We Must not Allow Our Politics and Politicians to Demoralize Our entrepreneurship Spirits
What is happening in The Gambia and to the propose peaceful environmental protesters who have been arrested and dumped into the filthy police cells that are not even worthy of mosquito occupation is a dark page in our history books. We as people and responsible citizens of this country must understand and believe that we own our government, not otherwise, we pay our civil servants, they do not pay us, and we must get them understand these fundamentals are nonnegotiable.
Our government should stop pretending that they are doing us a favor for our freedom, dignity, and rights to assembly. The authorities must be reminded that until a year ago, they were the people who were humiliated, jailed, and denied all their basic rights to freedom of assembly and association. They cannot be the same people running our country and doing exact things Yaya Jammeh was doing to them and trying to justify their actions with false pretense that people must obey the law, yes, and the police, too.
This is appalling, I mean it is disgusting that we are seeing ourselves being drag back to the old ways of unlawful arrest and detention. We should all be outraged about what is happening to the Gunjur 6. Where are our politicians who were jailed by Yaya Jammeh and promised a complete change in governance? They should know some of these folks protested, sacrificed their holidays back home to be their voice that attracted the attention of the international community to their plights, and financially supported their ultimate release. Where is our Member for the Parliament? Where are our councilors and Imams? Where is our live facebookers who were championing the fight for freedom? Where is our Chief and Alikali? Where is our VDC officials? Your all cannot just chill and pretend that it is OK, it isn’t. We must stand to kill injustice where ever it shows its ugly head.
We cannot be the same people outraged about injustices during the past regime and be mute about it now. Whoever glorifies or supports the actions of the police should understand that it could be your turn or your family’s next time if such things are normalized in the New Gambia. No one owns Gambia, we all have equal rights.
I have met patriotic Gambians in Asia, America, and Europe who’s love for country are beyond measure. Many of them continue to show interest in supporting our youths through job creations. This is not because they primarily need those jobs for their living, but to contribute their skills and finances to help the economy grow. We want to continue to highlight the good images of this country, but the government must be willing and able to strengthen its institutions for a better governance that will earn the confidence of responsible investors not environmental predators. We owe a health environment to our kids and the future generations. We need our government to empower our youths not send them to jail, we need our government to create environment that gives hope to our young people that when you work hard you can succeed in Gambia, and we need our government to demonstrate to our youths that their voices matter.
Editor’s note: Abubakr Jammeh is an entrepreneur and a banker with over a decade experience in marketing and financial services industries. He is a final year International Business student, earned various diplomas in Marketing, Design Thinking-IDEO U, and various short courses in entrepreneurship management.