The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
In a December 16 statement,, without reference to the impending Supreme Court ruling, ECOWAS stated Adama “must be sworn in” in order to “respect the will of The Gambian people and that “the authority [ECOWAS] shall undertake all necessary actions to enforce the result of the election”.
It must be noted that with all the display of love for The Gambian people, more so by the overzealous ECOWAS, the responsibility of sorting out that country even if it means forcefully removing President Jammeh from power, is a role to be exercised by The Gambians alone!
Although others would argue that the impending military intervention is to be conducted by ‘African’ troops and that this is in keeping with the much famed ‘African solutions to African problems’, a military intervention remains the same whether it is conducted by NATO, USA, Britain, Italy, ECOWAS or African Union. Their result all over the world is chaos, death, carnage and broken nations.
The Gambians should take full responsibility and sort their crisis by themselves, by whichever means of their choosing. If, however, they choose the quicksand of foreign military intervention and override the state and all its apparati like the military, police, intelligence etc, reconstruction and reclaiming of their sovereignty will be difficult and possibly last a generation. On this, I am sure they are not short of examples.
Internal reorganisation, sorting their own crisis whilst upholding the sovereign integrity of their country and its structures will yield a stronger, viable Gambia even after the departure of Jammeh.
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The author is a journalist. Twitter: @manzilIbrahim
