West African leaders visit Gambia amid political crisis

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari arrived in Gambia on Tuesday alongside other African Union leaders to try to convince the country's outgoing President, Yahya Jammeh, to step down after his election defeat.

Jammeh had initially conceded defeat to Adama Barrow, but a week later backtracked and refused to give up power citing alleged irregularities in the election process.

“President Buhari and the ECOWAS [Economic Community Of West African States] leaders will discuss the ensuing impasse in Gambia with President Jammeh, and insist on the sanctity of the electoral process, and respect for the wishes of the people,” according to a statement by Nigerian presidential spokesman Femi Adesina.

"They would also ask their host to respect the constitution of his own country, and maintain the inviolability of an electoral process that had been concluded, and in which he had admitted defeat, and congratulated his main challenger," the statement added.

The meeting with Jammeh will also be attended by Liberian leader Johnson Sirleaf, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and Ghana’s incumbent President John Mahama, who himself recently lost his re-election bid.

The West African leaders are also expected to meet the President-elect, Barrow.

Jammeh, who continues to cling to power, has ruled Gambia with an iron fist for 22 years. Gambians got only “a week of democracy” between the president first declaring he accepts the election result and when he claimed there have been irregularities in the process.

On Dec. 2, Jammeh surprised everyone when he extended a helping hand to his successor on national television. With smiles and jokes, a style uncharacteristic of Gambia’s tough-talking military ruler, he had telephoned Barrow to express his readiness to offer any advice that might be needed.

However, a week later on Friday, Jammeh announced in a nationally-televised address that he was rejecting the outcome of the election in its “totality”, citing irregularities in the process, creating a new political crisis in the country.