By Jude Ndukwe
As it is now, The
Gambia is under emergency rule as declared by its president of 22 years, Yahya
Jammeh. The emergency rule has become necessary in the estimation of Jammeh,
following his decision to challenge the outcome of the country’s December 1,
2016 election in which Adama Barrow was declared winner.
 |
*Gambian President Yahya Jammeh receives
President Muhammadu Buhari in Banjul on
December 13, 2016 |
The impasse has
been largely fuelled by the haste with which the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) has not only intervened but also interfered in what
should, at this stage, be a purely internal matter of a sovereign nation.
Jammeh’s decision to challenge the outcome of the election result is very well
within his constitutional rights.
By this, the man
who is said to have ruled his country with an iron fist, is still within his
constitutional rights to test the validity of the election result in the law
court. Obviously, it is this right that the ECOWAS nations and indeed a good
part of the world has misinterpreted to mean that Jammeh has refused to step
down, and this is part of what has heightened the impasse. Just like in Nigeria,
the declaration of results by the electoral body does not mark the end of an
electoral process in The Gambia. The political actors are still
constitutionally permitted to challenge such results in the law court.
Such electoral
matters can only be said to have been fully dispensed with after the highest
court constitutionally empowered to deal with such matters have done so. ECOWAS
will be making a grave mistake if they send in troops to The Gambia at this stage.
What the regional body should be concerned with now is to send in fearless and
impartial judges to that country from Nigeria as requested to dispense with the
matter speedily and judiciously.
It is only after
the country’s highest courts have affirmed Barrow as winner and Jammeh refuse
to step down and handover to Barrow that a military action would be justified.
Another mistake
ECOWAS made was their choice of delegation as led by President Muhammadu Buhari
to The Gambia as emissaries of peace and democracy to persuade Jammeh to hand
over power peacefully and as scheduled. Although Jammeh had earlier accepted
defeat and promised to leave the stage on the set date of January 19, 2017, he
immediately did an about-turn the moment Barrow made the hasty and politically
disingenuous statement of probing Jammeh’s administration.
Jammeh, who from
his earlier posture, wanted to play the Goodluck Jonathan card of handing over
power to the opposition after an election must have quickly remembered the
Nigerian situation where persecution, injustice, oppression, deprivation and
gross abuse of the rights of officials of the immediate past administration in
particular and the citizens in general have been the order of the day, and
recanted his earlier stance immediately.
The appointment of
Buhari as leader of ECOWAS delegation to The Gambia is a monumental error. How
can a man with no democratic credentials lead a mission of democracy? How can a
man who hardly obeys court orders as in the case of Sheikh El Zakzaky, Nnamdi
Kanu et al be the one appointed to mediate in a
constitutional process? Not even the orders of the same ECOWAS court on Sambo
Dasuki has been obeyed by Buhari months after they were given, yet, it is the
same man ECOWAS gave the enviable responsibility to convince Jammeh about the
need to leave the stage a democrat!
Buhari should not
have been on that delegation not to talk of leading it. With the continued
denial of campaign promises and policy somersaults, no leader would take
Buhari’s word for whatever it is worth. With the rascally behaviour of some of
our security agencies under Buhari’s watch leading to many innocent citizens
being killed just for exercising their rights to assemble and protest, among
others, in Jammeh’s mind, Buhari’s discussion with him might just seem like a
dictator talking to a dictator about the need for a peaceful transition.
In fact, during
those dialogues with Buhari, Jammeh might just be saying in his mind, “with your antecedents and current
style of leadership, how am I sure that you would hand over power to your
opponent if you were defeated in 2019?”
No doubt, Buhari
is not the ideal example of a democratic leader. Such a leader like him needs
the intervention of proven democrats to guide him on the inalienable
ingredients of democracy. So for The Gambia to pass through this phase
peacefully and speedily, ECOWAS should facilitate the immediate transfer of
judges from Nigeria to that country as requested and allow
all parties exhaust all their constitutional rights and provisions made
available to them.
While that is
going on, democrats with proven track record of not being power-drunk and who
also have themselves handed power over to members of the opposition including
well respected figures like Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, Ghana’s John Mahama,
Kofi Annan, Emeka Anyaoku etc should have been in the delegation to the
exclusion of the likes of our own Buhari.
It is only
after the courts might have ruled against him and such entreaties have failed
that a military action becomes desirable. For now, let the delegation be
reshuffled and let The Gambia run the full course of its own constitutional
provisions. That way we do not attempt to right a wrong with another wrong.
*Jude
Ndukwe is a commentator on public issues
