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Momodou
Denmark
11836 Posts |
 Posted - 21 May 2026 : 22:48:26
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Political Reparations: The state’s responsibility to repair itself
Reparations stand at the heart of transitional justice. Societies emerging from conflict or authoritarian rule investigate the past to reveal the harms it had inflicted upon them and to take actions necessary to repair and heal themselves. Those actions often come in the form of reparations. Specific reparatory measures include monetary compensation, healthcare, psychosocial support services, restitution, and memorialization, mostly provided and administered by the state. In a sense, even reconciliation, accountability measures, and institutional reforms are reparatory measures in the sense that they are designed to repair the damage done by conflict or authoritarian regimes.
Yet, what is often obscured in transitional justice processes is the fact that the state administering reparations is also the state responsible for the harms in the first place. The state as government may change, but the state as state remains and is responsible for correcting the wrongs of the previous state as government. Political reparations, the state’s responsibility to heal itself, implies that a state that violates the human rights and dignities of its own citizens to the extent of requiring a transitional justice process is a deeply flawed state. This fact is often prominent among the findings of truth-seeking bodies, and in a way, frames the tone and character of most truth commission recommendations. The recommendation is always loud and clear that because the state is the chief perpetrator of gross human rights violations, it needs a substantive level of repair in certain critical areas of its machinery, especially the juridical and executive branches of government.
Unfortunately, most transitional politicians are often allergic to thoughts of making any changes to the state machinery that will prevent them from staying on, contrary to the letter and spirt of transitional justice and the long-term peace, stability and security of the nation. It is a sad reality and critical bottleneck for transitional justice that politicians often unilaterally decide that some state repairs can wait since they may easily be avoided in favor of developmental projects, and through manipulation of public opinion, protestations of unmatched patriotism, and indispensable leadership qualities. Conveniently forgotten are the good old days of hankering after the same important changes to the state that they now avoid like the plague.
The demand for political reparations in The Gambia derives its urgency and legitimacy from the fact the arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, torture, sexual violence, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations suffered by the Gambian people were perpetrated by a deeply flawed state. The state under Jammeh was deeply flawed because it had a deeply flawed head of state, and a deeply flawed legal framework that allowed the head of state to become a sit-tight dictator. A legal framework that allowed the head of state to boldly declare to a global BBC World Service audience that he would rule “this country” for a billion years, whether anyone likes it or not. A legal framework that allowed the head of state to loudly declare to the Gambian people, deka bi maa ko mome! (Wolof for, I own this country!), as if God no longer mattered! Indeed, Jammeh was so emboldened by this dysfunctional legal framework that he purported to dictate on which day Muslims must or must not pray the eid. That some highly respected Imams were arrested and subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment because they dared pray the eid on a day of their choosing is a severe indictment of the Gambian state under Jammeh and the legal framework underpinning it. No wonder an alleged perpetrator testified before the TRRC that as far as he his fellow junglers were concerned, when it came to Jammeh’s orders, it was “oga before God!” They would always do oga’s bidding first, then consider God’s opinion on the matter! The law, of course, was whatever oga said it was!
The reality is that some aspects of the Jammeh state machinery that engendered the “oga before God” mentality remain unchanged in the post-Jammeh state. The Public Order Act police used to crush peaceful protests under the Jammeh state is the same Public Order Act police are using to crush peaceful protests under the Barrow state. The absence of presidential term limits in our constitution that emboldened Jammeh to claim ownership of The Gambia, is the absence of term limits Barrow is citing to justify and assert his “right” to seek a third term in office, despite near universal consensus that this is a very bad idea and not good for The Gambia. Barrow’s failure to insert term limits in our constitution and desist from seeking a third term suggests a de facto Jammeh-style claim of ownership of the Gambian Presidency, and clearly points to the potential for a return to military dictatorship at some point. If Barrow seeks and secures a third term, what guarantee is there that he will not seek a fourth, fifth and even sixth term? What guarantee is there that after decades of a Barrow presidency, some ambitious soldier will not entertain some “charitable” ideas about saving the nation again? At the very least, overstaying in power could turn The Gambia into a “republican monarchy” in which the Mansa rules for decades then conveniently hands over to his son or a trusted lieutenant, who would then continue to let sleeping states lie! Examples abound around us.
Political reparations demand that in addition to all the good work it is doing in transitional justice, the leadership of the post-Jammeh state must subject itself to the national healing project. Aspects of the country’s legal framework that enabled Jammeh’s political impunity must be discarded, and new laws must be enacted to ensure that no post-authoritarian leader will ever again abuse their incumbency, and that this country continues enjoying its hard-won peace and stability for the foreseeable future. Primitive instruments of political cruelty like the Public Order Act have no place in post-Jammeh Gambia, while the absence of term limits in our constitution remains an internationally embarrassing and nationally debilitating relic of abusive dictatorship. As chief custodian of The Gambia’s successful transitional justice process, and as per the expectations of both the Gambian people and the international community, President Barrow has no better option than to secure the sustained peace and security of this country by having bad Jammeh-era laws expunged from our books, facilitating the introduction of term limits into our constitution, and desisting from seeking a third term!
Mr. President, when you made the following remarks in the early days of your presidency, you spoke some beautiful truths that raised the hopes of many Gambians and the international community. You said, quote, “I’m a big fan of term limits. Yeah, big time. I’m a number one fan of term limits. Because it’s good for our institutions. Most presidents overstay in power. Sometimes when you overstay, sometimes you go out of ideas. You don’t have anything again to move things forward. I don’t want that to happen in this country. We don’t want people to overstay in power. We want you to come and do your quota and go. So I’m a big fan of term limits.” Those words were music to the ears of Gambians and the ears of Gambia’s international partners, especially those who so generously supported our transitional justice process! Now we are all left in limbo.
We are left in limbo Mr. President, because you seem to have abandoned all those beautiful truths on the virtues of term limits and the dangers of overstaying in power, and are, in fact, now a big enemy of term limits. Yet, abandoning those truths does not make them any less true today than when you spoke them, Mr. President. Term limits are a promise you owe the Gambian people and the world, and a promise you must fulfil if you must do the right thing for yourself and this country.
As a nation-state, Mr. President, The Gambia is like a human body (it’s a body-politic). The state is the head, the nation, the body. We all know that as long as the head remains sick, the body remains sick. Similarly, as long as the state remains flawed, the nation remains flawed. No level of development or professed personal goodwill for the country absolves you of the responsibility to implement the political reparations required by Gambia’s current existential realities. We trust you have the courage and integrity, as our first citizen, to accept this truth and act on this all-important recommendation before it’s too late. Failure to act will be deeply regrettable, both for you and for this country. #NeverAgain!
Source: Dr. Baba Galleh Jallow
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Political Reparations: The state’s responsibility
