Jammeh’s Moment of Truth

Gambia, a tiny West African nation with the highest number of illegal immigrants into Europe, is at a political crossroads after Yahya Jammeh’s refusal to hand over power to Adama Barrow, the nation’s president-elect who won elections in December, last year.

The act has already set Jammeh, one of Africa’s dreaded dictators on a collision path with the international community.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) promised to deploy its regional military force, to kick Jammeh out and oversee the peaceful swearing-in of Barrow, currently in neighboring Senegal.

Diplomacy between Jammeh and ECOWAS failed, setting the stage for a military intervention.

The world is watching with keen interest to see what happens on Thursday, the day Barrow is supposed to be sworn-into office.

Jammeh lost in the election, barely a month after he vowed to rule for a billion years, describing it as the will of Allah.

He initially conceded defeat but made a U-turn and declared to hold ono power and contest the results in court, saying that the poll was not independent.

The nation’s Supreme Court which is supposed to hear the petition is lacks a full bench and the Chief Justice, Emmanuel Fagbenle withdrew from hearing the case.

Some of Jammeh’s ambassadors and ministers resigned from their positions and urged the despot to accept the will of Gambians by peacefully handing over power to Barrow.

The writing is on the wall for the man, who once threatened to behead all gay people in the nation and earned a dubious distinction for using security forces to intimidate the opposition through arbitrary arrests and torture, suppressing media freedom and numerous human rights abuses.

As Thursday draws ever close and Gambia’s hopes for a peaceful transition threatened, African Union that has silently seen dictators flout the law to hold onto power, has a chance to prove to its doubters that it cares about ordinary Africans. 

Gambians expressed their democratic right and against Jammeh’s expectations, voted him out.

Jammeh finds himself between a rock and hard-surface, albeit self-inflicted.

He blatantly refused to hand over power, instead declaring a state of emergency days before Barrow’s inauguration.

Jammeh is isolated, at home and internationally.

The decision by ECOWAS to put its regional military on standby spells a bitter end to the man, who once vowed to rule the nation for a billion years, saying it was the will of Allah.

At the height of a rule characterized by intolerance to criticism, Jammeh dared human rights groups and international community, opposed to his rule to go to hell.

He is now forced to humbly swallow his own words, and the numerous counts of human rights abuses he sanctioned against journalists and opposition politicians are about to haunt him.