In his 21 years in power, Gambia’s President Yahyah Jammeh is not new to surprise proclamations. In 2007, he surprised the world when he announced that his country has found herbal cure for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Four years after, precisely February 2013, Jammeh shocked the Commonwealth by withdrawing his country’s membership of the British-led socio-cultural-political organisation.

Jammeh’s predecessor, President Dauda Jawara, was originally ‘David Jawara’. He was believed to have become a Muslim and consequently changed his name after visiting the First Republic Premier of Nigeria Northern Region, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello.

Gambia came into international democratic reckoning after referendum, conducted immediately after February 18, 1965 independence, failed to achieve republican status, against monarchial status having the Queen of England (as represented by a Governor General) as the head of government. The country was praised for the “secret balloting, honest elections, civil rights, and liberties.”

But in 1989, seven years after Senegal helped liberate the country from the grip of coupists, who had toppled the government of Jawara while he was on a state visit to England, Gambia abruptly withdrew from the confederation without much of explanation.

And despite strong commercial ties with Britain and other European countries whose citizens are regular visitors to the Gambia’s white-sand beaches, relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years. Gambia had always mouthed distancing itself from “all forms of neo-colonialism and organisations with semblance of it.”

As a result of some of the seeming unpredictability of the country and its leaders, the European Union temporarily withheld aid money in 2014, purportedly over Gambia’s poor human rights record. The Gambia, whose main industries are agriculture and tourism, ranks 165 out of 187 countries on the UN development index.

After the December 2015 declaration of shift from secular state to religious state, international observers shrugged the announcement off and asked what next could come from the surprise bag of Jammeh.

Probably owing to paucity of fund from Western donors, many dismissed the proclamation as a gimmick to attract more fund from the Arab countries for development.

Though, the current status does not significantly alter the country’s constitution, but in one of the fallouts of the announcement, the government recently announced new dress code for all females under its employ. They are expected to cover their hair during official work hours.

An opposition leader has criticised the move, saying the decision to move to a religious state needs to go through a referendum.

Jammeh seized power in 1994. Rights groups accuse him of gross human rights abuses, including a clampdown on political opponents in the smallest country on the mainland Africa.