By Tunde Rahman
He talks softly yet firmly. He would make his point and marshal his argument seemingly effortlessly, yet effectively. His gentle mien would easily tell you he is a man of peace and a committed democrat. His love for democracy, free enterprise, African unity and for peace to reign in any part of the continent is unmistakable. This defining feature of him was on display again recently. President Alfa Conde of Guinea had taken upon himself the task of resolving the building political crisis recently in The Gambia. The Gambian situation had taken a turn for the worse after Yahaya Jammeh suddenly reneged on his earlier promise to respect the results of the December 1, 2016 poll. Tension was rising in that country. Crisis was building fast. The people were leaving in droves to seek refuge elsewhere. There was confusion. The people who had cast their votes to oust Jammeh as president after 22 years in power, empowering his opponent Adama Barrow were unsure of what would happen next. Senegalese and Nigerian troops had massed close to capital Banjul. And it seemed a major confrontation with the dictator was underway,
President Conde flew into Banjul for a last-minute peace negotiation with the recalcitrant Jammeh. He was in company with Mauritanian President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz. Now, Conde was not part of the initial mediation team raised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to resolve the crisis. That team, which included ECOWAS Chairman and President of Liberia, Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and immediate-past President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, made two trips to Banjul to persuade Jammeh to quit. The dictator, sitting majestically on his hallowed seat with the ECOWAS Leaders at the foreground, did not appear like somebody prepared to abdicate power. Resplendent in his flamboyant attire, the Alhaji (Dr) Sheik Jammeh sat as if dishing out orders to the leaders. The long and short of it is the ECOWAS leaders were unsuccessful in getting Jammeh to come down from his high horse and respect the wishes of the people.
The enter Conde and Aziz. Both leaders arrived in Banjul penultimate Friday. They spent two days with Jammeh and succeeded in pulling a major upset. It emerged that Jammeh had agreed to leave office and head for Equatorial Guinea, via Guinea Conakry, to be in exile. In the evening of Saturday January 21, Jammeh was eventually flown out of Banjul in a chartered plane. In the plane were the dictator, his wife, mother, son and President Conde. Jammeh was ferried out in a Falcon jet leased by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, which had been in possession of President Conde for days. President Conde is Asiwaju Tinubu’s personal friend. Conde and co had accomplished a seemingly difficult task. They had staved off the impending war and the often-attendant refugee crisis. As a pan-Africanist that he is, the Guinean president truly lived his name in his intervention in The Gambian political crisis.
Did the ECOWAS leaders sign any deal with Jammeh in a bid to cushion his ouster from office? While the raw details of The Gambian peace deal are yet to come out, what is clear is as much as he desired peace as other ECOWAS leaders in The Gambian, President Conde, as a true democrat, would not do anything to mortgage the rights and entitlements of the new Gambian President Barrow and the people. He would not do anything that would endanger the future of The Gambia. This seems clear enough from the declaration by Senegal that there was no immunity for Jammeh. Senegal’s Foreign Minister said last Sunday that the West African leaders did not agree to immunity for Jammeh during their negotiations with him. The Senegalese Foreign Minister Mankeur Ndiaye had told Reuters:“President Jammeh and his team concocted a declaration to be endorsed by (regional bloc) ECOWAS, the United Nations and the African Union that gave him every guarantee, essentially impunity.
“This declaration was signed by no one.” The AU and the UN published a joint declaration from the three bodies “with the purpose of reaching a peaceful resolution to the political situation in The Gambia.” In it, they pledged, among other things, to protect Jammeh’s rights “as a citizen, a party leader and a former Head of State”, to prevent the seizure of property belonging to him and his allies, and to ensure he can eventually return to Gambia. Ndiaye, however, played down the significance of the document. “I want to be clear on the fact that no ECOWAS head of state validated this declaration”.
What is particularly instructive about President Conde is his optimism about the resolution of the crisis right from the onset. He had expressed the hope that the political crisis in the Gambia would not get out of hand up to the point of military intervention. Speaking during a visit to Turkey on December 28, President Conde had said he would prefer to focus on dialogue first. “We have a big problem in Africa today. When someone loses power he has to be assured that he, or his team, family, or wife will not be taken to court. They may not be afraid but what about their loved ones who are afraid that it becomes a witch-hunt? But I hope we can find peaceful solution to problem in The Gambia. I also hope that when the time comes we will discuss with him (Jammeh) to try to find a solution. So I do not think that military intervention is a good solution because it always leads to a lot of deaths and I hope it can be avoided,” President Conde worked to ensure that, that optimism became a reality. He and other ECOWAS leaders saved Africa another war and its disastrous consequences. Conde seems to be the real hero of the prevalent peace in The Gambia.
*Rahman is the Special Adviser, Media to Asiwaju Tinubu
