On July 22nd, 1994, the Gambia thirty year stable and steady democracy was overthrown by junior officers in a military coup that was successful because there was no resistance from the state’s security forces.
What followed was a gradual but unmistakable progression toward absolute tyranny. For over two decades, Yaya Jammeh, the military leader turned civilian president, put Africa’s smallest country back on the map for all the wrong reasons. From arbitrary arrests and detentions, to enforced disappearances and state sanctioned murders, The Gambia became synonymous with rights abuse. Yaya Jammeh left nothing to chance in his quest to “rule [The Gambia] for a billion years.”
That billion year dream would be upended on December 2, 2016, when Gambians did what many thought impossible, unseat an incumbent sit-tight tyrant through the ballot box.
Finally, this tiny enclave could reshape her bad image and relegate their tin pot dictator to the dustbin of history with all his bizarre claims of supernatural abilities to cure AIDS, infertility and ailments that have thus far confounded science. Or so we thought.
The defeat of Yaya Jammeh was possible through a collective effort when the opposition parties in the country put aside their differences and formed a coalition to increase their chances. At the head of that coalition as flagbearer was Adama Barrow, current president of The Gambia.
With his election and subsequent swearing-in as president of The Gambia in 2017, Gambians could collectively breathe a sigh of relief. The new president touted that “The Gambia is back”, in reference to The Gambia under her first president Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara and the country’s respectable status on the global stage as a stable democracy in a region marred by civil war, military coups and widespread unrest.
But within a short three year period, Adama Barrow has shown he is more inclined towards the Jammeh style authoritarian rule than Jawara’s democratic style of governance that ensured decades of stability and steady navigation of state affairs for a small but culturally diverse country. To his credit, Barrow did say that “when you are campaigning, you can say anything” meaning there was no sincerity in his promises, commitments and declarations.
After reneging on his promise to serve only one three year term as part of the coalition arrangement that brought him to power, Adama Barrow has shown that he would do whatever it took to remain in power. Like all who lust for power without the requisite charisma or capacity to manage it, heavy handedness and tyranny becomes the only tool available for them to use to coerce citizens into submission and Adama Barrow has taken those first steps on that track which only leads to one destination: widespread abuse of citizens and potentially bloodshed.
Like Jammeh before him, Barrow learnt that the law is the first obstacle to tackle if one must have absolute power, and so the people’s draft constitution drawn up after far reaching consultations across all regions of the country was torpedoed by Barrow with help from some members of the National Assembly that he bought.
He used the executive powers he assumed upon election to buy loyalties by using the power to hire and fire at will. He even attempted to sack a member of the National Assembly only to have the courts declare that move unconstitutional.
When Jammeh took over in 1994, he suspended the country’s constitution and ruled by military decrees. With the law defeated, the next obstacle was political opposition, so he banned political parties and political activity through decrees.
After killing off the draft constitution, Barrow focused his attention on political opponents. Because he had no such powers as was availed to the soldiers who usurped power through the force of arms, Barrow chose inducements to woo political opponents to his side by rewarding them with lucrative government positions. All the political parties that graced Gambia’s political landscape before 2016 have all been absorbed by Barrow’s newly formed National People’s Party (NPP). This includes the country’s oldest party, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) that led the country to independence in 1965. After breaking free of the military government’s stifling tactics, the party was merely a shell of its former self.
Two parties, that one can argue are the two most relevant in terms of ideology and approach to politics, remained steadfast on their course. The People’s Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) and the United Democratic Party (UDP) are the two parties that Barrow has not been able to absorb into his cash laden NPP. PDOIS has a completely different approach to politics and governance and what those two institutions mean. So, he has no hope of even attempting to induce the leaders of that party to be on his side. But because of the party’s size in terms of electoral numbers, Barrow is not too worried about having PDOIS on his side, for now. GDC is another rival party that has refused to yield to Barrow.
