We congratulate Gambians on the peaceful departure of their erstwhile autocratic ruler, Yahya Jammeh, who finally bowed to reason and went into exile on January 21. Before he left, 45,000 Gambians had fled the country over fears of violence following his refusal to leave office after losing the presidential poll, and even after the winner of the election, Mr. Adama Barrow, was sworn into office in nearby Senegal.
Jammeh’s decision to remain in office after losing the election which he had earlier declared free and fair, and also congratulated the winner, had put his country and the entire continent on edge. He had declared a state of emergency which had placed the country on a war footing, and assumed dictatorial powers. He had also coerced the Gambian parliament to grant him a three-month tenure extension, which was contrary to the country’s constitution. These frenetic actions could not help him as he found himself more and more isolated as he faced further desertions from his long-time deputy, his commanders, and his soldiers who said they would no longer defend or protect him.
Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met with him twice, offering him golden opportunities to demonstrate statesmanship and step aside. He squandered those chances and the commission had no choice but to give him an ultimatum. He also spurned overtures from the African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN) and the global community to quit honourably. He remained adamant until well after the then Gambian president-elect, Mr. Adama Barrow, was sworn-in as President of Gambia in the presence of many African leaders in Dakar, Senegal, with the tacit support of virtually the whole world.
After the swearing-in of Mr. Barrow on January 19, Senegal tabled a resolution in the UN Security Council which was unanimously passed and which stated that the 15-member “Council strongly condemned former President Jammeh’s December 9 statement rejecting the official results and the takeover of the Independent Electoral Commission by the Gambian Armed Forces on December 13, 2016 as well as the attempt by the Paliament on January 18, 2017 to extend President Jammeh’s term for three months beyond his current mandate which ends today.”
The Council further condemned Jammeh’s attempt to usurp the will of the people, undermine the integrity of the electoral process in Gambia and prevent a peaceful and orderly transfer of power to President Barrow by declaring a state of emergency.
The Security Council resolution did not tacitly call for the use of force but it supplied a moral as well as a legal framework which would have justified the intervention of ECOWAS forces, which were by then arrayed against him. Jammeh, thereafter, had no choice but to acknowledge that the game was up and he left the country in disgrace on the night of Saturday, January 21.
We congratulate ECOWAS leaders for their firm resolve to ensure that the rule of law prevailed in The Gambia and that Jammeh bowed to the will of his people who voted him out of office. We also praise the leaders for their restraint and wisdom which helped them at every point of what must have been a testy negotiation with Jammeh, who has been a dictator for 22 years and was apparently afraid of being held accountable for his deeds.
The credit for the resolution of this impasse must go to ECOWAS leaders, especially the chief mediator, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, as well as President Alpha Conde of Guinea and President Mohamed Abdel Aziz of Mauritania, who patiently talked Jammeh out of his resolve to remain in office at all costs, and closed the deal.
Although Jammeh eventually agreed to go into temporary exile in Guinea because, as he explained on Gambian television, it was “not necessary that a single drop of blood be shed,” he would have saved Gambians, Africans and the world, a lot of anguish if he had said this a month ago, and honourably left office at the expiration of his term.
But, as it is said, it is better late than never. Gambia now has chance to begin a new political era and President Barrow, the country’s first democratically elected President, seems a good candidate for a new Gambia. His promise to straighten out The Gambian constitution, introduce term limits and ensure strict adherence to the rule of law would be a good start. Gambia has been somewhat unlucky in its governance. Its first president, Dawda Jawara, spent 29 years at the helm, and Jammeh spent 22. Between the two men, the country had more than half a century of dictatorship and backwardness.
Jammeh’s disgraceful exit should be a lesson to African leaders who relish staying in office beyond their constitutional terms that such sit-tight leadership is no longer acceptable on the continent. African countries should reject the “president-for-life” syndrome through regular and constitutional changes of their governments to inject fresh blood and new insights into their governance.