Another Deal With The Devil
The last time The Gambian people made a deal with Adama Barrow, he turned out to be a snake. After all the verbal summersaults, legal maneuvers and the good old muscle flexing, we let him have his way. It looks like we are making another deal with him, and this time if we are not careful, the price will be a lot more costly than before.
A little over a week ago, the President telegraphed another emergency order from an undisclosed location through one of his many spokespeople. The emergency order put in place a curfew that prohibits anyone from venturing outside between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am. The reason given for the curfew is to curb the spread of Covid_19, and most reasonable people agree with the government’s stated motives. However, there are times when the means don’t justify the end, and this is one of those times. Your freedom is not less important than your health or that of your neighbor. If it was, no one would die to be free.
The questions that we need to ask are these. Do we always have to give up our rights in times of emergencies? Are we only supposed to be free in times of peace and tranquillity?
After fighting 22 years to secure certain basic rights, one would think that even in the face of a global pandemic, people would be a little more suspicious of a government imposing a nighttime lockdown, and dispatching armed security forces to enforce it. Could this be a dry run for times of trouble in the future? As far as we know, there is no end in sight for the Corona Virus pandemic and we have a certain event scheduled for December 2021. Let me not get ahead of myself.
Outside of the threat of using force, does our government have any other plans to curb the spread of Covid-19? It is hard to keep a stockpile of food when there is no reliable supply of electricity to keep some food items from going bad. This means that people have to make multiple trips to the market or the neighborhood stores to feed their family, but this government does not seem to care about that.
The security personnel can arrest those who violate the curfew, but what measures are they going to put in place to make sure that the people in custody do not infect one another, and subsequently bring the virus back to their communities? There is also a talk of D5,000.00 fine. Where is that money going? These are all questioned that are left unanswered, but if the main objective of taking away people’s right is to curb the spread of Covid_19, then the government should make sure that not a single citizen is exposed to the virus during the course of their enforcement efforts.
A more pressing matter, and the real reason for this post is to sound the alarm on the government always reaching for your rights whenever something urgent comes up. A few weeks ago, Mr Madi Jobarteh was harassed by the police for simply exercising his right to free speech. Before him, Mr Yanks Darboe was arrested and jailed for taking part in a peaceful protest regarding the first breach of trust by Adama Barrow. In both cases and many others, the government uses the fragile security pretext to curb the full exercise of citizens’ rights. In both cases, the government comes down heavy on citizens to send a message to the rest of us. We are paying attention.
It will be hard to blame this government for any future transgressions if we continue to lay down and let them take whatever they want. Everything doesn’t have to wait for the next election, some of these issues need to be addressed right now. This government did not earn the rights to ask the people to give up anything, so to simply comply with every order that gets announced by some spokesperson is very disappointing and dangerous.
What happens if this government postpones all political activities in the country due to the threat of the Covid-19? Is that when the political leaders will wake up from their slumber? Because they are nowhere to be found when individual citizens are having their rights violated by this government. The Gambian people do not have reliable advocates inside the political class. They are all poised to fight over whatever Adama Barrow leaves behind. That is if they can manage to set aside their personal ambitions and come together to defeat him, since all these jokers are forming their parties hoping to join a coalition down the road for a reward in a future coalition government. Why is Lamin Bojang here? Don’t answer that.
What a shame it will be if Adama Barrow fools the Gambian people again. He has gone past three years. He has formed a political party and is poised to contest in the upcoming elections. He did not bring any serious charges against Yahya Jammeh and his enablers. He has Yahya Jammeh’s cabinet and advisers, and will not hesitate to make a deal will APRC for their votes. There is a new constitution collecting dust on his desk, and he has his own private army courtesy of the Mr Macky Sall. It is hard to see what The Gambian people got for the deal that they have already made with this man.
Where is the democracy that everyone was so excited about? Trusting that Barrow is working to curb the Corona Virus and letting him take away your rights in the process is a deal that the Gambian people cannot afford to make with Adama Barrow. He has proven that he cannot keep his word, so trusting him over and over is nothing short of foolish. We cannot allow the government to treat us like a herd of sheep who will do whatever they’re told, and then expect those same people to stand up for themselves and their fellow citizens when the need arises.
This is not about whether one takes the Corona Virus seriously, but about whether we are too quick to accept our rights being taken away for some vague greater good. We don’t always have to trade away our rights for the government to do its job.
