Union, and United States of America (USA) to start diplomatic talks with this dictator calling himself president, and prevail upon him to hand over power peacefully to Adama Barrow, the president-elect.
Should the diplomatic talks fail, these states and institutions, we have mentioned above, especially Britain, the former colonial ruler, should move in and use military force to remove Jammeh from power.
The Chronicle is surprised at the British foreign policy towards its former colonies. The Queen’s people appear not to care about what goes on in their former colonies, though we admit that these former colonies are now independent states.
The Chronicle is not knocking the heads of both Britain and France together, but if this nonsense going in The Gambia had happened in any French speaking country, France would have moved in quickly to stop it.
In 1997, it had to take the intervention of ECOWAS, led by Nigeria, to restore former Sierra Leonean leader Ahmad Kabbah back to power, after he was overthrown by a junta group led by Johnny Koroma.
Britain, which boasts of having colonised countries in Africa including Sierra Leone, did not see the need to intervene and stop the bloodshed going on in its former colony.
In recent years, France has made interventions in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso among others, which saved these countries from sliding into civil war, but when it comes to English-speaking countries, Britain has always failed to act decisively. Yahya Jammeh, a man who even claimed at a point in time that he could cure AIDS, is gradually sending The Gambia into civil war, and should these world leaders sit aloof and allow him to plunge the country into chaos before living up to their responsibilities?
As the adage goes, when persuasion fails, force must be applied. Yahya Jammeh, we insist, must be removed from power through military intervention if negotiations for him to hand over fail. Africa is tired of this Stone Age conduct of some of its leaders, and the time to act is now!
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