There is nothing happening in The Gambia today that hasn’t happened before.
Corruption, police brutality and general inertia in the face of it all, are nothing new!
The question is what have we learned from our recent history as a nation? Are we going to transform our systems (including those that mold our behavior) or continue to insist on reforms based on colonial governance structures that were never meant to advance us as a people?
Is it our plan to just replace those in power with those we are aligned with so that we can defend anything ours do while those out of power condemn everything we do? Is it not telling that most of those associated with power defend or justify everything those in power do, and those out of power criticize everything those in power do?
The cornerstone of all forms of abuse is power and control and that includes police brutality. There’s a reason Momodou Ndow writes that given the slightest bit of power, a lot of us tend to get drunk on such power and start abusing it. Power is not the problem. It’s the mindset that’s the problem.
Until we TRANSFORM our minds such that power is understood to belong to the people and not the one in authority, we will continue to abuse every bit of power we think we have. Cue police brutality! Cue the pitiful and terrible statement that is as terrible a denial as I have ever seen from a national institution!
At every level of the structure we call government, power and control are the twin engines that we think will propel us to wealth and fame. We marabout each other to death and manipulate paperwork so we can maintain that power and control at all levels.
Those who help us maintain our power and control are rewarded and those who do not support our desires are labeled the enemies of progress. Government service is seen as a vehicle to wealth and not a conduit to serve one’s people.
We ask for accountability from others but quick to embrace our own without holding them accountable for anything.
The sad part of it all is that the power and control we seek is an illusion because power belongs to the people. The day the people realize that power actually belongs to them is the day the illusory power we think we own disappears.
We seek power and control not for the mere sake of power but for its accruing benefit of wealth and fame! And we wonder why corruption is usually hated by all that cannot take part in it and loved by those who can take part in it.
The man with the power and control over the security unit will do as he pleases because he has to maintain his power and control to the satisfaction of those above him so that they too can remain powerful and maintain control of the people. It allows them to be wealthy.
Until such power and control structures are dismantled, until we recalibrate our minds such that we recognize that power actually belongs to the people, we will be here shouting about corruption, police brutality and the accompanying inertia of Gambians!
