By Ebrima Baldeh
I was at the airport on January 21st, 2017, when Jammeh, who had once claimed no military coup or election could remove him from power, trod on the red carpet and took his flight out of the country.
Ah! A sigh of relief for some, while to his supporters, it was a killer blow to a dream that was not meant to end that way.
On Wednesday, Seedy Njie, sitting in as speaker of the national assembly, reminded me about the day Jammeh took the nation by storm by announcing on GRTS that he had annulled the election and, afterwards, appointed Seedy Njie as information minister, at a time when cabinet ministers were resigning in droves.
Indeed, something happened at the IEC, unprecedented in the history of the Gambia, an error in the final results after the coalition candidate Barrow was declared the winner.
But IEC chairman Alh. Alieu Momar Njie quickly summoned the media to announce the updated results- but nothing had changed the outcome of the vote.
Not only did Seedy Njie flood the mainstream news media with messages that Barrow would not be sworn in as the President of The Gambia after his boss flatly rejected the election result a few days after accepting that it was the will of Allah that his time was up.
Seedy Njie travelled with Jammeh to Equatorial Guinea, and upon his return to Banjul, he switched allegiance to Barrow. In a move designed to tip the balance, Barrow formed a coalition with the APRC in the 2021 presidential election, during which Seedy Njie and a number of former Jammeh loyalists were offered key positions within and outside the Gambia.
Jammeh has been making a series of audio messages; he never announced a date for his return to the country. So, at the national assembly, some lawmakers were concerned about the nation’s peace and political stability if Jammeh were to return.
As acting speaker, Seedy Njie, whose image was stained during the impasse and even after seeing the former president in exile, posed as if he were not the Seedy Njie who ditched Jammeh and courted Barrow.
In matters such as this, neutrality is sacrosanct. Speaker Fabakary Tombong Jatta, whose image is also stained, is best remembered as one of the lawmakers who voted in favour of a state of emergency and extended the president’s term to three months. How can Seedy Njie preside over the affairs of an individual he was attached to?
Even as the deliberations at the national assembly were heated, Seedy Njie was attempting to douse anything that would rekindle his role in the Jammeh 2017 saga, but, as the Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi states in The Gods are not to blame, the snail may try, but it cannot cast off its shell.
Seedy Njie might pretend that he’s merely a moderator, not a judge, in this case, but it won’t hurt if he were to recuse himself from anything that has to do with his former boss.
No one can serve two bosses faithfully; it is either he’s with one or pretending to be with the other. Jammeh’s coming might not be pleasurable to him (Seedy Njie), for who knows what intel Jammeh has about his former allies, now arch rivals, Seedy Njie might as well have a hard time processing Jammeh’s homecoming.
Why is Seedy Njie edgy about his role in the Jammeh drama? After all he said during the impasse, and the revelations by the TRRC, Seedy Njie will wish to be remembered as a great Gambian politician, not an individual with a stained or battered image like the one he carried during and after the impasse. But like Sana Sabally once said: unpleasant things are better left unsaid.
Seedy Njie should bear in mind that there is no way one can forget how he dramatised his role as information minister during Jammeh’s last days in power, and that he should recuse himself from discussions or debates on Jammeh-related issues.
It’s true that nobody would like to be associated with someone accused of gross human rights violations, though no arrest warrant has been issued; Jammeh’s homecoming is highly probable.
Who knows, as Seedy Njie was one of those who saw him off, he (Seedy Njie) might as well welcome him back.
Ebrima Baldeh
New York
