Log In. Search Archives. Subscribe or Unsubscribe. Wed, 2 Jan That this magisterial work also closedwith the overthrow of the PPP government underscores the significance of theseismic event that was 22 July From the onset, therelurks in the background the disturbing issue of a government so divided, and,or, incompetent, as to prove incapable - on any objective analysis - ofadequately protecting national security.
Inextricably linked tothis assignment was the unsettled question of what Sabally, and Hassan, knewabout the political thunderstorm that was to hit their government on 22 July. Inexplicably, Sabally spent that very nightof 21 July in Banjul and was in his office at the State House quite early thefateful next day. On his part, and thisaccording to President Jawara in his autobiography, Kairaba, Hassan brokeaway from the presidential convoy without explanation. He neither briefed his Presidentabout the state of affairs in the country, nor followed his convoy to StateHouse.
And even whereas Hassan dealt with the briefing issue, he avoided thecritical protocol oversight of abandoning the presidential convoy as it headedto the island of Banjul, that potential trap in times of public uncertainty andconflict.
In the chaotic earlymoments of military intervention in Gambian public life, some ministers admittedhearing inklings of something akin to 22 July a whole two weeks prior. Ratherextraordinarily, others heard nothing! Even when the noose was tighteningaround Banjul, the boss of the National Security Service was assuring Cabinet ministersall was well. He pointedthe finger of suspicion at Sabally! However viewed, this was quiteextraordinary, and the evidence, admittedly circumstantial, appears to suggestthe PPP Government was actively self-canibalising in its sunset months, weeks,and days!
And so it happened thatministers in the country, along with some security chiefs, were held captivecommencing that fateful day when a thirty year government spectacularlycollapsed like a house of cards. President Jawara and other senior figures wereafloat on national waters headed for lands beyond our shores. What aninglorious, and some may say, fitting end, to three decades of a generally do-nothingand tremendously corrupt government.
