By Kebba Ansu Manneh
Officials of Brufut Lands Restitution Secretariat (BLRS) have written an open letter to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Taf Global Empire, Mr. Mustapha Njie, urging him to practice what he preaches by using his conscience to admit errors and apologize for wrongdoing for acquiring swathes of lands belonging to people of the Brufut and Yundum.
The Secretariat’s reaction follows the Taf Global Leadership Academy’s CEO lectures on conscience recently held to instill zeal and self-confidence into the heart and minds of young Gambians.
They have also argued that Mustapha Njie fondly called Taf has no moral compass to preach conscience to the teeming youthful population of the country, noting that the CEO could have used the lecture to apologize to the people of Brufut for acquiring their lands that eventually led to his position and status today.
“Despite familiarity with the fairy tale of the genesis of your wealth, we watched the ‘lecture’ with an open mind. We had assumed with time your conscience and moral fibre would have been fortified – thus enabling you to admit your errors and make amends,” BLRS wrote in its open letter to the TAF CEO.
They added: “You were in scintillating form – and captivated your impressionable audience – no doubt. You looked resplendent in that colourful and flowing Nyetti Abdu. The crown-like perching of the Aboki hat on your head added a certain symbolic paradox to your sartorial choice. Crowned emperor of [fill-in-the-gaps]! Perhaps? The missing element was a griot ensemble – headed by a Hallam player and backup women vocalists – belting out “Njai Jatta Njai, Gaindeh Njai, Alburr Njai, Njai Kulli Jatta Njai.” According to them, the abstract concepts of the lecture, its substance, and the delivery were faultless, adding that many of those who attended the lecture were either oblivious of the CEO past or chose to disregard it but the communities in Yundum and Brufut, understandably, the performance was a master class in deceit.
“Though not unique to you, the predominance of ‘Muslims’ in The Gambia must have featured high in your calculations. Hence, though the performance was exemplary in impression management, one wonders if the deeper symbolism was not its object lesson in hypocrisy and insincerity. As a test of the growth of a moral backbone or the awakening of a dormant conscience, however, the speech fell short,” BLRS further debunks Taf CEO’s lecture on conscience.
They added: “We suspect publicly expressing contrition was daunting – or mustering the courage to come clean on the specifics of the Yarambamba and Brufut projects overwhelming but it was a missed opportunity, nonetheless. These lands are significant, as they are the singular source of your prominence and prosperity; you used them as collateral to secure loans from Shelter Afrique and other investors.” The Secretariat went further to allege that the provision of those loans catapulted Mustapha Njie from an aspiring developer into a big league developer culminating in the establishment of the “Taf Global Africa” empire.
The group continued to observe that there is a social context as to why what happened has happened, arguing that the acquisition of these lands from the poor people of Yundum and Brufut by Taf Construction Company has had a devastating effect on these communities creating social malaise of callousness and depraved indifference.
“These factors are the underbelly of the ecosystem that enables the “rich and powerful” to use their wealth with efficient expediency. Affluent persons whose dubious wealth would ordinarily make them by words for iniquity are instead celebrated and feted as saviors. To maintain the pretense, such persons fall back on cultivating certain mythical personas – embroidering and weaving their biographies through curated narratives and perpetuation of fallacies,” BLRS stated in the Open Letter.
It added: “For perspective: many would have never heard of Mustapha Njie, give you the time of day – without the proceeds from those lands. You would not have gained an army of “dubious influence peddlers” and “social influencers” who hero-worship you. Some do so in craven calculations of benefitting from your “philanthropy,” whilst for others it is a case of shaky ethical and moral foundations. Whatever the motivations of each subgroup, their perception of you as their benefactor fits into the per formative benevolence that is prevalent among us.”
The BLRS continued to allege that Mustapha Njie exalted to his current position and prestige thanks to the abuse of fundamental rights, violence, and the threat of violence the dictatorial regime of Yahya Jammeh hung over the plundered communities, adding that servile security service, coupled with an emasculated judiciary, further enabled the autocracy to bend both important and fundamental legal strictures to forcefully allocated those lands to your company culminating to your wealth and status.
“Mr Njie, you would agree that the confiscation of swathes of ten-plus [10+] and thirty-plus [30+] hectares in the most desirable and expensive areas of The Gambia is bad enough. It is unjustifiable to give these to a single individual. It contravenes all codes of propriety – including the substantive issue of lawfulness – in transgression of the inviolability of private property,” BLRS highlighted.
“The nature and scale of the expropriation remain an outlier in our nation’s history. At conservative estimates, it is akin to emptying communal coffers off tens of millions of US dollars and gifting it to you. In financial terms, this is what you might call an incredible windfall return on investment. This speaks to the staggering scale of the thievery. This is the consequential bit of your back story. The rest are mere embellishments, fabrications, and myths.” Among other issues, the Group emphasized that it is unacceptable and unreasonable for Mustapha Njie, CEO of Taf Global Empire to continue hiding behind Jammeh’s excesses or to profess innocence in this abuse will not withstand the slightest scrutiny, adding that this hide and shake acquisition of wealth can neither add legitimacy to his enrichment of self at the expense of these Kombo families.
“Our inheritance is the seedbed of your prosperity – and the engine of your intergenerational wealth-creating behemoth. We, therefore, will not relent in our pursuit of justice and accountability,” BLRS disclosed. They added: “The reason for this stubborn determination is obvious: the past most often informs the present and sometimes foretells the future. Lest we inadvertently give a modicum of respectability, we shall not mention the “compensation” forced on these landowners. Such blatant disregard of basic human decency could only happen in a dictatorship
” The Open Letter that was jointly signed by Dave Manneh and Abdoukarim Sanneh further submitted that Taf Global Empire CEO’s talk on “conscience” was a lost opportunity, arguing that the forum should have been the perfect moment for a confessional, and atonement. There is no room for equivocation or moral ambiguity here, Mr Njie. It is fine and dandy to talk theoretically about “conscience,” “decency” and “truthfulness” but when the speaker is the embodiment of the very opposite, decent people shake their heads,” the Group added.