Daily Dispatch

NEC must heed Gambian lesson

IF the ANC’s national executive committee would just take a break from its preoccupation with self-preservation, if it would lift its head and extend its collective gaze beyond its own ballooning navel and allow itself a pleasurable panoramic sweep across the continent, it might benefit from a few timely lessons.

And indeed, some are going begging that are of particular pertinence to a party which has been in power for 22 years.

These are located in the narrow (and, in world terms, somewhat insignificant) strip on the bulge of Africa called the Gambia.

Right now its people are catching their breath after days of delirious celebration following a monumental electoral upset in which the national leader, Yahya Jammeh, was unexpectedly knocked off his presidential perch.

He was replaced by Adama Barrow the leader of the opposition collation. Barrow, 51, once worked as a security guard in a shop in London.

One of the aspects of this triumphant tale of democracy at work in Africa which might be particularly striking for the NEC is the length of Jammeh’s tenure: he ruled the small West African country for 22 years.

But that is not the only part of the story likely to resonate with South Africans post2009. There is also the manner in which Jammeh ensured his grip on power over the years. The ex-military officer used Gambia’s National Intelligence Agency to gather intelligence, conduct covert investigations and trample fundamental rights, including the freedom of speech, of expression and of association. A “pervasive climate of fear” was generated, according to a Human Rights Watch report issued last year.

In October 2013 Jammeh pulled the country out of the International Criminal Court.

Gambia’s information minister justified the move by saying the ICC stood for the “International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans”.

Jammeh went on to intensify his stranglehold on the nation in the election lead-up. In a security crackdown weeks before voting Gambian opposition leader Ousainou Darboe and 18 other opposition supporters were reportedly arrested and sentenced to three years in jail for having taken part in a pro-democracy protest.

But none of this succeeded in stopping a tide that had turned in its entirety.

Perhaps one of the most important factors in the unexpected result was the youth.

As is the case in most African countries, Gambia’s population has a massive youth bulge. The average age is about 20 years.

Jammeh was not blind to this fact, nor did he neglect this group in his electioneering. He promised them “empowerment programmes” to tackle the massive problems of unemployment challenging young people.

But young Gambians were not interested in promises that never materialised nor in autocratic leaders who seemed not to hear their cries. And they had the numbers to change a 22-year-old status quo.

This is perhaps the most significant part of the lesson that Gambia offers the NEC, along with fact that South Africa is not immune to the law of cause and effect.