A memory of Gambia

August 2005. It is midnight in Banjul and I am sprawled on the bed in my room at the Palm Beach Hotel. By the flickering lights of the television set, I try to make out the several bite marks on my body, which the mosquitoes that swarm about the hotel premises in their hundreds had inflicted on me earlier in the day. While the hotel room is protected from mosquitoes, the same cannot be said of the premises of this very beautiful hotel located on Gambia’s famous long sandy Kotu beach. Although because of its long and pleasant beaches, Gambia has been nicknamed “the smiling coast of Africa,” judging from the manner mosquitoes harass tourists, the country could be appropriately renamed, ‘the biting coast of Africa.”

Suddenly, the local television station changed its programme as clips of the 40th anniversary celebration of the country, which took place two days before my arrival came on air.
 
A very small country (population 1.4 million), The Gambia became an independent nation on February 18, 1965 after 200 years of British colonial rule.  A coalition government led by Sir Dauda Jawara, which took over from the colonialists was toppled by a military coup in 1994 led by the then Lt Yahaya A. J.J.Jameh.  Two years later, Jameh changed his military fatigues for civilian robes and became a civilian President. In October 2001, he won a second election to return for another five-year term, which terminated in 2006. As I watched the television, the President himself came on air. Now addressed as His Excellency, Alhaji Dr. Col (rtd) Yahaya Jameh, the forty –something year-old man was in his trademark white robes with a tesbih and traditional stick in his hands. A close ally of the late General Abacha, the President was in an angry mood as he took the salute during the march past ceremony by groups of his countrymen and women. His grouse was that the largest ethnic group in the country, the Mandiko due to allegations of marginalisation had boycotted the anniversary celebrations.
 
And as television footage showed newly constructed wide roads, hospitals and schools, the President was expansive in self-adulation. “The British were here for over 200 years and all they built was an abandoned cow shed called an air port terminal, but in 10 years, I have built schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructures for my people.”  Then in an apparent referral to Nigeria, he boasted. “All this feat is unsurpassed even by the so-called big oil rich West African countries. Go to these countries and you cannot see this kind of progress in spite of the billions of dollars they make from oil.”

I was able to visit the Medical Research Council Laboratories on Atlantic road where many Nigerian scientists could be found. I also spent some time with Her Excellency, Hajia Mariam Mohammed, the amiable and hardworking Nigerian ambassador to The Gambia who informed me that about 10,000 Nigerians made up of mainly professionals live in the country. As with many of our foreign embassies in Africa, the Nigeria High Commission in Bakau near Banjul is in dire need of funds. Apart from the poor physical appearance of the embassy, the ambassador had to receive me in the parking lot due to a power failure that made the office very stuffy.
 
As if to stamp his authority on his people, President Jameh’s photograph could be seen adoring all the major road junctions in The Gambia. A generally peaceful and hospitable country, The Gambia is a haven for tourists who flock the place in droves round the year.  While tourism has continued to provide a big chunk of Gambia’s revenue, the influx of tourists some of whom are there for what has come to be generally known as “sex holidays” has increased the rate of prostitution and HIV infection in the country. As a Gambian put it: “prostitutes come from as far as Nigeria and Ghana to service the huge tourism industry in Gambia.”
 
Also worrisome to Gambians is the high incidence of human rights abuses that have occurred since the inception of President Jameh’s rule. This development has been connected to the President’s military background, which has little room for rule of law and democracy. This development, which is not peculiar to The Gambia, is a further testimony of the lingering negative effects of military rule on the African continent. And as Gambians wait anxiously for next year’s elections, the prayer on their minds is that nothing would be done by their rulers to destabilise the peace and tranquillity of this beautiful “smiling coast of Africa.”
• Dr. Okediran wrote this article as a Member of the House of Representatives, Abuja in 2005