After 22nd July 1994, The Gambia got persecuted for 22 years. On this 22nd September 2020, another group of impostors annihilated the legitimate aspirations to peace and prosperity of the Gambian people. Our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, saw deputies loyal to Adama Barrow and Yahya Jammeh, side by side, succeeding to filibuster and strike away a grassroots consensually drafted Constitution.
Betrayers of Hope, assassins of Freedom, haters of Democracy and enemies of the Prosperity of the Gambia… That’s what the brave sons and daughters of this country shall remember of this legislature for generations and generations to come. History will retain that deputies duly elected on the promise to restore Freedom, Justice and Prosperity for the Gambia have instead chosen to be captives of the abject laws enacted and tailored by and for Dictator Yahya Jammeh.
The adoption of the draft Constitution first and foremost required an unflinching voluntarism and political will from the Executive. Alas, the President never championed the cause of national unity around this document. Instead, he watched while his lose supporters undermined it.
All that Barrow has done since 2017 is tailoring and piecing anything possible from what remains of Yahya Jammeh’s 1997 Constitution with the same purpose as his predecessor: to stay as long as possible in power. It was so blatant this Tuesday when parliamentarians loyal to Adama Barrow and Yahya Jammeh voted in unison against the motion while some of their camp cowardly sneaked out of the hemicycle, just before the vote began.
In 2016, when voting Yahya Jammeh out, our people decided never to be governed anymore by laws that stoke fear, abuse of power, corruption, nepotism and political cronyism. Unfortunately, President Adama Barrow and his government never rose to this collective desire to “let justice guide our actions towards the common good and join our diverse peoples to prove man’s brotherhood“.
Impunity is rewarded to certified economic bandits now promoted with positions around the President. Confessed murderers, rapists, criminals and thugs who served Yahya Jammeh continue to roam freely the streets of The Gambia. At the expense of Justice and the development of the country, all this government cares is politicking and plotting and to set a pro Barrow political alliance for 2021. This Tuesday, the President’s loyalists de facto legitimized every artefact Yahya Jammeh legally used to oppress Gambians when the voted to keep and root his constitution.
Good sons and daughters of this land painfully saw it slowly but surely coming. Yet we have faith in our Gambia, The Gambia Hamat Bah, Adama Barrow, Yahya Jammeh and all their loyal supporters can never see and will never be part of. It is The Gambia ever true, that stands upright despite all odds and to which we’ve pledge our firm allegiance.