Why Won’t There Be Presidential Elections In 2021? 

by Alagi Yorro Jallow.
Domiri Foday: This Covid-19 pandemic death kills kings and their horsemen, big men dropping in droves without discrimination, what do you think will happen if coronavirus stays put till 2021? Will there be elections?
Fatoumatta: Why won’t there be elections? Life is for the living. We will hold rallies. We will campaign, sing, dance, wear our party’s Ashobi’s, t-shirts, twerking “Aafinjaang” music and eat “benachin” and thoroughly abuse our opponents. We will troop out to vote. Are we not holding rallies in the Greater Banjul Area and other regions already?
Domori Foday: You are right. All the political parties are boasting of their crowd and recruitment drive of youths on social media. “It is ‘my crowd is thicker than yours’ in our political meetings and have more likes on Facebook,” said party enthusiasts and surrogates.” I watch the crowds on television and social media every day.
Fatoumatta: You do? Fine. The same will happen politicians campaigning. What you see now is ‘testing! testing!’; a template for the year of our Lord, 2021, the Presidential elections. Those who must die will die; we will mourn them, pray for them hold ” Fidawu” for them with a-minute silence, and move on. Do you know how many trees have fallen in the last week? Has that fact affected the course of our politics? Many more will, or may, die. We do not care. Life is a running stream; it maintains its course, surrendering to fate as it draws from its waters. People died yesterday; people will die today and tomorrow. The river of life moves on as if nothing happens. Nothing will stop the elections, and we will rally and party, eat ” ” “benachin” and dance “Sewruba” twerking “Aafinjaang” music. You know why we must hold rallies?”
Domori Foday: Why?”
Fatoumatta: It is in your interest. We must prevent the locusts from coming back to this country…”
Domori Foday: You sound like the big pig, Squealer, in George Orwell’s Animal Farm: ‘It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.’ Otherwise, Mr. Jones, the old oppressor, will come back.”
Hmmm.
Fatoumatta: Politicians hold rallies in this pandemic, and their government is arresting market women and street traders for breaking COVID-19 rules. How fair is that? Moreover, we are supposed to be equal before the law.”
“It is your luck if you get arrested. You must obey rules until you become a politician, a big man. Until you cross the threshold of powerlessness, you must give yourself the wisdom to obey rules and clap when big men hold big rallies in this season of social distancing.
“So what about schools? We lock up everywhere called school, wring our hands and tell the kids to wait for the right time?”
Domori Foday: When a man died recently in town, a woman said nature was cleansing itself. With multipurpose COVID closing schools forever, politicians appear to have finally found a solution to the irritant called education. We may soon see the result on the street as predicted by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels. We will see ‘vast numbers of our people compelled to seek their livelihood by begging, robbing, stealing, cheating, pimping, forswearing, flattering, suborning, forging, gaming, lying, fawning, hectoring, voting, scribbling’ and so on. It will be a massive victory for politicians.
Fatoumatta: And is that not happening already, even with schools running? Do not worry. We will defeat COVID tomorrow, and, after that, we will reopen schools fully.
Good. We are saying the same thing. At least, we know that there is always a tomorrow after tomorrow.
Fatoumatta: But this 2021 rat race amidst disease and death, how many do you think will be alive then?
Domori Foday: Leave that for fate to decide. I know that we will insist that there be elections even if the world comes to an end. It is in your interest that politicians are up, campaigning, daring COVID, and its death. It is a great sacrifice we are making for you and your future. We are holding rallies, even staging huge burial parties for your sake. The other option is to have the old master, Mr. Jones, back to Animal Farm. Moreover, I am sure no one wants to see Jones back with his corruption and oppression.