I have very vivid memories of my last
visit to The Gambia. This was in 2013 when President Goodluck Jonathan paid a
two-day visit to the country. In the course of that visit, President
Jonathan commissioned the new Chancery of the Nigerian Embassy in Banjul, and
also met with the Nigerian community, in addition to the usual bilateral
meetings. Nigeria and The Gambia have very strong cultural and diplomatic
relations.
We
were quartered at a very nice, hospitable sea-side hotel, the Coco Ocean
Resort. One of the first things I noticed was the large population of female
tourists, lounging by the pool-side and the sea-side, with biceps-wielding,
six-packs-flaunting young dark-skinned men on the prowl, with gigolo-ish gait
and mien. A female member of our entourage who had gone to the restaurant
alone, later returned - visibly shaken and alarmed and what was her problem:
one of the male ushers in the hotel had asked her if she would need a man to
keep her company so she could have a real taste of Gambian hospitality.
We
laughed over it later, but you could not but wonder whether this was one of the
reasons why The Gambia holds a special attraction for middle-aged ladies from
Europe. There was no time to conduct further research into that aspect of
our encounter with The Gambia. I was far too busy for that. But there was no
doubt that The Gambia under President Yahya Jammeh took the country’s tourism
endowments seriously: a beautiful seaside, good weather, low crime rate, good hotels,
beautiful women, adventurous young men, and a meek populace.
President Yahya Jammeh was determined to give President Jonathan and his
delegation a good reception. From the airport to the hotel, you would
think a festival was afoot. A public holiday was declared and our visit was
aired live on radio and television. When we got to the hotel, President
Jonathan’s vehicle was immediately serenaded by a cavalcade of horse-riders and
a full band of drummers, singers and bag-pipers in colourful costume. They led
our convoy to the Presidential suite, where security had been heavily deployed
in fitting recognition of the importance of the visitor. President Jammeh
like virtually every other West African President took a special liking to
President Jonathan- the only one who was aloof and liked to act like the father
of everyone was that one in Cameroon, although I must say when we went there
for a security summit, he received us excellently well too.
We felt
very much at home in The Gambia. We were kept in rooms that were a bit far away
from the President. And whenever that happened, the aides were always excited.
It meant we could have a little more freedom away from the searching eyes of
the security people around the President. And those ones, I will tell their
story someday because they were fond of disturbing other matters of state and
personal interest by suddenly interrupting with calls: “Oga dey call you, Oga
says you must come now, now” only to get to the big man and he tells you, “No, I
didn’t ask after you.” By the time you hang around for a while, just in case
the big man would change his mind, whatever plan you were pursuing would have
been aborted, or seeing you, the boss would find an assignment for you or drag
you into a meeting. Angry, deflated, you went to the security man who
made the phone call: “But you said Oga sent for me.” Those guys always managed
a poker face: “But you know it is always good to stay around Oga in case he
needs you.”
I was impressed by
Jammeh’s hospitality and respectful disposition towards President Jonathan. I
recall that in 2012, when President Jammeh tried to succeed President Jonathan
as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority, his own colleagues, including President
Jonathan, opposed him. He rarely attended ECOWAS meetings. His then Vice
President, the motherly, regal and polite Isatou Njie-Saidy always occupied The
Gambian seat. But he usually showed up when a new Chairman was to be
elected. Seniority is something that is taken seriously within the club
of African Presidents.
They refer to
themselves as “my brother, my brother”, but they are always very mindful of
seniority and that is one of the reasons why the likes of Paul Biya, Robert
Mugabe, Yoweri Museveni, Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo behave and speak as if they are
God in human form. Each time Jammeh wanted the ECOWAS Chairmanship position, he
behaved as if it was his birthright, but in 2012, and again in 2014, he was
bypassed for junior Presidents as had been the case since he first expressed
interest in the position in 2001. He was the only long-serving President who
was never allowed to chair ECOWAS. He must have been aware of President
Jonathan and Nigeria’s stand on the question of his Chairmanship, but he never
held it against both. In fact, Nigeria and Nigerians were so influential in The
Gambia under Jammeh, ordinary Gambians complained openly about the overwhelming
influence of Nigerians in their country.
Everything went well
during our state visit until it was time to meet with President Jammeh in the
State House. It was part of my duty to introduce the Nigerian President’s
delegation, except someone else seized the microphone and I stepped down.
