I am not sure if it is a mark of our desperation for better due to the mediocrity that abounds or simply a mark of the fickleness of some but we sure love to encourage people to run for president. As soon as anyone gets a little Gambian fame, folks start clamoring that you should run for president. And if one is not grounded in reality, the hubris and clap-trap can easily get to your head and thereby making your head too big to fit in the Independence Stadium. I mean should our standards be so low that we prod every freaking Njundu and Omar to run for president? Is it possible for people to make a difference in The Gambia without having to be a president?
But I think I get it. It is not about changing the lives of the people; it is about enriching oneself and your cronies around you. It is about the fame and the myriad of unearned privileges. It is the adulation. It is the ability to eat off the backs of ordinary Gambians while you live like the king. It is about the fulfillment of prophecy. It is about your destiny. That is what we have reduced our politics and our people to! An opportunity to get rich and get your minions rich beyond their wildest dreams. An opportunity to be toasted and celebrated! You wonder why you see everyone staking their claim readying themselves to be either at the buffet table made up of the blood, sweat and tears of Gambians. Those who cannot get a chair around the table ensure that they cozy up to those with the chairs around the buffet table. Everyone angling and elbowing the next person for some government position. Not to serve the people, but to drink their blood, wash in their sweat and toast to their tears!
So someone I know contacted me and was telling me how everyone is telling him to run for president. He is seen as an intelligent person and very likable character and has some of that Gambian fame. But when I asked him why people were telling him to run, he let out a soft laughter as if to say “When your people ask you to serve them, you should not ask why.” Nothing irks me more than some fake humble disposition. Unsatisfied, I asked him what makes him think he can transform Gambia from the depths of poverty to the heights of nirvana. I guess my questions were taken as a personal (you know we hate being questioned) affront and he didn’t take too kindly to them. And so, as we typically do, he flipped the script and began asking me if I don’t think he can run this country!!! I refused his bait and insisted on him answering my questions.
To sum it up, let’s say the conversation did not end too well. I may have lost a friend ndeysan. Let me know if you would like to take his place. Just don’t tell me you too will be running for Perrsident because everyone thinks you will make a good Perrsident!!! I am not everyone and I have also received my shares of “Alagie, you should run for president…” But you will not see me letting that get to my head for I know how fickle we can be. I have been there and done that. My sole objective is to be an Imam in Badibu!!! That is my way to heaven and my way to riches on this earth. If the presidency is your way of getting there, leave me out of it for we have different paths! For Gambia to rise, the foundation must be dismantled and that includes the minds! And I am not talking about the minds of only the folks in Wulli Fadia Kunda, I am talking about the minds that claim to be educated and well accomplished! Jeez
Mmajiki Alagie Saidy-Barrow
TheHeraldWhistleBlower 