STRAIGHT TALK : When a dictator finally respects the people’s will

I went to Gambia in the early days of the presidency of Yahya Djameh, having been installed as a democratic president. He ascended to power after a coup in 1994 and was an elected in 1996.

Gambia, a nation in one corner of West Africa is known for the resilience of its people and the hustling power. The Gambians are best found outside their country in every aspect of business and economy.

With a strong slavery history its first president, Sir Douda Jawara, demonstrated high level of Pan Africanism when it formed a union with Senegal in what was known as Sene-Gambia. But it did not last long as Gambia felt short changed.

The like of Egypt-Sudan also collapsed and all of them have only been outlived by the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union forged in 1964, albeit huge dissatisfaction and disappointment by Zanzibaris and in what seems to be lacking a voice and power within the arrangement.

The Gambia just held its fifth General Election in the post Djameh era and he lost. In between he forced his country into tyranny. He became one of the most feared dictators the continent has seen.

Djameh maimed, jailed and killed his people. A number of citizen have disappeared without trace in government hands. He had curtailed press freedom and jailed some journos some of who had to leave the country fearing for their lives.

The Gambia President, who preferred self propelling had means to get himself winning several awards both local and foreign and bragged himself of being a curer for the HIV/Aids and propagated anti gay bashing and persecution.

The ousted president was also in the top league of leaders who siphoned from public funds. He was billed to be one of the richest leaders in African and was claimed to be even richer than his country.

Despite what he did to his people and strangling of democratic ideals, but yet he had a seat in the West African economic body (Ecowas) and the African Union (AU) and such is the irony of leadership in Africa. The continent has become a place where leaders are afraid of pointing fingers to each other.

He was afraid to be indicted in the International Criminal Court that he successfully led campaign to pull out from this body, and it is hoped that his successor, Adam Bromwel, will restore Gambia’s membership as a priority once he gets sworn-in.

We congratulate former President Djameh for conceding defeat and allowing peaceful power transfer. Many of us believed he would not easily do so. We were mistaken.

He followed the example of former President Goodluck Jonathan who handed power to President Muhammed Buhari in Nigeria. This example must not only be praised but also emulated all over Africa. Having happened in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia for example in East Africa--the hard nuts to crack are South Africa and Tanzania. Where as in South Africa clings to power by democratically winning elections, in Tanzania in the semi autonomous Zanzibar, CCM is imposing itself in power by rigging and even stealing elections.

Soon after I heard gracious speech by Djameh accepting the voice of the people my mind went back to October 28, 2015 when shamelessly CCM with the support of forces, cancelled the election results and took away Seif Shariff Hamad’s victory.

What a historical moment Dr Ali Muhammed Shein would have penned had he the guts to refuse his party pressure to go against the will of the people. He left it, one year later, to Djameh to show that this was possible, and the two will go into different chapters in the history books. An English saying goes “ Every dog has his day,” and Zanzibaris are known to be patient to wait for their day.

But what happened in The Gambia where the opposition put up a united front, is indeed a lesson and a living example that there is hope and the struggle to make regime changes in Africa if only there was self belief. And majority in Zanzibar have that belief that if Djameh could go, so any one can go.

An Engish saying goes “ Every dog has his day,” and Zanzibaris are known to be patient to wait for their day.

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