Evaluating Jammeh's Presidency

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Yahya Abdulaziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh has been the president of The Gambia since 1994. Jammeh took over when Sir Dawda Jawara was forced out of office after a military coup. Jammeh wasn’t officially sworn in as the president of The Gambia until November 1996. He has been re-elected as president ever since. The following sources examine whether Jammeh is a good president or not.

An article from a private Gambian newspaper, The Observer, congratulated Jammeh on his fourth year anniversary of his discovery of a cure for HIV/AIDS. The Observer reported that Jammeh found cures for diabetes, infertility, and other diseases as well. Another article from The Observer revealed that forty-five farmers benefitted from The Gambia’s NDMA (National Disaster Management Agency) that gave out ninety bags of rice and forty-five bags of flour due to destruction to the farmers’ rice fields by hippopotami. The Observer discussed a village’s participation in community street clean-ups. The benefits of the clean-ups are reductions in brush fires and sickness. The NEA (National Environmental Agency) helped organize the clean-ups. These two articles show Jammeh cares about the welfare of his people because he provides them with cures for diseases, as well as organizations that help with relief from natural disasters and maintenance of their environment.

The Point is another private newspaper in The Gambia that is controlled by the government. All of their articles are supportive of Jammeh but they do not glorify him like The Observer does. For example, there were not any articles written about Jammeh’s fourth year anniversary of finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. The Point writes good things about Jammeh so they won’t be shut down by the government. In t...

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...Very Small Place in Africa, edited by Kevin Reilly, 220. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2010.

Wright, Donald R., “The Sad State of the Gambian Press.” In The World and a Very Small Place in Africa, edited by Kevin Reilly, 246. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2010.

Wright, Donald R., “Freedom, Dignity, and Human Rights.” In The World and a Very Small Place in Africa, edited by Kevin Reilly, 245-246. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2010.

Wright, Donald R., “Epilogue.” In The World and a Very Small Place in Africa, edited by Kevin Reilly, 265. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2010.

“Gambia’s President Claims he has Cure for AIDS.” Msnbc, February 20, 2007. Accessed February 25, 2011. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17244005/ns/health-aids/.

The U.S. Department of State. “Background Note: The Gambia.” Last modified December 13, 2010. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5459.htm.

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