A recent ridiculous plan for West African leaders to pledge that they would run for only two terms as president encountered a snag when the presidents of Togo and the Gambia used that famous African trope of difference - each country is different and there should not be one rule for all. (Just as an aside, such an issue should not be based on pledge because it does not depend on the goodwill of leaders. It should be inscribed in the Constitution of each country and then followed). Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia's dictator who is now exhausting his fourth term in office, suggested that leaders should not be judged by term limits but rather by what they do for their country. He went on to state that he would remain president for as long as possible "if Allah says so". It is this claim about the willingness of Allah to allow Mr. Jammeh to be the eternal president of The Gambia that I want to briefly reflect on here.
Mr. Jammeh's reliance on Allah as sole determiner of his dictatorial plans raises the intriguing question of the source of political authority in The Gambia. In contemporary politics, most political leaders would like to claim that their mandate comes from the people rather than from God. However, Mr. Jammeh does not appear to think so, unless if we take his reference to Allah here to mean that he is equating Allah with the people of The Gambia (something he world reject). While it is a good idea for politicians to be accountable to Allah, if they so choose, my own preference would be that politicians should be accountable to the people they govern. The proper statement for Mr. Jammeh to have made should therefore have been that he would govern for as long as the people allow him. He should not bring in piety to undermine the role of his people in determining whether he remains president or not. If he wants to be a preacher, he should be leading a mosque rather than a country. Gambians need leaders who are accountable to them rather than to their own egos sitting in for God.
Mr. Jammeh's reliance on Allah as sole determiner of his dictatorial plans raises the intriguing question of the source of political authority in The Gambia. In contemporary politics, most political leaders would like to claim that their mandate comes from the people rather than from God. However, Mr. Jammeh does not appear to think so, unless if we take his reference to Allah here to mean that he is equating Allah with the people of The Gambia (something he world reject). While it is a good idea for politicians to be accountable to Allah, if they so choose, my own preference would be that politicians should be accountable to the people they govern. The proper statement for Mr. Jammeh to have made should therefore have been that he would govern for as long as the people allow him. He should not bring in piety to undermine the role of his people in determining whether he remains president or not. If he wants to be a preacher, he should be leading a mosque rather than a country. Gambians need leaders who are accountable to them rather than to their own egos sitting in for God.
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