Yahya Jameh, African Leaders and The Sit-Tight Syndrome

                          

Yahya Jameh, 51 is the outgoing president of The Gambia, a tiny country in West Africa with a population of about 2 million- one of the smallest in Africa.
Jameh seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994 from Dawda Jawara. He has since ruled for 22 years after getting re-elected in the 2001, 2006 & 2011 elections.
In December, 2016, The Gambia held its presidential election, which Adama Barrow, Jameh’s major challenger won with almost 46% of the total votes cast. Following the announcement of the election results, Jameh who once boasted that he would rule for 1 billion years surprisingly conceded defeat. Few days later, Jameh against his earlier position, rescinded his decision and declare the election results as fraudulent. He has approached the nation’s Supreme Court to seek for the nullification of the election results, ordered the military to take over the nation’s electoral office and close down two private radio stations.
In a swift reaction, the ECOWAS leadership appointed a mediator to prevail on Jameh to respect the outcome of the election. Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari is the ECOWAS Mediator for The Gambia. He has sent a delegation called Mediation Support Team to The Gambia to meet with President Jameh and other relevant stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition of power to President-elect Adama Barrow on January 19, 2017. ECOWAS leaders maintained that the January, 19 hand-over date remain sacrosanct and any act by Jameh to subvert this will be met with stiff sanctions and Military actions.
Jameh’s action has again bring to the front burner the sit-tight syndrome that is typical of African Leaders. They rule autocratically even when they are elected through the ballot process. They turn relevant arms of government & institutions to tools for suppressing perceived enemies so as to remain in power for as long as they desire.
The sit-tight scenario as witnessed in countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Burkina-Faso, Liberia, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, DR Congo and lately Burkina-Faso has always trigger a revolt on the part of the people. Globalisation has created greater political awareness among the people.
Jameh should be advised to do the needful because the sit-tight tactics is no longer fashionable as Africans are becoming more politically active than ever.
Like Burkina-Faso, leaders who refused to leave honourably and respect the will of the people, will leave by disgrace and that is the golden message to President Jameh.

                   reblogged from gafar4real.wordpress.com