Samsudeen Sarr: Letter To Political Factotum Rev. Father Peter Lopez 

I made an audio about this subject this morning of Wednesday, September 22, 2021but thought it necessary after a good lunch to write something about it in this opened letter to Reverend Father Peter Lopez.

I started wondering who this dumb politician masquerading as a righteous priest called Reverend Father Peter Lopez is? I hate to question the interpretation of any chapter and verse in either the Quran or Bible but when a whole priest wants to politicize Chapter 5, Verse 37 in the scripture as St. Mathew definitively saying to mankind that when a person says yes and later says no he or she automatically becomes untrustworthy or evil then disputing the interpreter or his interpretation shouldn’t be sinful.

What about a person who says no and later says yes? Is he still by St. Mathew’s Gospel guilty of dishonesty, evilness or whatever?
You see Reverend, in politics and cosmic logic the mind is believed to be a flexible entity constantly influenced by evolution, education, and our experiences that make it change incessantly and unpredictably.

If the human mind was that rigid in the way you put it in your audio that-yes means yes and no means no-unchangeable by any circumstances, growth or evolution, education or experience then I am afraid we would have been like the other animals with no sense of awareness. Father, what happened to the maxim of no condition is permanent except change?

After misleading your listeners, you then went into your cumbersome realm of God and the Gambia’s forthcoming December 4th presidential election saying that our voters’ cards are divine gifts from the Almighty. Really Father? Yet you cannot trust the very process the card owner had followed that earn him one to also guide him or her to vote for the right person.

When did God give you the capacity and competence of judging who should or shouldn’t be voted for based on your differentiation of the evil contenders from the saintly ones?

You know what I made of your hypocrisy when you, in a coded language, said that the political leader in alliance with the party of the leader accused of committing evil deed or being a “Doma” (witch) is untrustworthy and only in the competition for his personal gains and to permanently remain in office?

THE RECENT NPP-APRC ALLIANCE, PERIOD! Who else in the political arena has so far had an alliance with other parties other than the NPP with the APRC? That is very hypocritical father. You should have had the audacity to reveal your political or leadership preference instead of beating about the bush.

It was also a bias political statement from you to literally accuse the authorities of providing no entertainment parks and assembly arenas for the public that prompted the Youssou Ndure free show at the “Traffic Light Junction” three or four years ago.

You very well know that the Independence Stadium, McCathy Square, Buffer Zone and many more places are all available for all kinds of public entertainment, musical, political, or name it. But you made it sound as if the Gambia has no parks or entertainment arenas for the public. Can’t you see how political you appeared or sounded when you failed to denounce that Youssou Ndure event three or more years ago and waited until now, two months before the election to now bitch about it?

Reverend Lopez, I think you should quit the church business and join a political party if you can’t form one. I am not saying that you are but if you are not you zealously seem to be in favor of Essa Faal’s candidacy over everyone else. Because when you mentioned how the “satanic party” is in alliance with a nameless leader and how those folks were proven guilty of all sorts of crimes at the highest level of the law and went on to urge your listeners to approve the righteous contestant who fears God irrespective of his ethic origin or religious inclination you inadvertently flashed Essa Faal’s face before all listeners.

What makes you think that Essa Faal is the most honest and God-fearing candidate in the field? His TRRC drama? Did you know that he illegally deceived the government into appointing him lead counsel of the TRRC by failing to disclose his political ambition and affiliation in total violation of the TRRC Act that strictly proscribed such deceptions?

Moreover, with all the atrocities committed by Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, Essa Faal who was his defense lawyer at the ICC and lost the case incompetently still believes that there was no serious crime committed by this genocidal murderer in Liberia that put him behind bars for 50 years. If the case of Charles Taylor is not a lesson good enough to bring you back to your senses and realize that you are rooting for the wrong candidate I don’t know what is.

Oh, but I forgot that in St. Mathew’s Gospel Chapter 5 Verse 37 Reverend Father Peter Lopez tells us that a change of mind or heart by anyone no matter the circumstance is ungodly, satanic and untrustworthy.
Father, Africa is still a victim of brutal colonialism and devious neocolonialism at a scale and scope that was never taught or discussed in any Roman seminary including the one you attended.

You were probably only taught to appreciate how God created the earth and all living beings in his image and will and has since the dawn of history ruled us by a predestined rather than a remeasured scripture.

You cannot tell us that God said that no condition is permanent and that everything that happens will eventually come to pass and still try to convince us into believing that our political leaders are capable of indefinitely holding to power for their personal ungodly interests and still survive God’s wrath or perils.

Please keep your biblical message at the church and stay away from politics. Pray for peace and tranquility like most religious leaders are currently doing and stop your hypocritical sermons to influence the voting choices of the electorate in the 2021 December election.

I rest my case!