To mark the occasion the office of the Director General of the so-called Presidential Medical Treatment Program, who is also Medical Director of the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital, Dr Tamsir Mbowe, issued a press release that claims “since the inception of the treatment program, thousands of patients and their families have benefited.”
The release adds that the “discovery” by the Gambian leader of herbs with the potency to cure these diseases “makes President Jammeh one of the greatest medical practitioners of his generation.” The release adds that Mr. Mbowe and the entire presidential treatment program team, patients treated and those undergoing treatment and their families, the director general of GRTS and his team, all thanked and commend “Professor Alhagie Dr. Yahya Jammeh for his continuous support to humanity.”
Now used to the many weird behavior, activities and pronouncements surrounding official and especially presidential affairs in the country over the last three years, few Gambians actually cared to laugh at the content of the release. Gambians now watch their maverick leader with yawning carelessness and very few have any more faith in his witch-doctor activities that are officially labeled “presidential treatment program.”
The release of course refrained from mentioning how many of the “thousands of patients” that is claimed to have benefited from the program are still alive. The Gambia Journal has leant that almost half of the patients that Mr. Jammeh claimed to have cured from the HIV/AIDS disease are no longer with us. But the release of course did not give a word on that.
The deaths of many of the victims, forbidden from using life-support ARV drugs under the president’s witch-doctor treatment are usually covered up. Generally even obituary announcements of their deaths are not allowed on state media. It is therefore understandable that few Gambians bothered themselves with the marking of the two year anniversary. Any attention or time they do appear to have, other than grappling with the growing difficulties of making ends meet, is a wave of fresh surprise from the erratic Gambian leader.
Last week Mr. Jammeh once more surprised Gambians when he sent around a marabout, escorted by a contingent of armed State House guards to exorcize state institutions and government offices which, according to his delirious mind, are infested with various charms, spells, amulets of fetishism and witchcraft. After first converging upon the headquarters of the police in Banjul, the mystic team went to the headquarters of the state owned NAWEC and Gamtel. There employees were stripped naked and any amulets founded were taken away. At the NAWEC power house at Kotu, the marabout that places he pointed out be dug up to take away articles of witchcraft that he claimed had been buried in.
Gambians were aghast at what was happening and rumors made endless rounds. One famous police officer known as Kumba had to be hospitalized after his encounter with the marabout. According to rumors, after stripping him of all his “gadgets” Kumba was forced to drink a liquid potion meant to “disarm” or purge him of the jujus he had been wearing. After this, he was said to have fainted and had to be carried to the hospital in Banjul.
At Gamtel and NAWEC the marabout was able to point out those who had the evil spirit with them and had to be exorcized with recitations and potion drinking. They were after compelled to take a new oath of allegiance to president Jammeh and NAWEC and Gamtel bosses. The whole thing was just too much for citizens. Even sycophants at the state media felt they had to refrain from reporting the bizarre incident. But with Jammeh being what he is and operating on a level up in the clouds, far from everybody, we may not have seen the last act.