THIS IS A C70 PRESS RELEASE:

THIS IS A C70 PRESS RELEASE: The C70 is an organisation set up towards bringing all small and big diasporan Gambian organisations together under one umbrella. The organisation is geared towards working with all shades of opinions on matters affecting us as Gambians, with a view to bringing about a better Gambia,where all can live as equals regardles of their political, religious or ethnic affiliations.The idea is to recognise the autonomy of other groups who have not yet joined us but at the same time engage them in matters that concern us all. This is an organisation where everyone has a right and every voice is heard. There are no bosses or backbenchers,all have equal rights and all are allowed and each is given a chance to view their aims and objectives for Gambia including any dissaticfactions on any issues. Aims and objectives are: 1. 1.To foster muctual understanding amongst Gambians in both social, political and national issues 2. 2.To bring about cooperation amongst Gambias in arrears where we differ in opinions 3. 3.To instull a culture of tolerance, impartiality and openess between Gambian factions 4. 4.To coordinate the interess of all Gambians abroad in fostering their interests and aspirations for their country and as well stand firm for what benefits our country. 5.5.To have a Gambia where every voice count and where one's tribe would never become a hindrance to the services you can deliver. 6. 6.To promote a Gambia where the power of the people becomes paramount above individual or group power. 7.7.To have a Gambia where the state constitution would be the supreme law of the Land and where no individual or party can impose anything otherwise. 8.To engage National and International organisations to presure for all Gambians regardless of wheither they be at home or abroad to have a say in who they wish to represent them in high offices be it president or Parliamentarians. The organisation meets regularly but also on every Saturday and Sunday we meet to discuss issues affecting the Gambia and her people, We are in constant contact with the stake holder in and outside the Gambia. Last week the Organisation met and sellected these people on interim bases to run the affairs of the organisation and bring all Gambians on board. Mr. Abdoulie Jobe (Chairman) Mr. Bamba Mass (Public Relations) Mr. Suntu Touray (Treasurer) All are invited to a general meeting on skype on sunday when other positions like Secretary General Cordinator Assistant Coordinator Auditor General Assistant Auditor General Assistant Secretary General Assistant Chairman/woman Assistant Treasurer Assistant public relation officer. All Gambians are welcome as this organisation has membership in every African, European, and American Nation where there are Gambian citizens. No one should excuse yourself. It is a Gambian organisation where even on your first attendence your views are important therefore no one should come out later to say I was not consulted. Thank you so much In the service of the Gambia, I remain your very humble public servant, Mr. Bamba Mass ( Public Relation Officer)

DRUG ADDICTS IN UNIFORM HAVE SHAMED AFRICA AGAIN WITH ANOTHER MILITARY MADNESS IN WEST AFRICA! OH GUINEA BISSAU COUP AGAIN?

AN OTHER MILITARY MADNESS IN WEST AFRICA? OH GUINEA BISSAU COUP AGAIN? By Bamba Mass Human Right Activist (UK) The violence came just weeks before the country's presidential runoff vote, which Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr was favoured to win. There have been fears of a coup ever since Guinea-Bissau's president Malang Bekai Sanyang died of complications associated with diabetes in January, leaving an interim leader in charge of the unstable country, which is known as a conduit for the cocaine trade between Latin America and Europe. The US has accused two senior military men from Guinea-Bissau of drug running. Air force head Ibraima Papa Camara and former navy chief Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto has been named "drug kingpins". One question which many fail to ask about Guinea Bissau is, are the soldiers taking drugs? Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde joined forces under Americal Cabral to chase the Portuguese out and gained independence after much struggle. Now after breaking away from mainland Bissau, look at Cape Verde today! One of the most stable nations of Africa and a model for democracy. While the fellow comrades in the struggle butcher each other for control of power. Kumba Yala who was onetime president of this poor country, need some questions answering as well. This stupid constant drunken man of a professor who never hesitates to urinate on a public highway even while being head of state is using ethnic card to plunge his nation in stream of blood. He has called for the annulations of the just concluded first round elections and said he was withdrawing from a supposed second round between him and former Prime Minister Carlos Gomez. He said there would be consequences if the electoral commission and the courts failed to implement his challenge of a cancellation of the first round and hold fresh elections. He alleged that the election had been fraudulent. Now Alberto Dabo reporting for Reuters News Agency in the Capital Bissau reported that: Only hours before the