But his focus is the UDP, the party that Barrow was a member of and the party that backed him as candidate when the party’s leadership was jailed by Jammeh for protesting the death in custody of one of their members in 2016. His former allies see him as an unprincipled man and a very insincere politician, and the fact that he betrayed every aspiration of not just the party but the country, he has found in UDP the same adversary that Jammeh faced but could not contain in over two decades leading to his downfall in 2016, one in which UDP took a leading role.
UDP’s activist style of politics means they are in a constant mode of attacking the bad policies and corrupt practices of Barrow’s administration, which frankly are numerous and regular. The party has never shied away from calling names and mentioning their crimes as far as public policy failures are concerned. Despite his open efforts to have the party implode from within, he has thus far failed and the UDP is a thorn in his side, for that, containing the party has become an obsession for Barrow. He seemed to forget the formidable nature of the opponent he once embraced.
The UDP has increasingly been at the receiving end of Barrow’s unending tirades. In his most recent tirade, he branded the party as the “greatest threat to The Gambia’s national security”, a statement that received widespread condemnation and the UDP declared that such a statement has crossed the line and vowed to not be silenced in any way.
In his own words, Barrow expressed his desire that UDP should be like the rest of “the other nineteen parties” that hardly anyone hears from. Like Jammeh before him, he knows that the UDP continues to pose the greatest political threat to his self-perpetuation plan, and in his frustration, he believed that labeling the party as a national security threat would elicit sympathy from the wider public, but he made a grave miscalculation. His remarks only met with condemnation from all relevant sectors.
Since dissension goes hand in hand with media access for it to be effective, the independent media has landed on Barrow’s radar alongside political activists. Like Jammeh before him, the media asking pertinent questions is unwelcome scrutiny especially in the face of so much corruption. So, he has resorted to labeling the most popular mediums as opposition platforms. Even though he, as well as his party pundits have access to all media platforms, the fact that they cannot defend any of their policy decisions makes them feel unwelcome, so they resort to what authoritarians do best, smear. Meanwhile, the national broadcaster, entirely funded by taxpayers has been sealed off to all dissenting voices. GRTS television and radio has proudly identified itself as a propaganda outfit for the president’s ruling NPP.
Hauling verbal assaults would have been bad enough, but he could be countered on that front. What we are unfortunately witnessing is a reinvention of the Jammeh style tactics of intimidation, illegal arrests, incommunicado detentions, and detentions without charge beyond the 72 hour constitutional limit.
Counting on his executive powers to hire and fire, Barrow has found in the Inspector General of Police, IGP Abdoulie Sanyang, a compliant servant willing to bend the law to please his master in furtherance of his own job security.
He has already declared that he will give specific orders to the Inspector General of police to go after his opponents and critics, even vowed that those targeted by him would be kept in detention even if the courts grant them bail. We saw that order executed after a popular comedian and social commentator, Alhagie Bora Sisawo was rearrested by the police immediately following the president’s pronouncements. He would be kept at locations that the police refused to disclose. Upon his release, he disclosed the treatment he was subjected to that made him believe he was not going to come out of detention alive, effectively subjecting him to psychological torture and physical humiliation.
Probably the most prominent and consistent critic of the government and political parties alike, Madi Jobarteh was arrested from his sick bed and detained at a secret location where he was denied access to his family who were in possession of his medications that he needed for his recovery. His condition would deteriorate while in detention and had to be discharged to a clinic for medical attention.
All these draconian steps taken only because they dared to speak out against issues they disagree with.
But prior to his reelection in 2021, he had vowed to not tolerate endless rallies and politicking. His pronouncements that there is “too much” democracy in The country can only be interpreted as a determination to roll back the democratic gains of the country in favor of authoritarian rule.
Would the democratic forces in The Gambia allow this recurrence to take hold without challenge or would they cede the political space to Barrow to allow him a free hand to abuse his political opponents as was the case with Jammeh?
The early indications are that Gambians are determined to defend their democratic gains, but it remains to be seen how far they are willing to go in defense of those values and in furtherance of the ‘Never Again’ mantra coined as a rallying cry against tyranny and state abuse of rights.
Mankajang 