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by Samsudeen Sarr
I read a brilliant article, The need to revamp the Gambia Armed Forces!!!, written by Mr. Assan Sallah a journalist in Germany adding his input to the need for the Gambia government to accelerate the ongoing Security Security Reform (SSR) so as to start entrusting the Gambia Armed Forces with their obligatory duty of performing for the country what ECOMIG/Senegalese troops have been entrusted with since 2017. Although I cannot still accept the notion that these foreign troops have been doing anything significant in the Gambia to warrant their maintenance cost of D700 million per annum.
I also read a poorly written paper bearing the image of the Gambia National Security Adviser, Colonel Momodou Badjie, Security Sector Roles Response to Pandemic (COVID-19) in The Gambia, but signed by only a “concern Gambian” discussing the possible deployment of the GAF Military Police (MP) Unit to assist in the fight against the Covid-19 emergency operations. How large the MP Unit is and how effective they can be in the absence of the declaration of martial law, vital to justify their deployment, is my concern but I also have my doubts as how the government will come up with a clearly defined mandate for their street performance considering their limitations on civil policing. They cannot simply be handed over to the police command and expect them to spontaneously and frictionlessly operate under the Inspector General Police (IGP) when there had never been any kind of joint training between the two forces for such an eventuality. By the same token, deploying them in the streets to operate on their own orders from either the IGP, or CDS or from both without a proper coordination and effective monitoring mechanism will be a greater danger to society than the pathogen may ultimately cause. Our MPs have no training in enforcing cilvil-disobedience-related operations. They carry guns not batons, body armor not shields and have no idea of how to execute routine police duties requiring basic knowledge of arresting and detaining civilians.
However, at the rate the coronavirus pandemic is skyrocketing I am afraid it may eventually compel the government to resort to such drastic measures in order to control the movement and interaction of people, particularly in densely populated cities and towns. The 90 days shutdown extension expected to be passed by the National Assembly on Thursday, April 2, 2020, if ratified, will create a situation of unprecedented confusion in the country. Its financial stress to the population will be unbearable and may cause a national security crisis.
Certainly, the mandate of the ECOMIG/Senegalese troops never in their operational orders factored this unexpected global crisis of which no other nation or security force had ever been trained or prepared for its emergence, making every endeavor purely experimental and coming with certain volatile risks and constrains that without the proper caution could result in an unimaginable friction between the security forces and the population in general.
Anyway, vilify them in any manner chosen, but what cannot be taken away from the GAF is their internationally acclaimed discipline and skills in peacekeeping and peace enforcement, a talent more adaptable in this novel operation than the combat skills brought along to the country by the Senegalese/ECOMIG forces.
For the two years I spent at the UN as deputy ambassador and going through virtually every report of peacekeeping operations in Africa-Sudan, Liberia, Mali, Central African Republic and the Congo-no nation had a better disciplinary and performance record in the field than the Gambian security forces even surpassing that of the elite French who were at one time accused of raping African girls as young as seven years old. The French were not exceptions in these crimes but the norm that had forced the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to commission a disciplinary committee in 2015 that had exposed and brought to justice several soldiers and their commanders from different countries except from the Gambian.
The French or other nationals could rape seven year old kids because they were not French girls or girls from the countries of the other culprits.
Therefore I believe deploying our wonderful soldiers at this crucial time, if need be, for this internal security engagement would, if properly coordinated mean tapping into their exemplary humane temperaments in their own country and for their own people. It will be like looking after their soulmates.
However in order to effectively make that happen, I cannot suggest a smarter approach than recommended by Harona Drammeh, Nyang Njie and Mr. Baldeh from their insightful panel discussion conducted on March 31 ,2020 at 5:00 P.M. at the Paradise TV studio. That the President Adama Barrow must convene a command center at the statehouse or at any appropriate location of his choice but under his active control where concerned departments, that connotes every domain in the country, will be assembled, coordinated and put to task as needed everyday. The president must be in the forefront, coming out to update the nation about every development and take questions on ambiguous subjects needing further clarifications. Finance, Health, Interior, Defense, Trade, and all ministries must be part of the command center since this is the most important issue the Gambia is facing now. Selected or elected opposition political party members, useful intellectuals and few religious leaders can also be co-opted to share their viewpoints and act as watchdogs to prevent deception and duplication of efforts.
I can bet that with everything put together accordingly, by the time this crisis is over, the GAF would regain the respect and admiration of every Gambian formally deceived over the past three years into thinking that they are hopeless and useless and should even be replaced by Senegalese troops.
In fact I think judging them with that unfair outlook can be blamed for stalling the SSR. It is disheartening when I see the Gambia government inviting retired military officers from foreign countries to spearhead the formulation of the SSR blueprint, which I am positive could have been perfectly done by Gambians and derived on the army’s unparalleled legacy of being the best peacekeepers in the world.
In only one year, without prejudice or trying to manage with square pegs in round holds, Gambians could have formulated a uniquely-tailored Gambian doctrine on peacekeeping from the basic to the advanced level with training syllabuses that can be used to examine officers at every rank for promotions. It will of course be complemented by constant basic military training and ceremonial duties.
And don’t be surprised if it will not even become a universal model that could be used by the UN as a training manual. We just have to put up a think-tank unit to do it and forget about all those dead weight foreign military retirees and professors being paid for doing nothing.
The secret of being an exceptional peacekeeper is not taught in any military academy in the world from elementary cadet schools to advance war-colleges; nonetheless, those skills to be one, happened to be an inherent virtue among Gambian security personnel, soldiers and police officers alike. Hence, inviting and paying retired generals, colonels and professors will continue to be a waste of time and resources. They don’t know what to do and will never be honest enough to admit their ignorance which is apparently the cause of the three-years wasted on a project that was achievable in at most a year and a half.
At this moment of this special crisis, it wouldn’t be surprising if these foreigners we have been banking on all these years to pack up their belongings and disappear back to their countries for their own safety like the Senegalese did in 1989, the British did in 1992 and the Nigerians did in 1994. This time, it may in effect delay the process or even halt it altogether especially if they don’t make it back. Retirees are in the demographic of the most vulnerable to the virus infection and cause of their quick deaths. God have mercy!
Till my next article, thanks for reading. And sorry if anyone is offended.
Samsudeen Sarr
New York City.