The Case of Lamin Sabi Sanyang and Yahya Jammeh The Teflon Don

By Mathew K Jallow, Associate Editor

Yahy Jammeh & friend Lamin Sabi Sanyang

It has become an all too familiar scenario. Someone in Yahya Jammeh’s inner circle gets in serious trouble, which eventually develops into a public embarrassment for the corrupt regime. Then, Yahya Jammeh, in a show of fake bravado, springs into action to do what only Yahya Jammeh does best. That was the case once again last week when Mr. Lamin Sabi Sanyang, until recently the influential person at our Washington D.C, Embassy, was unceremoniously arrested in a very dramatic fashion. Mr. Sanyang did not know what hit him, and before he could catch his breath, he was knocked off his celestial pedestal and into the dustbin of history, with his pride bloodied, his arrogance deflated, and his short life story forever branded by the greed and corruption which joined him and his infamous mentor, Yahya Jammeh, at the hips. And, Lamin Sanyang, who not so long ago was a shy and innocent young man from the backwoods of Banjulding, displayed naiveté by returning home after his and Yahya Jammeh’s financial scandals were exposed to the world by The Gambia Echo and other national media. Apparently, no one ever told Lamin Sanyang that once a person falls into disfavor with Yahya Jammeh, one does not just return home, and if the person is still at home, then they better get the hell out fast. If Sanyang ever thought that his Jola ethnicity alone was enough to insulate him from Yahya Jammeh’s rapacious bloodlust, then he was blinding himself to the reality of Jammeh’s history of cruelty. Mr. Sanyang should have known by now that Jammeh has no real permanent friends, only permanent interest, and after he has used someone, he would throw them under the bus. And Sanyang, who by virtue of being of Jola ethnicity, figuratively walked right out of high school into a deliberately undefined, but, inarguably the most powerful position at The Gambian Embassy in Washington, D.C. What is breathtaking, however, was the fact that of all the countries in the world, Yahya Jammeh could not even think of a more appropriate distant outpost such as Papua New Guinea or a desert country like Chad to post his high school graduate protégé, instead of the U.S.A. This is a clear indication that in Jammeh’s mediocre world, qualifications are irrelevant, which is why he gravitates towards docile employees who will serve his singular interest and satisfy his bloated ego. Today, the entire Civil Service and our elected officials have become agents in Yahya Jammeh’s crusade to entrench his hold on power, and everyone in government’s payroll; from our Alkalolu, Chiefs, Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and National Assembly Members are subject to Jammeh’s loyalty litmus test. And after many years of learning the ropes, Yahya Jammeh has become adept at deflecting blame towards others, and this modus operandi has developed into a significant part of his rudimentary, but effective strategic survival skills.

As the erstwhile “diplomat” Mr. Lamin Sanyang languishes incommunicado at a National Intelligence Agency (NIA) prison cell, this once impeccable noble young man’s name is making the rounds around the country for all the wrong reasons. He has now become the target of scorn and hatred for many Gambians, and for those with better qualification than Sanyang, who were denied the same opportunities, this could be a bitter sweet moment. Yet, in spite of his blatant corruption, Lamin Sanyang is as much a victim as the rest of us. The real villain, of course, is Jammeh himself. Lamin Sanyang’s highly dramatized arrest, with squads of agents from the police, army and NIA, was overkill, for a man who does not even carry a pocketknife on him. And such needless display of force is typical Jammeh. The order, which culminated in Sanyang’s arrest process, is part of Jammeh’s perennial effort to shake our people’s courage and will. And as horrendous as Sanyang’s corruption activities with Yahya Jammeh are, his part in this unfolding saga are no more criminal than the disgraceful dereliction of responsibility exhibited by Chief Justice, Mr. Abdou Karim Savage and the incompetent and unfit crowd of justices of our law courts. Due to the criminal negligence of the justices under Mr. A. K. Savage, many people have lost their lives and many more are continually harassed, jailed and imprisoned routinely in clear violation of our laws and our Constitution. Last year, Pakistan’s justices of the court, in collaboration with their Bar Association there, held prolonged protests that created the Constitutional crisis which eventually led to the demise of General Pavez Musharraf’s military regime. Our cowardly justices should take a page out of the courageous Pakistani justices and legal practitioners and help send Yahya Jammeh packing into the hands of vengeance hungry Gambians. Without a doubt, the actions of many selfish and greedy people in our country qualify them for long prison sentences when this regime falls. Because they have participated in enabling this regime, resulting to the deaths of so many, Isatou Njie Saidy, Essa Badjie, Lang Tombong Tamba, Ousman Sonko and a slew of others, are just a few on a long list of prosecutable witnesses to Jammeh’s tragic rule of terror. God willing, we will have our own Nuremberg trials. As for Yahya Jammeh, if we have our way, he will not face any court of law; not even The Hague, because he has proved time and time that he does not deserve the moral decency that he denied so many of those he sent to their early graves. As for Lamin Sabi Sanyang, many people may be conflicted about his case, yet there is the subjective part of me, which wants him to go rot in hell, but my objective side recognizes him as a mere pawn in Jammeh’s treacherous, heartless and conniving game of economic plunder and social degeneration.