shooting, Yala, a former president who claims ethnic ties with the mostly Balanta military, had warned of "consequences" if campaigning for the second round went ahead. And his threats went into motion when shooting started on Thursday after the state radio station signal inexplicably went dead. The whereabouts of the interim president, Raimundo Pereira, were unknown A military official, who like the diplomat requested anonymity, said the soldiers had encircled Gomes's home and were attacking the building with grenades. It was not clear if Gomes was at home when the shooting started. "I'm out of it, I don't know who's behind this," Daha Bana, a military spokesman and assistant to armed forces chief of staff Antonio Indjai, told Reuters. "The Military Command does not want power but it was forced to act in this way to defend itself from the diplomatic maneuvers of the Guinea-Bissau government, which aims to annihilate the (country's) armed forces using foreign military force," the communique said, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Local resident Edmond Ajoye, who works for a Dutch NGO, said: "There was panic. Women were running … There were rockets being launched, and the soldiers were shooting with guns mounted on their trucks." "The soldiers took downtown," he continued. "The shooting lasted from 7pm until 9pm. They then went from embassy to embassy to make sure that the politicians couldn't seek refuge there." The violence took even seasoned diplomats by surprise. "I am at the office and I am prevented from leaving," said one diplomat. "The downtown area has been sealed off by the military … I can also tell you that all Guinea-Bissau radio has been taken off the air since 8pm local time and the whereabouts of the prime minister and interim president are unknown." Guinea-Bissau has weathered successive coups, attempted coups and a civil war since winning independence from Portugal in 1974. It has been further destabilised by a growing cocaine trade. Latin American traffickers began using the nation's archipelago of uninhabited islands several years ago to land small aircraft carrying drug consignments, which are then divided up and shipped north for sale in Europe. The traffickers, according to analysts, have bought off key members of the government and the military, creating a narcostate. Guinea Bissau has 88 remote islands off its Atlantic coast, out of which only 21 are inhabited, mostly by fishermen and farmers. So these Islands have been used by powerful military as a transit route for drug smuggling and any civilian know to those powerful military of trying to undermine their only source of becoming somebodies, is what is leading to constant toppling of politicians by Guinea Bissau army. The prime minister and frontrunner in this election Carlos Gomez Jnr is no stranger to soldiers’ arrest few years back he was arrested and detained in an attempted coup but later freed. Today he is under their custody once again.

ECOWAS’ STANCE: Ivory Coast’s Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan announced in Abidjan at a meeting of the regional bloc foreign ministers who converged on the Ivorian Capital to discuss Mali another West African country few weeks ago plunged into a military coup. The situation in Mali however was restored to sanity when the coupist bowed to international pressure and handed the country back to civilian rule with the speaker of the national assembly taking over as interim Head of State. When informed about the Guinea Bissau situation, he said that the region would never tolerate coups in Guinea Bissau. “ECOWAS formally and rigorously condemns such an attempted coup d’état,” he added. Guinea-Bissau Foreign Minister Mamadu Djalo Pires, who was at the meeting, called for an "energetic reaction" from the international community against what he called "a coup d’état". It remain to be seen what ECOWAS would do next but what is the realities on the ground is that the military were at odds with the front runner in the elections who was former Prime Minister and would do everything to prevent him from becoming President. A statement from an unidentified military commander said Friday that soldiers who attacked the prime minister's home don't want to take power in Guinea-Bissau, claiming they intervened to halt foreign aggression in the tiny coup-prone African nation. "The Military Command does not want power they lied. They said they were forced to act in this way to defend itself from the diplomatic manoeuvres of the Guinea-Bissau government, which aims to annihilate the (country's) armed forces using foreign military force," the communiqué said, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa. It claimed it possesses a "secret document" drawn up by the Guinea-Bissau government mandating Angola to attack Guinea-Bissau's military. It was impossible to independently verify the claim. Angolan Defense Minister Candido Pereira Van-Dunem said Thursday in Luanda that his country would "continue to provide full support" to Guinea-Bissau, with which Angola has "excellent ties," Angop reported. He said a calendar for the return of Angolan troops to Luanda was being negotiated with the Bissau authorities.

NOT ONLY HOLDING ELECTIONS MAKES A COUNTRY DEMOCRATIC! MY MESSAGE TO OVERSTAYING LAEDERS IN AFRICA AND THEIR HELPERS.

