By Asikason Jonathan
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
            —George Santayana

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If the  concession of defeat by Yayah Jammeh in the Gambian presidential poll of December 1, 2016 surprised many, his dramatic about-face made a travesty of that feat. It was like reswallowing  spewed spit.
“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… I recommend fresh and transparent elections which will be officiated by a God-fearing and independent electoral commission. “
That was His Excellency, Sheikh Professor Doctor Alhagie Yahya A. J. J. Jammeh — who had earlier congratulated president-elect  Adama Barrow on his victory —addressing his people on the state television few days after the historic election . This rejection was done despite the fact that the country’s electoral umpire led by Alieu Momarr Njai has clarified that the later narrowing of the winner’s lead from 35,000 to 19,000 votes (which is President Jammeh’s only reason for rejecting the results and his castigation of the commission as incompetent) cannot vitiate the entire results of the election.
Jammeh’s rejection of the vox populi is a relapse to African strongmanism— a spirit that deserted him the day he conceded defeat.
African strongmanism is a cancer that has eaten deep the political fabrics of African States.  Who is an African strongman?  He is no respecter of law or convention. He is law himself and dictates who gets what, when and how. Louis xiv will tell you “L’état, C’est Moi.”
From Niger to Chad through Cameroon, Sudan, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea,  Zimbabwe and Eritrea,  the  cancer called African strongmanism has metastasized the continent’s bodypolitic. Didn’t Obama  educate us on the need to have strong institutions rather than strong men in African politics?  Yayah Jammeh  is still hanging on because he is Gambia and Gambia his.  His twenty-two years strides in the country’s political landscape were mostly used to build a cult of personality around himself  and  tie many institutions to the apron’s strings of the presidency.
This is unprecedented in one case and precedented in another. No leader has ever conceded defeat and turned about to contest it. In the second sense, it’s been  a culture in Africa for incumbents to reject defeat. But since the post Arab spring era, the system changed  —it is either you concede defeat or you will be forced to do so.
Jammeh being a typical African strongman has turned down many efforts toward mediating the crisis. The West African leaders led by the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari left the country unhappy at the futile exercise they embarked on. And this made one to wonder : Will Yayah Jammeh toe the path of Ghadafi or Gbabo?
History, Will and Ariel Durants wrote in their masterpiece “The Lessons of History,” smile at all attempts to force it flow in theoretical patterns or grooves. With what is happening in Gambia today, history is about to  repeat itself.
As I write, Jammeh still insists on contesting the results of the election in  the country’s highest court which many believe to be an appendage of his government.
What this means is that Jammeh will stay in power beyond January 18, 2017, the date on which his 22-year-grip on power is supposed to come to a halt and Barrow sworn in as the new president of Gambia.
With Barrow’s announcement that he will declare himself 25 President on that date,  one possible outcome here will be a crisis of two presidents in one State as the Supreme Court of Gambia will definitely annull the election and call for a fresh one.
These  events  remind me of the 1993 presidential election in Nigeria. The election, just like this one, was till date praised   as the most free, fair and credible election ever conducted in Nigeria. But it was annulled by Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida-led military junta just as Jammeh has rejected the results of the election that made mincemeat of him.
Crisis engulfed Nigeria as many Yoruba folks under the aegis of Afenifere as well as the members of the Fourth Estate opposed the annulment and demanded the installation of the winner of the election as the new executive president of the country. But that was not to be as the military junta handed over the reins of power to the Interim National Government (ING) that it established.
When a Lagos court declared the contraption illegal, the winner of the election, Chief MKO Abiola, declared himself president  despite the taking over of the government by the Gen. Abacha-led military junta. Chief MKO Abiola, the symbol of Nigerian democracy, was detained and died in detention.
While Babangida was successfuly in those days when the international community still believed in the  non-intervention principle of the international system, Yayah Jammeh might not be. The stories  of Laurent Gbagbo and  Abdoulaye Wade should  be lessons to him.  With this dramatic upping of the ante, Jammeh should be informed that Karl Marx once wrote: History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce.
Jonathan writes from Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State