--Allegations of unstable mind and mendacious mediocrity

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Barely 48-hours after our lead story on the fleeing diplomatic maids to erstwhile Gambian ambassador to Washington, DC, Neneh Macdouall Gaye hit the web, a highly placed source in the United Kingdom called and alerted us that elusive Gambian diplomat with a notoriety for spousal battery and abuse, Ebrima J.T. Kujabie was sighted in London presumably, on a sinister mission.

Our newsroom was equally inundated with various damning leads on this seemingly untouchable character, a mendacious mediocre by every standard; who like many in the Jammeh cabal has catapulted himself to the pinnacle of officialdom denting our image and causing incalculable diplomatic damage to our reputation as a civilized nation.

Acting on this lead, The Echo put its investigation machine to order and within days, we were able to establish that indeed, JT was in the United Kingdom to investigate some Gambians especially, their relationship with General Lang Tombong Tamba. Who these Gambian are, we do not know but what we do know, is that whoever JT spoke to while there, may have been potentially implicated or framed and we warn any person or persons that may have confided in him any material fact that can be used against them in a court of law, to be mindful when visiting Gambia.

Probably, one of the most withering indictments of this cantankerous character is that he is a willing accomplice in the destruction of many colleagues dating back to his days at the Gambian Daily Observer newspaper where his penchant for pomp coupled with his facile foolishness were easily noticeable. Described by many as suffering from an inferior complex malady, JT as he is mostly known began his reporting career using the weirdest byline- J.T. Brown even though his official name was Kujabie. According to competent sources, Kujabie quickly rose through the ranks and within a brief spell, rose to the coveted position of Chief State House Correspondent which nestled him in the center of presidential gravity and greased his mendacious disposition. What was more perplexing about Kujabie recalls a highbrow Gambian writer, was that the chap could not understand English at all yet he went around town bandying his image as a journalist. At the corridors of state power, he had direct access to President Jammeh and within a short period, he became a trustee and confidant fibbing and ratting on everything about everything. One day however, the unpredictable Head of state and JT clashed because the president allegedly called JT “an idiot, a fool and son of a …who preferred a Whiteman’s name, Brown to his own African, Kujabie. President Jammeh went further to threaten that “if you ever use Brown on my newspaper, I will blow your mother…brains out and send you to Mile II Prisons for the rest of your life.” According to State House sources, the simpleton bowed down like a slave before the dictator and promised never to use Brown again. From that day hence, he remains a Kujabie and his unrivalled sycophancy towards his retromingent mentor, Yahya Jammeh, witnessed a meteoric rise in promotions when he was moved to The Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) as Public Relations Officer and then to the Ferries Divisions, as Manager.

However, before leaving for the GPA, he had left an indelible mark of scandalous proportions when first at Nancy’s, a local restaurant operated by Sierra Leonean immigrants, Kujabie brandishing a big stick ran after some Nigerians he had previously had an altercation with. With an identification card from the much-feared National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Kujabie threatened to send to jail any colleague who attempted to pacify him and so a melee ensued and once the Nigerians saw his NIA badge, they scattered and melted into the woods by Bakau’s Sait Matty Road. “Soldiers and police officers who ran to the scene were all scared to death once they knew it was President Jammeh’s so-called brother and he even threatened to jail any officer who dared to  intervene” reveals a senior NIA officer conversant with the sickening details.

Later that year, as the Daily Observer’s staff were at their annual New Year’s dinner party, JT allegedly slapped the paper’s Editor-In-Chief, one Abdou Touray and asked him to go to hell; bragging that he was President Jammeh’s brother and did not just care. As if to show the rest that he could do anything with impunity, he reportedly took the dinner plates and littered the floor with the food. In the end, many became scared of him and almost all breathed a sigh of relief when he left for the GPA.

Predictably, Kujabie’s first casualty at the GPA was the Chief, Adama Dean, because Dean was a University graduate and JT an ignoramus who could barely write his name. Instead of doing his job, he would go around offices displaying his neck-ties bragging that he has over 200 of them. Within days of his transition to the GPA even the office cleaners began to feel threatened and intimidated by his unbridled arrogance. According to a senior officer at the GPA, “he told everybody that H. E. President Jammeh is his big brother and he scared the hell out of so many administrators.”