In The Gambia, mere protocol recognition of the President of the country ended
up being a major problem. His full titles had to be mentioned, and in a correct
order in order not to upset him. The pre-meeting briefing by my Gambian
counterpart dwelt too heavily on the titles: His Excellency, Sheik Professor
Alhaji Dr Yahya Abdul-Aziz Awal Jemus Junkung (AJJ) Jammeh Nassiru Deen Babili
Mansa, President of the Republic of The Gambia. It was something like
that. The security guards were also rough and menacing. Security men often do
not understand the language of diplomacy. We went to many countries where we
were treated roughly and our own security men often threatened to retaliate if
the affected country ever visited Nigeria. I don’t think we ever got a
chance to retaliate because our protocol system proved to be more orderly.
The State
House in The Gambia when we eventually went in, however, was quite
modest. It looked like the guest house section of Aso Villa. The meetings
went well too. And Jammeh, to my surprise, spoke very well. He didn’t sound
like the fool he was portrayed to be in the Western press. He was articulate,
debonair, well-composed and mentally sharp. I guess these are required
qualities for dictatorship and crookedness. And I admired Jammeh. He is
afterall, my age-mate. He sat there, in his royalty, running a country, and I
was there, switching between a microphone and a notebook, documenting his
history. But something else happened that gave a true picture of Jammeh’s
Gambia.
Our official
photographer, Callistus Ewelike (he took over from Kola Osiyemi– God bless his
soul) had issues with Jammeh’s security men. Security men at State Houses
around the world are unfriendly towards journalists. They seek to control
access. They consider journalists busybodies, looking for negative news.
Accreditation and the use of tags should ordinarily take care of this, still,
the security people just prefer to misbehave, and I witnessed that even in the
United States where we were treated as if the visiting media was a team of
terrorists. There was no violence in the US, but in The Gambia, they seized
Callistus Ewelike’s camera and smashed it. Callistus is an aggressive, stubborn
photo-journalist. He would fight if you try to stop him from doing his job.
He
was a staff of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) handed over to me by Ima Niboro
when Kola took ill. Callistus must have resisted the Gambia goons, claiming his
right as President Jonathan’s Official Photographer. In The Gambia under
Jammeh, the President and the security agencies ruled as if there would be no
tomorrow. They trampled on everyone else’s rights. Anyone who tried to act like
a free man was brutalised and dumped in prison. For 22 years, Jammeh sat
on his country and his people with the help of marabouts and security
enforcers. He kissed the Koran everyday, but he did not act according to its
dictates. He wore a trademark white garment, but his true garment was of a
black colour from the kingdom of Satan.
Ewelike’s travails eventually became a full-fledged story on the second day of
our visit when President Jammeh’s spokesperson and the rest of his media team
started looking for me at the Coco Resort. We were to be treated to a luncheon
before departure. The luncheon had started but I got cornered. Jammeh’s
spokesman brought a brand new camera to replace the one the Gambian security
people had destroyed. Callistus was with me. The Gambians apologized. Apology
was taken and accepted. They said they didn’t want the two Presidents to hear
about the incident. I gave them my word that I would not mention it to
President Jonathan. Then, they pleaded that we should accept the replacement
camera they brought.
I
told them not to bother - as far as we were concerned, whatever happened was
occupational hazard and Nigeria would replace its own damaged equipment. I
looked at Callistus. He was eyeing the new camera greedily. At a point,
he called me aside and whispered: “Oga, this camera they are giving us is
better than the one they smashed oh. This one na better camera. Oga, abi make
we take am?” I stood my ground. I also consulted Ambassadors Hassan
Tukur and Daniel Hart who said accepting a replacement would amount to a
diplomatic tit-for-tat. I thanked The Gambians for their good sense and assured
them that we were fine with the photographic coverage of the visit so far,
despite the damaged camera. I always had a back-up photographer and cameraman,
in any case.
That
encounter was a blessing in disguise. It saved me from the first course at the
Presidential luncheon, which had started while we were outside the hall
discussing the damaged camera. When we got back to Nigeria, close to eight
persons on the Presidential delegation ended up in hospital due to food
poisoning! They all took that first course. Nobody died but somehow the
information got back to The Gambia and the chef was arrested and charged to
court. Jammeh’s rulership of The Gambia was jinxed in many ways. The biggest
jinx was his volte-face over the last Presidential election. Gambians deserve a
new place in the sun and a new Gambia. But so much depends on new President
Adama Barrow. He should look beyond the past and face the future. If he spends
his time facing the past, he will disappoint his people and exhaust the
enormous goodwill that has brought him to power.
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