By Paul Ejime
Eight years after ECOWAS led the international community by deploying enormous human and material resources to free the Gambia and its citizens from the asphyxiating hold of a ruthless dictator, Yahya Jammeh, the country risks drifting into another avoidable instability if urgent measures are not taken.
Nigeria, the regional powerhouse had to put its military assets including Air Force fighter jets and a Naval ship at the disposal of the region, while Senegalese foot soldiers marched on their way to Banjul, the Gambian capital before the military Captain-turned-Colonel Jammeh was forced into exile in Equatorial Guinea in January 2017 after he had refused to concede defeat to President-elect Adama Barrow after the December 2016 election.
After toppling Gambia’s independence President, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, in a 1994 military coup, Jammeh became a tin God and even boasted that he would rule the Gambia for “a billion years.” This writer captured the ordeal of Gambians under Jammeh in an article entitled The Gambia, Jammeh and the Proverbial Bull in a China Shop.
Fear and national insecurity were palpable then, and to avoid a constitutional crisis, ECOWAS ensured that Barrow was officially sworn in as Gambia’s President in his country’s embassy in Dakar, Senegal with an ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG) code-named “Operation Restore Democracy” quickly deployed to douse the tension, stabilise the situation and restore peace to the country.
Barrow, a former real estate developer, was not originally on the ballot for the 2016 election but was chosen by the party after Jammeh had jailed the presidential front-runner Ousainou Darboe and all other opposition leaders.
However, despite his well-documented atrocities, including the killings and enforced disappearances of opponents using his killer-squad “the Junglers,” and forcing opposition figures and civil society activists into exile, Jammeh commands political influence in the Gambia today, partly due to Barrow’s political machinations.
Many Gambians are now forced to relive the nightmares of the Jammeh era for no justifiable reason, other than the pursuit of the personal political ambition of Barrow, who has since fallen out with Darboe and other key members of the opposition United Democratic Party on whose coalition he won the 2016 election.
After accusing Darboe and others of going back on their words not to serve in his government, Barrow reneged on his earlier pledge to step down after three years of the five-year term.
To consolidate his political power base, Barrow formed a new National People’s Party (NPP) which controversially joined forces with a faction of Jammeh’s APRC party and retained the presidency in the 2021 presidential election.
After co-opting several Jammeh henchmen to consolidate his grip on power, Barrow now sees his political opponents, the media and human rights advocates as stumbling blocks to his third-term dream, which is now tearing the Gambia apart.
At Barrow’s behest, ECOMIG’s mandate has been renewed several times, amid serious concerns within the Gambian armed forces about marginalisation, while “Barrow surrounds himself with ECOMIG forces for personal protection.”
Instead of promoting national unity and cohesion or fostering reconciliation, Barrow has become a divisive force, laser-focused on his political ambition and the next election.
In the early days of his administration a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC) was set up under the Special Accountability Mechanism Act, to address the atrocities of the Jammeh regime.
An Anti-torture Act, Victims Reparations Fund Act and the Special Prosecutor’s Office Act were also enacted.
Similarly, a Constitution Review Commission (CRC) was established to produce a people-oriented Constitution to replace that of 1997 used by Jammeh for his repressive dictatorship.
The Barrow government accepted 263 of the 265 TRRC recommendations through a White Paper with an implementation Plan. However, it rejected the 2020 Draft Constitution produced by the CRC and has drafted a butchered version, whose provisions are unpublicised to be pushed through a national referendum.
Barrow’s political wheeling and dealing has made him increasingly unpopular among his compatriots, who accuse him of replacing governance with perfidy and propaganda.
His government has now set up a Special Tribunal for The Gambia (STTG) to try human rights violations committed between July 1994 and January 2017, including “murder, torture, enforced disappearances, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecutions and other inhuman acts” and is now pressuring ECOWAS to lend its weight behind the Tribunal.
In principle and, in line with the recommendations of the TRRC, victims of crimes against humanity committed during Jammeh’s brutish regime deserve and should get justice and closure, and accused persons should have their day in court.
However, the Barrow government’s approach to this process smacks of a ploy to capture donor funds and clear all obstacles to his third-term ambition.
The government is being clever by half about the STTG, which it established without any inputs from ECOWAS.
Ironically, Article 17 of the Tribunal’s Statute saddles the ECOWAS Commission with major responsibilities including setting up an Advisory Council and Management Council of the Special Tribunal.
Article 17.1 – The President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (“ECOWAS” and “ECOWAS Commission”) (the Appointing Authority) shall appoint the President, Special Prosecutor and Registrar of the Special Tribunal (“The Principals.”)
Article 17.2 – The President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (“ECOWAS” and “ECOWAS Commission”) shall convene an independent Advisory Council on the Selection of Principals for the Special Tribunal (“Advisory Council”).
Article 17.7 – The Advisory Council shall, upon completion of the evaluation and selection process, submit a report to the President of the ECOWAS Commission (“Appointing Authority”) detailing the suitability of the applicants in the ranked order.
Furthermore, Article 45 states: “The President of the ECOWAS Commission shall establish a Management Committee shall provide administrative and financial oversight to the Special Tribunal.
The Management Committee shall consist of representatives of The Gambia, ECOWAS and any major contributor to the Special Tribunal.
The Management Committee shall have the power to approve the budget and annual report of the Special Tribunal and shall assist its fund-raising.”
From experience and given the complex nature of the work of such tribunals, legal experts strongly believe that involving the ECOWAS Commission in the administration of the STTG would distract from its core mandate of the regional integration agenda.
ECOWAS is not a prosecuting body, and it is already neck-deep struggling to rein in errant member States, three of which have served notice to quit over its perceived weak and ineffectual leadership.
Instead of involving ECOWAS in micro-managing the STTG, experts have recommended a Central African Republic (CAR) model for the Gambian Tribunal.
In 2015, CAR with the support of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN set up a Special Criminal Court (SCC), which the global rights monitor, Human Rights Watch has described as “a significant, unprecedented initiative to deliver justice for victims of brutal crime…”
“The Court is integrated into (CAR’s) domestic judicial system, but staffed by both international and Central African judges, prosecutors, and administrators.
Together with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has two investigators into crimes committed in the country, the SCC is a significant opportunity to end the widespread impunity that victims of the cycles of violence in the Central African Republic have faced,” Human Rights Watch said in a 2017 Report.
It added: “The SCC may also serve as a potential model for other countries seeking to pursue justice for international crimes in their national systems.”
Interestingly, the Gambia hosts the (African Union) AU-backed Commission for Human and People’s Rights, and according to legal experts, another perfect example for the STTG is the UN and AU-supported Special Tribunal in Senegal which tried and convicted former Chadian leader, Hissène Habré for crimes against humanity during his reign.
Instead of pursuing divisive selfish and personal ambition, capable of pushing the Gambia into another crisis, ECOWAS leaders should impress upon Barrow to focus on delivering good governance and promoting national healing and cohesion for sustainable peace in the country and the region.
Today’s instability in the ECOWAS region is largely attributable to the mindless pursuit of ill-fated third-term ambition of corrupt, insensitive, greedy, selfish, self-serving, power-hungry opportunists, parading themselves as leaders.
Ejime is a Global Affairs Analyst and Consultant on Peace & Security, and Governance Communications
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