(JollofNews) – My dear readers and followers, I wish to apologise for my enforced absence due to a small medical event. The long awaited kidney transplant went well, however the heart attack that followed was totally unexpected.
I must admit I have never experienced such fear as when my heart and lungs stopped while I remained conscious for about a minute or more. All I remembered was my pleas to the medical staff to let me die. And then “the lights went out”.
I woke up heavily sedated in the intensive care unit at Manchester Royal Infirmary, joking with nurses and asking them politely whether I was in heaven or hell or maybe the halfway transit point. To my great relief, I was told by a rather attractive nurse from Nigeria, that I was still very much alive.
Not knowing certainly focuses the mind on my prepared portfolio for God’s perusal of my worldly life’s good deeds over my undoubted sins. I can tell you that I was glad I have made some good decisions to my name which may allow me entry to heaven. When you are on the cross it’s the good deeds that come to mind. Nothing else matters.
So I have been away on a matter of life and death. I must admit I am finding it difficult to pick up from where I left off back in August. I have been reading JollofNews and other online papers about events in the Gambia, but so far, the piece from Mai Fatty, leader of the opposition Gambia Moral Congress party (GMC), in which he admitted that the current crop of opposition parties will not deliver the much need political change in the Gambia is without doubt amongst the most interesting.
Some might conclude a certain resignation towards the perpetual and seamless government of President Yahya Jammeh. Age does change perspective and blunts ambition and risk taking. Change is always lead by the youth. Taking the average age of Gambia’s opposition can be assumed to be accompanied by frailty and fading eyesight and energy. It is much easier to lie in bed for that extra hour.
There has always been that air of inevitability that Gambians frown on change. For all the name calling and threats, Gambians are a peaceful tribe that love to talk a lot but never do a lot. To the foreigners eyes, it is one of your most alluring and attractive assets.
So should we be talking about the next 20 years of the mercurial Yahya Jammeh and his unique form of missed diplomacy and outrageous speeches and attention seeking politics? Or is he mellowing with age as we all do?