By Bamba Mass Human Rights Activist (UK) Democracy is far more than just holding of elections. It requires independent courts, a free press; constitutional checks and balances; robust institutions such as independent mosque and churches that are kept away from politics, non-partisan civil servants, universities; respect of the constitution and adherence preserve civil liberties and above all, a culture of openness and tolerance, especially accountable servants to the people rather than to a president. Unfortunately in Africa, Leaders quest to retain power at whatever cost had made it almost an impossibility for voters’ opinions to be reflected in elections because of sham polls which are mostly controlled in such way that there are very meagre chances for opposition to pull through it. At regular instances which are still dispensable in Africa, incumbents take advantage of their positions to hijack all state institution which clears all levels of a balanced and impartial playfields. It makes citizens frustrated and as a result, many ends up serving the regime as they either find no other alternative or they are forced to bow to pressure not see families go hungry. Worst of all their hope which they think lays outside their boarders fades when siders see such nations as stable democracies. The fact remains that outsiders either may not or they over sighted the truth of people being kept under iron fisted dictatorships thus making it impossible for their voices to be heard across their boarders. People live in a state of mistrusting each other thus not trusting if a close neighbour is a member of the secret service. Things only come to light when the people can’t stand it any longer and rebelled openly even knowing the full consequences they will face if their action does not yield any meaningful change. In such they are more prepared to either succeed or die in the process like what happened in North Africa. Another situation is when a sitting president dies unexpectedly like in Malawi. His cronies in crime are sometimes blinded as to what to do to keep the status co and as a result, they would go helter shelter seeking solutions to their present predicaments. It used to be seen and is still seen in some parts of the subcontinent as the sine qua non. In democracy people don’t just wake up and change provisions in the constitutions so as to benefit personally. That only happens with dictators who are mostly with a sickness that affects humans called Bipolar Disorder. This is a disease that makes people especially leaders belief they are no longer ordinary but super humans and as such they are above anyone’s sensor that they are infallible. Such diseases are only cured by death. Leaders with those kinds of mental incapacitations are most of the time lucky and are like riding on an uncontrollable roller coaster, like a monkey jumping from tree to tree. Such Leaders are always the ones who live in constant denial and don't always realize how their actions affect others. When the chemicals in their brains start to run and overdrive, there are so many different moods that they encounter that it is hard to establish realism vs. "just another mood swing". Sometimes their actions are not coherent to them, and they believe in all sanctity that they are correct and everyone else is wrong. Most difficulties are overcome by their ability to cope stress that enables them to stay longer periods of times. Most of their tactics are dividing the majority into whatever lines best suited to serve their purpose and in most cases, it is at the detriments of the majority who are most of the times brainwashed into believing them in whatever they say or do. But unfortunately for such leaders, today’s Africa is rising faster beyond their imagination and one of their biggest shortcomings, includes their failure see broadly. They tend to be hijacked by their handpicked elites who tend to live in the ivory towers of their own and thus oblivious realities on the ground is mostly ignored until it is too late to turn the clock. Patriotism should be all about everyone putting national interest above individual or sectional interest. In any real democracy, no process should be consigned to the elites or any other groups that wish to see their views override the views of the majority because if allowed without any checks and balances, it creates devils in human forms that are mostly smart at the very beginning but with time, they lose all sensible thinking and do only stupid things. The reality those devils in society faces eventually are to live in constant denials of eventualities and as a result, they fails in most of their well calculated plans to silence people. Because little did they know that sinking the roots of democracy from people who are born free, is no easy task. I mean silencing people who have the capability to seek the truth after being marginalised for long is more difficult than developing wings to fly. Many African rulers still equate peaceful opposition to their policies with treachery but the truth is, they are real traitors to the office of president and Nation because they abuse their incumbency by using state resources to their advantage and denying oppositions’ equal share of the national cake. Too often, African bigwigs think it best, after a shabby election to cast blame on the opposition so as to find escape route to cling on to power. Leaders whose hands are not clean would try every tactic to intimidate opponents by using the media and other resources and denying the oppositions to be heard so that the people can make a fair and balanced judgement They tend to put in place dodgy legislations that would prevent oppositions from holding rallies to sell their Ideas to the people while they hijack all media institutions to their advantage broadcasting their policies on daily basis. That is the real treachery and cheating not otherwise. But while they do their dirty deals, they failed to realise that the habit of democracy is steadily catching on and global medium such as the online web disseminates different pictures and news from their own thus treading the masses more to find the truth on the internet which they sometimes find hard to curtail. As a result when certain dubious dealings of the government are put to light, sacrifices are bound to be made to keep the status co. That is why a lot of firing and hiring takes place and sometimes some fired officials are recycled back into the system after a period of time. That is how dictators operate and the more people remain disunited, the longer their purpose is served and the longer they stay in office. But they cannot overstay the inevitable which is death. HOPE STILL EXISTS! Real democracy existed in Africa despite numerous dictators around and genuine leaders set good precedencies for their countries as we saw in 1991, in the modest West African country of Benin, four decades after