As surprising as it seemed: Yahya Jammeh’s 22 year reign as Gambia’s president, comes to a peaceful end. (Unfolding Events:Part One)

In a televised state television speech on the 20^th of January 2017, Yahya Jammeh announced solemnly “You Gambians have decided that I should take the back seat, you have voted for somebody to lead our country. This is our country, and I wish you all the best.” Having understood his resignation, Gambians in their numbers went down the streets chanting songs of joy and pulling posters and image frames of Yahya Jammeh. As @IsimaOdeh of @AfricaFactZone posted a video on @twitter confirming this as the Gambia’s mission in the US replaced Jammeh’s picture with that of the newly elected President A. Barrow at 1:41 AM 20^th Jan 2017.

This political brouhaha arised in Gambia, due to the fact that Yahya Jammeh refused to decline from power after losing to Gambia’s opposition coalition candidate Adama Barrow few days after accepting defeat by vote. Whereas he was the one that called his political rival congratulating him after the release of voting results that Adama Barrow defeated him. As he said “You (A. Barrow) are the elected president of The Gambia, and I wish you all the best,” Jammeh told Barrow. “I have no ill will.” This was received with surprise and disbelief by the Gambians! Dec. 3th 2016. This was due to the fact that in 2011, Jammeh said that, if “God willing, » he could rule Gambia for a billion years!

In July 1994, Jammeh who was a 29 year old lieutenant said his plan was to step aside after three months of him successfully overcoming Gambia’s first president (SirDawda Jawara) through a military coup so Gambia could hold democratic elections. As a local Daily News paper featured Jammeh saying “We Will Never Introduce Dictatorship in This Country.” Wikipedia

But 1996, Jammeh instead contested and won the vote in 1996 and equally triggered the removal of term limits so he could stay in power forever. Jammeh is quite known for his outrageous and erratic moves as in 2007, Jammeh claimed to have developed a cure for AIDS which involved an herbal body rub and bananas. And he eventually insisted that patients should stop taking antiretroviral medications because his remedy could have an effect. This triggered health experts to take action.

Eventually, in 2013, Jammeh’s government clinched up a national witch hunt of about 1,000 people, forcing this witches and wizards to drink a hallucinogen that caused vomiting and diarrhea, as the liquid led to serious kidney problems as two people died according to Amnesty International. Gambia is a small country of 1.9 million people surrounded by Senegal. Gambia’s economy has been stagnant pushing thousands of Gambians to migrate via Europe for greener pastures through dangerous roads and rough waters. And in 2013 still,

Jammeh castigated the Commonwealth organization branding it a “Neo-Colonial institution” cursing and vowing to slit the throats of gay men saying the “LGBT” acronym should stand for “leprosy, gonorrhea, bacteria and tuberculosis.” And in October, Jammeh announced the auditing of Gambia from the International Criminal Court, which he tamed as the “InternationalCaucasian Court.”

After the announcement of his stepping down from power and the accreditation of EquatorialGuinea as home of asylum abode, Jammeh is accused of carrying with him 11 million dollars, 3 planes, glamorous cars and a lot more of expensive things with his wife, family and close aids. As the Gambians still await the return of A. Barrow to Banjul as he was enthroned to power in Dakar-Senegal in the Gambian embassy as the ECOWAS, AU joint forces are ready to help in terms of security for A. Barrow’s return.