The deputy speaker of the Gambia’s National Assembly on Friday visited Kigali Genocide Memorial seven years after nearly plunging his tiny West African country into a civil war.
Deputy speaker Seedy SK Njie almost sparked a bloody political conflict in 2016 when he announced that former President Jammeh was not ceding power to President Barrow, who just won a general election.
This announcement on the national radio and television sent waves of Gambian refugees into the neighbouring Senegal as rumours of war spread like bushfire.
Had the sub-regional troops-Ecomig- not threatened former President Yahya Jammeh into exile, Gambians could have been compelled to try to force the former president, his loyal generals and army into submission in a civil unrest.
The outcome could have been a sanguinary war because the majority of Gambian voters were poised to see the enthronement of Barrow regardless of what deputy speaker Seedy Njie or former President Yahya Jammeh said or did not say.
Meanwhile in so far his closest encounter with the realities of war, the deputy speaker was yesterday able to hear the heartbeats of over 200 genocide victims in Rwanda.
“I also laid a wreath in honor of 250,000 people who are laid to rest in mass graves in the Genocide Memorial as well as signed the condolence book,” DS Njie wrote on his Facebook page.
Meanwhile, while some have been congratulating the DS on his visit to the genocide memorial, many hope it would help him to start regretting his decision to beat the drum of war with Jammeh.