most African countries had achieved independence the leader in mainland Africa, bowed to the wishes of the people and let himself be peacefully ousted at the ballot box. Since then, however, at least eleven presidents have admirably accepted the same fate while still in office. The latest being Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal—a far better record. Botswana has topped polls as continental Africa’s best-run country. Since independence in 1966, it has consistently held unfettered multi-party elections. It was blessed with a fine founding president, Sir Seretse Khama, succeeded by three decent leaders to date. Recent success in development and democracy was witnessed in Ghana which after decades of dictatorship, in a twist, showed exceptional maturity with power changing hands after a really close election. Such result was a model even for Western standard. Also in Sierra Leone the same trend had followed likewise in Guinea Conakry when both countries experienced decades of dictatorships. Senegal and Malawi became the most resent. Though Ivory Coast had it tough but eventually the voice of the people won over dictatorial tendencies of few. It is also the hope of anyone who loves democracy to see Africa through a smooth transition like the one experienced in Zambia when President Mwanawasa died a few years ago. We have also seen how the powers of a strong constitution have forced military junta in Mali to give up and bow to the wishes of the legislature of that nation. President Amadou Tumani Touray has also for the love of his country resigned for a transition to be able to take place so that the speaker of the Malian Parliament Dioncounda Traore to become interim president with the task of organising elections within 40 days, according to the agreement which am sure would be pushed further to alleviate the escalating problem in the north of the country with the Toureg rebels who have taken almost more than half of the country and declared an independent state of Azawad. I hope peace would be restored in Mali too with this signing of peace with the junta and hope Gao, Timbuktu and other historical towns of value to world heritage would not be destroyed during the push to flush the criminals from those towns. Praised also should be given to the clown of Bamako Captain Yaya Sanoko for recognising that power really belongs to the people and bowing to such. In Malawi after the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika, some power brokers within his party were trying to exploit the tragedy to twist the constitution so as to deny the current Vice President the right to assume office which is debilitating to Malawi’s democracy but again, the strong constitution survived when the vice president Joyce Banda, who had held onto her post of vice president despite falling out with late president Mutharika who fired her from the party, she was sworn in as new president as per according to the constitution on Saturday. UNFORTUNATE SADNESS BUT WITH TIME THE PEOPLE WOULD PREVAIL. Africa needs strong constitutions that can stand the test of time. Therefore with love I send my own humble advice overstayed President like: Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea (1979 to now) 33 YEARS Eduardo Jose Santos President of Angola (1979 to now) 33 YEARS Robert Mugabe President of Zimbabwe (1980 to now) 32 YEARS Paul Biya President of Cameroon (1982 to now) 30 YEARS Yoweri Museveni President of Uganda (1986 to now) 26 YEARS King Mswati III king of Swaziland (1986 to now) 26 YEARS Blaise Campore President of Burkina Fasso (1987 to now) 25 YEARS Omar Al-Bashir President of Sudan (1989 to now) 23 YEARS Meles Zenawi President of Ethiopia (1991 to now) 20 YEARS Issayas Afeworki President of Eritrea (1991 to now) 20 YEARS Professor Dr. Yahya A J.J Jammeh president of The Gambia (1994 to now) 17 YEARS All the above leaders have overstayed their welcome as a result, people in their individual countries cry in silence praying for their departure Even if they have done good in some quarters their evil would over shadow their good deeds because as they grow older, their ideas grow with them. They need to know that while they can molest, kill, plunge fear, or anything for that matter to survive whatever forces that stands in their way, they cannot defeat death just like Mutharika who was one of them couldn’t. Even Paul Kagame of Rwanda who had been in power since the genocide that brought everlasting scar on humanity and Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo (Former Zaire) who succeed his assassinated father Laurent Kabila, both need to go now after serving for over 10 years which in my view should be the borderline term limit for all Presidents. HOPE NEVER DIES IN AFRICA They need action now for the future of their legacy just like the President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete who true to his pledge to set up a strong constitution which will set in place a viable constitution strong to keep the Tanzanian nation on the strong foot of democracy for good, has just last weekend, made his promise a reality by setting up a Constitutional Review Commission which indicated the fact of his serious about the future welfare of his country. The team he set up constituted numerous renowned individuals of impeccable integrity and genuine love for their country. Happily, a number long held belief of falsehoods popular in Africa are being exposed. One of which is that dictatorship and one-party states do better at imposing discipline to spur economic growth. A recent paper by two Oxford academics rubbishes that theory, not just in Africa. The same paper rightly lauds another good African trend, to impose term limits on presidencies as adopted by most African nations now days. Another useful democracy-boosting device, which a score of African countries have agreed to adopt, is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, whereby governments and big companies with which they do business publish details of their dealings in transparent ways so as to reduce if not completely eradicate corruption. There is a long way to go before all the rest of Africa follows Botswana’s example. No recently retired African leader was this week deemed worthy of winning an annual prize for promoting democracy donated by Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born philanthropist. Yet more Africans these days accept that being able genuinely to choose their leaders is the least bad way to freedom and prosperity. We have seen today in Africa what happens in Senegal where the people’s power overrides dictatorial imaginations of one leader backed by few and with all done to prevent the voice of the people to be heard, democracy has finally won. Now Macky Sall has become president despite being opposition just last year. Malawi too has become a success story. God bless Africa where hope defeats dictators!