Two weeks ago, we discussed how the public media, particularly the GRTS have unashamedly been transformed into the propaganda organ of the ruling APRC, on a daily basis churning out loads of propaganda and lies on behalf of the party while ignoring other issues relevant to national development and cohesion, particularly as we approach the November presidential elections.

We also discussed how the regime has ensured that the private media, particularly the private radio stations, have been cowed down into submission and prevented from even carrying their own news bulletins, let alone discuss political issues, thus leaving the terrain to the GRTS alone to act as a propaganda tool of the APRC, while the opposition and the rest of the society are unfairly denied access to the media.

Therefore, the more the campaign for the presidential elections intensifies, the more the regime tightens its grip on the public media, with total exclusion of the opposition and the rest of Gambian society, and yet they are giving everyone the impression that this country is a democracy capable of holding free and fair elections.

And despite all the obstacles being placed on the way of the opposition both before and during the campaign, the Independent Electoral Commission is behaving as it is business as usual and giving the whole world the impression that the country is ready for free and fair elections. What a joke!

However, while all these unfair use of the public media and state resources are going on, the thing that seems to intrigue everyone these past few days had been the lengthy discourse attributed to Kukoi Samba Sanyang, the leader of the failed 1981 coup, published by the Daily Observer, calling on Gambians to rise against the Yahya Jammeh regime.

While there is no iota of evidence supplied by the Daily Observer that the discourse actually originated from Kukoi, or whether it was just another of the disinformation campaigns mounted by the spin-doctors at State House, but if indeed it is from Kukoi, then he must be grinning with pleasure that President Jammeh’s own Daily Observer has acted as a willing outlet for his campaign against the regime.

Therefore, virtually everyone is flabbergasted as to why the Daily Observer of all media outlets would carry verbatim such a vilifying campaign against the regime of President Jammeh, whose praises the paper sings on a daily basis.

Of course, one does not however need to be a genius to know that there may be a possible ulterior motive to it.

While there are several plausible explanations as to why the Daily Observer would publish such an anti-Jammeh campaign, which we understand was passed on to the paper from the State House, the most credible explanation so far given by some political pundits is that it may have quite a lot to do with the forthcoming presidential elections.
 
A political analyst, who begged for anonymity, attributed the publication to being part of a well orchestrated scheme by the regime to create a false sense of insecurity in the country as we approach the elections in order to give them the pretext and leverage to act against the opposition and other critics in the event that things get tough for them during the campaign.

Of course, while there is as yet no hard evidence of the existence of such a scheme, but certainly both the action and the timing look quite suspicious.

But as they say in Wollof, ‘Dohoti gelem chi kow la dem’ (a camel’s fart goes upwards), it is therefore just a matter of time before the truth becomes bare.

However, regardless of the veracity or otherwise of the Daily Observer article, Kukoi is definitely a spent force that hardly poses any threat to this country. Therefore, choosing him for scaremongering is certainly not likely to make much impact on the campaign.