Africa-Press – Gambia. Dear Editor, Your Excellency President Ibrahim Traoré.
In the pages of our continent’s turbulent history, few moments are as defining as the present, and few leaders are as consequential as yourself. As a highly educated African with deep roots in communication, strategic leadership, international development, and the lived wisdom of our Pan-African forebears, I write to you not only with urgency but also with hope, a hope that must be protected at all reasonable costs.
Mr President, you are not merely governing a country but embodying the aspirations of generations. You are walking a sacred path once walked by Africa’s most gallant sons, Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Amílcar Cabral, and Muammar Gaddafi, who dared to speak the unvarnished truth, challenge global injustice, and place Africa’s destiny back into African hands. Many of them paid the ultimate price, not for crimes, but for courage.
Let history be our witness: the price of sovereignty has often been martyrdom, but the reward of perseverance is the liberation of our future generations.
Today, I write to encourage you to remain steadfast and resolute in your mission to uplift your people, especially the youth, who have for decades endured marginalisation, dispossession, and systemic neglect. Since the brutal and unforgivable killing of Thomas Sankareh, the soul of our youth has cried out not just for justice, but for purpose. His death was not just a loss of one man, but a calculated assassination of vision and hope. And yet, from that very soil of blood, your presidency has emerged as the seed of rebirth.
But as we know from history, the enemies of African progress never sleep. The wealth of your nation, gold, bauxite, manganese, cobalt, uranium, and the very ground beneath your feet, has become a curse in the hands of foreign profiteers. These resources fuel industries abroad while your people suffer from dilapidated hospitals, collapsing schools, food insecurity, and daily power outages. They use our minerals to craft their luxuries, while your youth die trying to cross oceans, not because they are lazy, but because they have been deliberately denied opportunities in their own land.
What, then, must be done?
The answer is not resignation. The answer is unity, education, vigilance, and unshakeable support for transformative African leadership, your leadership. This is not a matter of party or politics but of principle and preservation. Every true African, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or geography, must understand that supporting your presidency is a historical imperative. It is a matter of duty. Because when leaders like your fall, it is not just a man who is lost, it is an entire generation’s destiny that is delayed, derailed, or destroyed.
Too many African nations have fallen victim to Western-engineered political disruptions, often masked as humanitarian interventions or NGO partnerships. Look no further than Libya. The fall of Gaddafi was sold to the world as liberation. Today, that once sovereign nation has become a market for modern slavery, a battlefield for proxy wars, and a cautionary tale for those who dare forget. Your people must not forget.
The same foreign powers that eulogise democracy in speeches have undermined it through coups, assassinations, and economic blackmail. They offer democracy with one hand while arming rebels with the other. They destroy our infrastructure in the name of stability, and then rebuild it at a price we cannot afford, only to enslave us again through debt and dependency.
Let the youth of your country understand: foreign powers do not weep for your pain; they calculate it. They do not intervene because they love you; they intervene to control you.
They will come with grants, trade agreements, and awards, but their real mission is to destabilise and dominate. Let the youth beware of NGOs whose only purpose is to sow discontent, fund chaos, and create new neo-colonial gatekeepers. Let them not be deceived by glossy brochures or foreign journalists who know nothing of our struggle but everything about manipulating our story.
At the same time, Mr President, you must also guard yourself against internal distractions that have previously corrupted or derailed promising African military and revolutionary leaders. Take heed from history: President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia began with patriotic fervour and anti-imperialist rhetoric, yet slowly slid into repression, isolation, and paranoia. General Sani Abacha of Nigeria had a chance to stabilise Africa’s most populous nation, but power without humility led to brutality and global disgrace. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was once the shining light of liberation, only to be consumed by the intoxication of absolute power, which overshadowed decades of accomplishment. Others, such as Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, started as symbols of strength but became caricatures of dictatorship. Please do not let your name be added to that list. You must remain a servant before the ruler, listener before the speaker, and guardian before the governor. Africa needs statesmen, not strongmen.
In conclusion, history is watching. The ancestors are watching. And the unborn are waiting.
Let every village rise with one voice: We will protect our hope.
Let every youth proclaim: We will guard our future.
Let every elder declare: We will stand with President Traoré.
Africa is not a playground for imperial experiments. It is the cradle of civilisation, and now, with leaders like you, it is becoming the architect of its own rebirth.
Stand strong, Mr President. You are not alone. And you must never be.
In Solidarity with true meaning of Democracy and self-realisation, Dr Lamin K Janneh, is a global strategist, transformational leader, communication and agile methodology specialist/consultant, pan-African scholar, advocate for fair globalisation, equal treatment and justice, and African sovereignty.
Source: The Standard Newspaper | Gambia
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