Gambia's stability “built on coercion” than freedom and democracy

By Lamin Jahateh

President Jammeh

The Gambia has remained politically stable since the military coups of 1994 that brought the incumbent president, Yahya Jammeh, to power, the 2013 report of an Ecowas institution has noted in its analysis of the political situation of The Gambia. 

However the political stability in the country is “generally perceived” to have been built on coercion rather than on civil liberties, fundamental freedoms, democratic culture and popular participation, the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) stated in its latest annual report, released on Monday.

“Democratic politics and human rights are still limited under a system where the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction Party dominates the political space, and there is little tolerance for dissent,” the sub-regional institution mandated to fight money laundering and terrorism financing in the sub-regional said in its report. 

President Jammeh calls for concerted efforts to flush out terrorism

Gambian leader, Yahya Jammeh

The president of the Republic has called for concerted efforts to combat terrorism on the continent, condemning the current string of violence in Nigeria, meted out on innocent civilians by the group ‘Boko Haram’.

Speaking at the Banjul International Airport Friday evening upon his return from Nigeria where he took part in a human security summit as part of activities marking that country’s centenary, His Excellency Shiekh Prof. Alh. Dr. Yahya Jammeh lamented the myriad of proxy wars on the continent, noting that such could only retard progress.

“It has to be a concerted effort to fight terrorism,” he reiterated, calling on African leaders to work together and fight the common enemy – terrorism and other violent crimes.

The Gambian leader said it is his conviction that if everyone is committed to the fight against terrorism, there wouldn’t be any such menace in that they [terrorists] would not be safe anywhere to perpetuate acts of violence against innocent people.

“We the heads of states have realised that whatever group they are called in Nigeria, it is a criminal enterprise,” he remarked, questioning the wisdom of killing innocent people in the name of Islam. “So terrorism is not for one country to fight it, especially we in Africa given the porosity of our borders,” he told reporters.

Jammeh also condemned the fact that certain “crooks” are being used by outside forces in the name of religion or tribe to take on a government in a country that is rapidly developing.