Launching OF APRC No To Alliance: A Personal Testimony – Musa Bassadi Jawara

Opinion – It so happened Saturday, September 19, that I do not usually take a limb outside of Bintou’s Point, Kerewan. I like my confinement and enclosure.

I drove to run errands to acquire my favorite local drink, Kaba — the bouye juice — from King Bakers on Kairaba Avenue.

On the way, I met a convoy of vehicles—vans, ‘gele-gele’, SUVs, trucks, light and mini cars, name it. Militants on top of vehicles and diehards, party stalwarts, some dressed in military-style uniforms, rummaging the streets on foot. It was a scene I never saw in Gambian politics!

I drove on the OIC Highway via Airport Junction to head home, only to find the group in the thousands camping at NTC Junction, Lamin. I said these are determined and a political force to reckon with.

Out of curiosity, I pulled up and requested to talk to a vibrant member dressed in security attire. He responded to my inquiries and sounded adamant, fervently dogmatic, and sacrosanct in conviction, saying: “The time has arrived, and victory is ours by force!”

This was after the group left Penchami Hall, where they had the inaugural party launch and were addressed virtually by their leader, former President Yahya Jammeh.

CONCLUSION: The APRC No To Alliance, in my view, does not have the numbers—not even close—to mount a credible nationwide campaign outside Foni and urban settlements like Tallinding Kunjang.

Given this proviso, a warning sign is in order and the political and security establishment must take notice: they are unwaveringly zealous, fanatically devoted and almost messianically loyal to former President Yahya Jammeh; a significant presence in the national army; retirees from the military in thousands with capable and technical skills in infantry military operations.

Truth be told, the resurgence of the APRC could have been contained had President Adama Barrow not been anxious, restless and impassioned to stay in power longer than his invite — two terms, that is. But with his megalomaniac tendencies reaching out to former President Jammeh’s party members, traveling to Kanilai to meet his family and remnants of the old order, he contributed significantly to the vibrant, defiant militancy in grandiloquent display this weekend. It may prove problematic for the incumbent President if the December 5 poll is fiercely and acrimoniously contested.

I have seen this film before elsewhere on the continent. In the Central African Republic, I was in the thick of militia insurgencies where I had to work feverishly, laboriously, in very difficult and risky circumstances to disarm combatants, provide compensation, and allow democratic elections to take place. With personal involvement and coordinated and instrumental decision making that restored calm, brought about peace with the installation of the interim government of President Catherine Samba-Panza, and eventually led to the current government of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.

Let us be frank: what paraded at NTC Junction was not just a party launch — it was a statement of intent, a choreographed rehearsal of loyalty that transcends politics and flirts dangerously with praetorian nostalgia. The Gambia has tasted the bitter fruit of impunity before, and the uniforms we saw, the slogans we heard, and the threats whispered as prophecy should alarm every lover of peace. A republic cannot outsource its stability to sentiment.

Yet, Gambia can still avert the worst-case scenario. We are not Bangui in 2013. We are a nation of dialogue, of Kachaa and Bantaba, where even enemies share attaya. If our leaders choose statesmanship over stratagem, if our security architecture remains republican and professional, and if the December verdict is delivered and accepted with transparency, this gathering storm will pass like harmattan dust. The choice, as ever, is ours.