Jammeh as a metaphor (Part 2)

I have looked critically at our continent and wondered why presidents who stay in power for over a decade, from Robert Mugabe to Yoweri Museveni, believe that no other person has either the right to rule or the capacity. They develop a God syndrome and surround themselves with yes men and any slight opposition is attacked voraciously. There are dark stories around sit tight leaders of murders, torture, suspicion, betrayals and asylum seekers. Let’s pause and look beyond the presidential borders.

How do you describe the refusal by a president of a social association in Nigeria to leave an office; they have stayed there, made their contributions, why would they not leave office? There is a process of handing over, but they argue, they go to court, they haul abuses, they throw out logic-they simply refuse to go. Is it in our stars? Is it in our water? Is it in our race?

Honestly I do hate that last category which suggests that to be black ultimately means disorganisation. While it offends me greatly to be painted with the same tar brush as these aforementioned people, I am still befuddled by the seeming lack of progress in the simple process of handing over power to a successor within our climes. Therein lies the metaphor of Jammeh.
Arriving the presidential villa of Gambia 22 years ago to demand for the rights and privileges for soldiers as a young 29 year old Lieutenant in the Army; he found that the president he went to demand soldiers rights from had fled the villa and Jammeh simply walked into the seat of the President of Gambia in what is often described as a coup. For a man who “accidentally” became President of the Gambia to refuse to leave the seat after 22 years is an incredible feat which with the benefit of history, possibly only an African president can pull off. Twice, coups against him were foiled by Senegalese troops to keep him in power. But when the end came, Jammeh began an evil dance, typically African, by first accepting the election result, and later on saying he was no longer accepting.

“After a thorough investigation, I have decided to reject the outcome of the recent election. I lament serious and unacceptable abnormalities which have reportedly transpired during the electoral process,” Jammeh said. “I recommend fresh and transparent elections which will be officiated by a god-fearing and independent electoral commission,” he said.

In addition, Jammeh had been parading himself as a herbalist who could cure AIDS and many other diseases in the Gambia. Dressed in his presidential toga, Jammeh carried out healing sessions using blessed peanuts, herbal mixtures and a banana as if to encourage young persons to carry on unguarded morally since he could cure AIDS.

In a BBC documentary Rewind showed only recently and recorded in 2007, Jammeh carried out his healing exercise with rows and rows of waiting Gambians excited to be treated by their president. While African traditional herbal healing is accepted and recognised, Jammeh’s methods were pompous and bizarre, yet his citizens believed him. When the BBC Reporter asked him if he had been validated or certified by other herbalists or codified by modern medicine, he became rude describing a renowned HIV expert in South Africa who questioned what he did as “an idiot”.

In the meantime, HIV/AIDS continued its ascendancy in the tiny country. Tourism of course has its downsides and while I was in the Gambia visiting, I found very young kids 16, 17, 14 plying their trade in the glitzy world of tourism. I was told that some were mothers at a very young age “babies having babies” while the tourism industry continued to boom. In the aforementioned documentary any young person you asked if Yahya Jammeh could cure AIDS, answered in the affirmative. But back to his departure from Gambia in the face of a battle he could not win.
It is no longer news that West African forces moved in and Jammeh left his country unprepared after refusing to leave decently and was sent packing. He now resides in Equatorial Guinea, a nation which is not a signatory to the Rome statute-a statute establishing the international criminal court. Equatorial Guinea is not part of the International Criminal Court which means Jammeh cannot be prosecuted in the event that he is charged with any misdemeanour.
Yahya Jammeh never ceased to amaze me. He had mentors aplenty in other African leaders before him. For a long time to come Jammeh will remain an enigma and a metaphor for assessing African leaders. Unfortunately history will not be kind to him and again he has let the continent down and allowed us to become a laughing stock. He will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Let us leave all of these for a moment and determine whether my narrative is perhaps as a result of the fact that I have never been president of anything. Time will tell.