By Sunday Oyinloye, West Africa Editor.
Is Africa doomed? This was the question asked by Kola Ijawoye, a Nigerian based political analyst when President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia rejected the result of the recently concluded election in the small West African country.
The dictator masquerading as a democrat, must have been shocked to initially accept the result of the election before making a u-turn that it was not a fair contest. Jammeh who has held his people in bondage for about 22 years suddenly woke up to the reality of life that power was slipping out of his hand, hence he vowed to hang on even when it was clear that the tide is against him. Like most Presidents of his kind, he prefers to be chased out of the seat of government than leave honourably.
The witch doctor as some Africans call him (because of his claim to have the magical power to cure AIDS) has every reason to be afraid of his shadow. His human rights record is very low though he pretends to be championing the course of Africa. Some Africans even see him as an actor who likes attracting undue attention to himself. This perhaps explains the reason why he remains one of the presidents with the highest number of titles in the world.
As at the time of writing this report, African leaders were still appealing to him to avert a pending bloodbath in Gambia, but the maximum ruler prefers to throw his country into needless war. He appears to have closed his eyes to the self-inflicted calamities that befell some West African countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast which they are yet to fully recover from.
Now Jammeh has every opportunity to leave honourably but he must have chosen the path of self destruction and perhaps ready to be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the catalogue of atrocities he committed in Gambia for more than two decades.
The witch doctor might want to surpass the number of years spent in government by some of his seat-tight colleagues in Africa. He has a number of them to copy. 92 year old Robert Mugabe has been the leader of Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980 and well prepared to be life President as he is not ready to quit the stage any time soon. Jammeh also has a friend or call it a mentor in Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville who has been in power for 31 years.
The list of his friends is long, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al- Bashir, Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo, all power drunk and ready to do anything to cling to power.
The fear of most West Africans is the effects of another war in the sub-region. West Africa has barely recovered from the devastating effects of Ebola, and Lassa fever, therefore another crisis in any form may be too much to handle.
It was the fear of unknown that made some leaders in West Africa led by President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria to visit Gambia and to appeal to President Yahya Jammeh to leave peacefully. But so far, the Gambia president has blocked his ears against wise counsel.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) African Union (AU) and the United Nations have called on Jammeh to respect the wish of the Gambia people who elected Adama Barrow . Jammeh once boasted that he would never rule without the mandate of his people or cheat in elections. The question West Africans are asking Jammeh who recently declared Gambia an Islamic state is what power is he banking on to take the rest of the world? Can his claim of ‘uncommon spiritual powers” prevent him from being taken to ICC if he plunges his country into war?
The world is indeed waiting for the magical wand of the ‘witch doctor”. But one thing appears clear, the Gambian dictator is unlikely to win this “war”.
