… Just before the Gambian implosion

By Joseph Edgar… Nigerians in their enthusiasm are edging on our President to send troops. Everybody is feeling a sense of de ja vu, it will be swift and simple. It is a small country with little or no military capacity, hence the swift decision to send troops. Senegal has sent troops to the border and I am hearing that Nigeria is sending troops to The Gambia. The rush to send troops smirks of double standards.

Why send troops to resolve a matter that can be resolved through sanctions and continuous dialogue. Ever since the man changed his mind, the ECOWAS has sent about three mediatory delegations, led by our President and immediately after are looking at a military solution simply because it is a militarily weak nation. When IBB did his own, did ECOWAS send troops? Didn’t they all come together to beg and appeal and what eventually happened? Didn’t the winner die in detention and are we still not suffering for that?

Today, even those who have stolen power from the barrel of the gun in their past and who have secured power through elections fraught with irregularities and are ruling their countries with iron fist hiding under a battle against corruption and the rest are trying to fight for so called democracy. The hypocrisy of it all smirks with impunity.

I still believe that this issue could be resolved by peaceful means through dialogue and continuous engagement and where that fails, serious sanctions like the withdrawal of his recognition by the African Union, economic blockade and other such type sanctions that would frustrate him and lead him to abdicating. Violence has never brought about corrective solutions in world history. It would just lead to physical and infrastructural destruction, sufferings and disease by the poor and hapless citizens we are all claiming to be defending.

Have you seen any internal revolt in the country, have you heard of any civil unrest since all these started and if not, why? Could it be that the man may just be that popular and that we are being fed propaganda by the external forces of ‘democracy’? All we are being fed remains one sided and not balanced.

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They say he agreed to his defeat and changed his mind. Could it be so wrong that after conceding defeat and being presented with irregularities thereafter he changed his mind? Did he turn to martial law? Did he suspend the constitution as other African leaders would have done? Did he declare full scale military take over? . No. All he did was to go back to the courts to seek redress. Went to the National Assembly to ask for a 90 day extension.

All these do not show the character of a despot desperate to hold on to power. So why the rush for military intervention. The man is ready to dialogue, all he is asking for is to be heard. He has received all delegations, had talks with them stating his position why can’t we allow due process?

Granted, the courts are subjudiced as most of you will claim and the National Assembly is also caged. But this same institutions supervised the process that threw up the elections at some point. So if they were subjudiced why are we now killing ourselves for an election result that came out of subjudiced institutions.

This double standard is so glaring .

Before the bombs start dropping, please think of the poor citizens of Gambia who have nothing but their skin and little children to worry about. Think of how these bombs will fundamentally alter their lives. Think of Syria, Libya, Iraq and other flash points and see how the bombs have displaced and killed millions simply because we were fighting for democracy.

Let dialogue reign. Stop the war.

Ripples Nigeria…Without borders, without fears

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