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| Allah's Former Favorite Son |
Those with even a small knowledge about the Gambia would know how Yahya Jammeh has over the years ascribed his every thought and action as being guided by and subject only to the will of the Almighty "Allah Subhanahu Aa Ta'ala," or "Allah the most glorified, the most high."
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| The New Favorite Son |
Obedience to the will of Allah (SWT) has been the main principle Jammeh has relied on to justify his iron grip on the day to day affairs of his small country.
It was, according to him, the will of Allah (SWT) that was responsible for him winning four straight elections. It was also through the will of the Almighty that he would always emerge victorious over his adversaries in almost every political contest over the past 22 years.
Even coup detats against Yahya Jammeh, according to him, had always failed because of the personal protection of Allah (SWT) and Allah's attention to the personal welfare of one of his favorite sons, Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh.
Subservience to the will of Allah was also the core of Jammeh's personal political narrative. As there was no way of calling up to the heavens to ascertain the veracity of Jammeh's narrative, Gambians have over the years had no option but to accept his version of events and his supposedly superior position in the eyes of the Almighty.
Even in moments of immense brutality, Yahya Jammeh could always find a way to ascribe his deadly actions to the Supreme will of the Almighty. When Imams, journalists, renegade soldiers and political opponents were fleeing the country to avoid his persecution, Jammeh would always profess that Allah (SWT) was on his side and he would surely expose his enemies.
Those who do not know Yahya Jammeh may not know the true nature of the sadistic cruelty that he was capable of.
A year or two ago, when Jammeh was being criticized for his poor human rights record, he decided to show his defiance by stating that since Gambia had the death penalty and it had not been used for a long time, he would reactivate its use. "What's the use of having a law if it is not being used? He asked. People around the world thought Jammeh was joking until he ordered the immediate execution of several prisoners on death row. It was only following loud domestic and international outcry at the depravity of this action that Jammeh felt pressured to suspend the executions. However, he had made his point, and his adversaries became even more scared of him.
Jammeh's public manifestation of his devotion to his deity is probably second to none among African leaders. This is a man who will never leave his house without a copy of the Muslim Holy Quran. He also carried very long prayer beads and a delicately embroidered sword. Even in the hot Sahelian sun of The Gambia, Jammeh would be about, dressed in elegant flowing robes, like legendary Islamic warriors such as the great Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn (Saladin). It was a marvel to the common Gambian to behold Jammeh, brandishing the Holy Quran, even when he was insulting members of the opposition and threatening his adversaries with death.
Jammeh, like most tyrants, grew to believe that there was simply none like him in the Gambia. In Jammeh's eyes, there was probably no Gambian more special in the eyes of Allah (SWT).
As his belief in himself grew, so did the length of his names and titles. A young military officer who had overthrown the country's first President in a bloodless coup, Yayah AJJ Jammeh had in twenty two years become Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh Babili Mansa.
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| I accept the Will of Allah |
To add to his personal mystic, he also claimed that Allah (SWT) had given him the ability to totally cure Asthma and HIV AIDS, the only living person in the universe with a definitive cure for these deadly ailments. He even had a clinic to practice his medicine and Gambians could only mutter their disbelief in silence.
On December 1st 2016, when Gambians were heading to the polls, Yayah Jammeh's faith in his supreme destiny remained unshaken. Even when the main opposition parties, eight of them, rallied around a single candidate, they did not cause Jammeh any loss of sleep. In the words of Jammeh, "the opposition were vermin" and he was bound to "win by a landslide," such, as he thought, was the will of Allah.
In spite of the size of the coalition, he remained confident, and why couldn't he? In his mind, his candidacy was endorsed by Allah (SWT).
However, on the night of the vote, it was soon clear to many Gambians that this year, Allah (SWT) had a new candidate. Unfortunately for Jammeh, this time, it was not the entitled Professor Babili Mansa, but the understated, unassuming Adama Barrow, a man who came out of nowhere to be President elect, because the main leaders of his party were locked up in jail courtesy of Jammeh.
That night, Yahya Jammeh came on Television very late, stating that he had accepted the will of Allah (SWT) and was going back to his village and become a farmer. His new mission now, he said, was to go grow and some food to feed his people. Gambians everywhere jumped on to the streets in euphoria. The tyrant was gone. Farmers everywhere welcomed another master farmer.
Unfortunately, after all these years, Jammeh has decided for the first time to question the will of Allah (SWT). In a pathetic Television appearance last Friday, he gave a series of almost comical reasons why the election results could not be the will of Allah, but the will of an Independent Electoral Commission he no longer had any faith in. Even when he himself had earlier claimed that the Gambian elections were rig proof and the fairest in the history of world, he no longer believed that Allah would do this to him. He therefore said he was annulling the results wanted another election Sanni Abacha style.
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| I Reject |
Jammeh's reasons for doubting Allah were laughable at best. He said that the IEC had admitted to making some minor mistakes in the tabulation of the total results. So even where the IEC had stated that the errors were not large enough to change the outcome, Jammeh was not believing their explanation.
Jammeh's other point was that many people did not go to vote. If people had not gone to vote, in his opinion, it meant that these were his own supporters who had stayed at home. The fact that people would have stayed at home because they could not believe that Jammeh would ever conduct a free and fair election, never even crossed the mind of this narrow minded brute.
Jammeh now wants fresh elections with a new electoral commission. The man who had gladly accepted the will of Allah for 22 years was now suddenly questioning Allah's will just because things were not in his favor.
However, it would be truly wise for Jammeh to remember some other fellows who thought they were Allah's favorites.
When Saddam Hussein was being invaded by America, he went on TV pledging a great victory over the infidel Americans because he had the support of the Almighty. He was eventually found hiding in a hole in Tikrit. We all know how that ended.
Muammar Gaddafi, Jammeh's friend, also firmly believed that Libyan rats, as he called the opposition, would not shake him, ashe had the backing of the Almighty. He was found hiding in a drainage pipe in the Libyan desert. We also know how that ended.
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| Jammeh Curing AIDS |
My advise to Professor Yahya Jammeh is this. If you believe in Allah, as you've always professed, go to your village Kanilai and do the farming you've always planned. You could even patent your cures for AIDS and asthma. If you do so, you will definitely end up a billionaire and may likely win the next Nobel Prize in medicine.
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| ECOWAS Yellow Card |
Brother Jammeh listen, your time is up. Listen to the voice of Allah through your people and not cause any mayhem in that country. Twenty two years is enough. Thanks for listening.
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