GAMBIA’S ‘BILLION YEAR’ PRESIDENT
The End of an Era and the Ensuing Political Impasse
Essa Njie
By Essa Njie and Abdoulaye Saine
Republished from: Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa
Essa Njie is a lecturer in Political Science at the University of the Gambia with specific interest in security sector reform, human rights and governance, civil society, elections and democratic consolidation in Africa Abdoulaye Saine is a Gambian-born professor in Political Science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and author of The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratisation in Africa: The Gambia Under AFPRC-APRC 1994-2008
ABSTRACT
The Gambia’s presidential election in December 2016 marked the end of an era for Yahya Jammeh, the man who had vowed to rule the country for ‘one billion years if Allah says so’. The resulting political impasse following Jammeh’s rejection of the results ‘in its entirety’ and his refusal to step down plunged the country into political uncertainty. This paper explores the end of Jammeh’s 22-year rule in Africa’s smallest mainland country, focussing on the 2016 polls which he lost to former realtor, Adama Barrow. The election offers relevant lessons to students of political transitions and contemporary election discourse in Africa and provides an analysis of some of the factors that accounted for his defeat.
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