BY OMAR MK BAJINKA
Mr president, following your U- turn in refusing to accept the December 1st presidential election results, you have plunged the entire nation and its citizenry into a state of dilemma, tears and worry with Gambians and non Gambians respectively not knowing which way the country is heading to.
The state of confusion, worry and dilemma in the country is such that many Gambians are running to rural areas leaving their homes in search of safety for their lives. Non Gambians are also leaving the country either to Senegal or returning to their country of origin for fear of the unknown, the majority of who are business population. This is undermining our economy.
Mr President, Gambians including myself used to love you with all our hearts and its fair and true to say some still love you so much for one reason or the other. It is for this reason that I sincerely and humbly write for you to accept the verdict, voice, choice and rights of the Gambian people as a Muslim and hand over the throne of leadership peacefully to our choice, president elect ADAMA BARROW.
Mr President, don’t destroy The Gambia for us by taking us to war and thereby destroying your own legacy and the good infrastructural development you have catered for us in the process.
That would not be wise of you as you need to be remembered in the political arena of the Gambia in a very positive way and not negative.
Mr President, don’t you know in any war there are no winners but only the gun manufactures are the winners.
I urge you to think about the women and children and the untold suffering any conflict situation will bring in terms of loss of lives and destruction of our economy and peace not to mention our physical structures. You should take example form Sudan where our own Gambians brothers are sent for peace keeping mission, also Syria and other war zones.
Looking at Libya and with all the natural resources and its wealth when they went to war, who wins?
Looking at your old and long time friend Ghadaffi, and with all his wealth and weapons, where is he?
If you love this country as you have been singing all these years, then for the good of our country, I urge you to seriously reconsider your stance and humbly step aside.
I am sure you can still remember the euphoric reception Gambians have given you since 1994 and for the past 22 years you have been winning elections without questions even though there were doubts.
Note that it is the same Gambians who have decided to move on without you at the helm of their affairs. Please do not look at this as an act of betrayal. It is our constitutional right and we need change in the mantle of our leadership in peace.
Gambians stood by your side since 1994 even when the international community threatened to abandon you and called on you to step down.
As a man of faith as you always say, I urge you to have the strength to overcome the stress and accept the dictates of the present situation in good faith even though it is difficult.
I also hope you will not want the Gambian children of your time after all what you have catered for them to ask each other the whereabouts of their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and be told they were killed during the war when Yahya Jammeh of all people refused to accept the defeat of the 2016 presidential election and hand over power. That would be a bad legacy or story to be explained to leave behind for your kids and grand kids to read in the history books.
If you call yourself a peace loving president and a man of God who worships only God, I would like to call on you on behalf of our mothers, youths, sisters and the old because Gambian women and youths who were your supporters, to relinquish power to the president elect- as The Gambia is a peaceful country you have led for 22 years as president with massive support from our mothers and youths.
Please don’t take our mothers to unknown destinations, don’t make our children to be orphans.
I don’t think you would want all those mothers and youths to be killed because of your refusal to accept the results including your own families and supporters. The truth is that our country is in a state of confusion and even those around you giving you all sorts of false glimmers of hope clinging unto power are themselves now worried about what is to happen next because this is an irreversible race. And taking us to war is not the solution because war is a game of survival of the fittest. So you also have to think about the powerless and armless groups behind at home.
For the vast majority of us, Gambia is our homeland and we have nowhere else to go to, which is why we are praying for peace. I urge you to step aside once again and do not be an obstacle to the peaceful transfer of power that all have and are hoping for come 19th January 2017 to inaugurate the president of the fourth republic.
Mr President, may I recall your mind to 2011 when the uprising and civil war broke out in Libya. You strongly condemned the move and called on Muammar Ghaddafi to step down since his people didn’t love or want him. Please learn from your own words and history.