Within a short period he was promoted to Manager of Ferries and his activities there remain fresh in the minds of his colleagues especially, those at the Barra Ferry Terminal. Recounts a colleague, “one day, JT, just to prove his proximity to the Presidency, provoked some innocent customers who where travelling to Dakar and when one of them joked that he did not give a damn about his alleged relationship, Kujabie picked his phone and called President Jammeh.” “Within minutes, a team of armed guards from the President’s office descended on the scene and arrested the man and his colleagues; they were detained.” According to this colleague, scenes of this nature continued to characterize his entire tenure as Manager of the Ferries Division, coupled with corruption and womanizing of unprecedented scale. Kujabie used to have up to five school girls from the Essau high school spend the night with him and every other day, he was named honorary father of this or that social organization dishing out thousands of Dalasis of stolen money and bribes from Senegalese truckers. “In fact,” recalls one colleague at the Banjul Ferry Terminal, “JT once bragged that he could sleep with any woman because he was the President’s brother and he got the money to do so. In the end, Kujabie was so arrogant that he could call any woman a bitch and tell any man to go to hell.” Colleagues say, on a good day, he will pick a pen and begin to list down women he alleges are President Jammeh’s concubines; claiming that Jammeh was very ugly but women do not care, they only love the money. According to one source, JT was among the first persons to leak the confidential information about a woman who attended The Gambia High School and is now a Minister but The Gambia Echo will keep the details for a future story. In fact, only last week, the same woman was crying over General Tamba’s detention and later that night, she had cooked a delicious meal for the big man at the house by the lake….   

From the Ferries Division he was catapulted yet again, to his dreamland, the Presidential Palace as Director of Press and Public Relations much to the consternation of his journalism colleagues with superior qualifications and experiences. Some still argue, it is a misnomer to call him a journalist because his writing is mediocre, his reasoning myopic and his sense of professionalism audaciously offensive and grossly pervert. Paradoxically, career journalists like Momodou Joof who began work at Radio Gambia before Kujabie’s birth had reportedly applied but only because they were not Jola, Jammeh gave it to his unqualified brother. Those who dare raise eyebrows-Malik Sam Jones and Mam Sait Ceesay, were arrested and sent to Mile II Prisons. Before that dust even settled, Kujabie’s tribal promotions reached a crescendo when the errant dictator suddenly appointed him a diplomat to the United States where he has for the past two years served as Director of Cultural Affairs and recently elevated to Charge d’Affaires albeit, with utter sham and disgrace.

True to his callous character, temperamental demeanor and shameful ignorance, instead of working towards improving the dismal reputation of the Gambian Consulate in Washington, DC, Ebrima J. T. Kujabie has since his coming here, been involved in nefarious escapades and adventures. Like most simpletons, he relishes personality fights and sadistically so. “There is not a single person in the Embassy-past and present, that Kujabie has not threatened to beat, kill or have President Jammeh sacked” says a senior officer at the Gambian Foreign Ministry who spoke to me on the strictest conditions of confidentiality. “What do you expect from a man who beats his own wife like a donkey and when the police come to effect arrest, he begins to sob like an infant?” asks the senior officer. Quite frankly, the Gambian Embassy is in a sorry state, is like the proverbial mad house where every man is for himself and not for the country. Instead of working for The Gambia, we only receive malicious reports to get people in trouble and constantly change diplomats like clothes- Ambassadors Essa Bokar Sey,  Tamsir Jallow and Neneh Macdouall Gaye, and diplomats like Tijan Masanneh Ceesay, Pa Njaga Mendy, Ousman Taal and Musa M’boob are all victims of this cancer. “Mr. Sankareh”, my highly placed source fired a rhetorical question laced in diplomatic nuances “the question is; how come only one person, Lamin Sabi Sanyang has been there for more than a decade and still standing strong?”    

According to this officer, Kujabie has just returned to the United States after leaving his station last September for The Gambia via Venezuela with his so-called brother, errant Head of state Yahya Jammeh, a self-ordained professor with a doctored diploma. Since returning last weekend, Kujabie has began bragging and confided in some friends that his brother has promised to appoint him ambassador to the US and once confirmed, his archrival, Lamin Sabi Sanyang will be elbowed.

For now though, it remains to be seen what the diplomatic chemistry will be as the two diplomatic bulldozers brace for the titanic tussle. Also, as Christmas inches, we will chronicle the past spending sprees and vacation parties as promised and our State House operative Kissy Kissy Mansa will be visiting all the relevant places to see if the beauty queens and their escort are in town again.