This sad and almost comical case surrounding Lamin Sanyang’s diplomatic tenure in the U.S is far from being an isolated incident. As we go to press, Yahya Jammeh is plotting and planning how to misuse our meager resources on himself, his family and those he has drawn close to him. But, nothing about Yahya Jammeh’s personality spells altruism, for Jammeh lives only for himself. He carefully narrows down the clique that he brings close under his wings, and he has ruthlessly and methodically abdicated everyone he believes poses grave danger to his murderous regime; beginning first with Captain Sanna B. Sabally, and followed by Captain Edward David Singateh, and many others. But, Lamin Sanyang belongs to another group of low caliber and high embarrassment for Jammeh, most of them Jola tribal zealots whom Jammeh has used to run his many secret errands. In this sense, Lamin Sanyang is every bit Jammeh’s own creation; in league with Abdoulie Kujabi, Ousman Sonko, the late Capts. Tumbul Tamba and Solomon Jammeh, and of course, Lang Tombong Tamba, and Essa Badjie, all Jolas like Mr. Sanyang. Lamin Sanyang’s ordeal is only the latest in Jammeh’s history of blame transference, and Sanyang has done exactly what everyone else will do given these same circumstances. Moreover, Yahya Jammeh’s supposed fight against corruption rings as hollow, absurd, meaningless and hypocritical as it sounds comedic, given the fact that Jammeh is the epitome of corruption: absolutely the most corrupt person ever to walk the dusty trails of a Gambian village. Beyond that, Mr. Sanyang is being made a scapegoat now because his corrupt practices with Yahya Jammeh are now public knowledge. Corruption in our country is an accepted standard practice and after nearly five decades, it no longer evokes guilt, shame or even fear. As we all know, back in the 1970’s, the Banjul Wollofs introduced a word to capture what they saw as the meaning of corruption: muchat, clearly a behavioral transference from their Wollof relatives in Dakar, Senegal. And for better or for worse, both the Fulas and Mandinkas, and the other tribes in our country, have eventually embraced the practice as normal ethical behavior. Jammeh’s very public crucifixion of Lamin Sabi Sanyang, like others before, only proves how much he is out of touch with reality. Jammeh believes in his heart that whatever he does must be acceptable and unquestionable, because he views himself as being above the laws of the land. In his campaign against corruption, Yahya Jammeh will do the whole country great service if he engages in some introspection and self examination, because, whatever happens among junior level officials of his regime, is true reflection of what is happening at the highest echelons of power. In short, Yahya Jammeh can never tackle corruption without coming to grips with the fact he is indeed the most corrupt and morally bankrupt individual in our country. And now, since Yahya Jammeh has always succeeded in making others pay for his own crimes, he has earned the title of Teflon Don; but only for a while. His fall from glory, though unpredictable, will come someday. Hopefully, it will be very soon.