On conceding defeat to Adama Barrow, a former security guard for a British firm called Argos from North London, Jammeh showed the world and, particularly, his fellow African leaders, that conceding defeat in polls was very fundamental to Africa’s nascent democracy.
His action captured headlines across the world because it is rarely heard of for an African leader, and an incumbent one to boot, to concede defeat to an opposition rival.
We have often seen incumbent African leaders refuse to accept defeat after elections which are usually rigged. There is a saying that Africa is more democratic than Europe when it comes to elections because ‘winners’ are known even before the poll results are announced. This is laughable indeed.
But what Jammeh did on Friday should act as a lesson to other African leaders. They should start cultivating the culture to concede defeat after election results have been announced and they have lost.
It is high time our leaders stopped complaining after the polls on various but not valid reasons. And in most cases refusing to accept defeat leads to political disorder and, of course, bloodletting.
Indeed, Jammeh has demonstrated that conceding defeat is not a sin. President Jammeh, who had pledged to rule for a billion years and who had ruled the West African nation for 22 years since he staged a coup, conceded defeat to opposition leader Barrow.
The chairman of the Gambia Electoral Commission, Alieu Momar Njie, said: “It's really unique that someone who has been ruling this country for so long has accepted defeat.”
Jammeh was running for a fifth term with his Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), while Barrow ran for eight political groups who united for the first time to field a single candidate.
On Thursday, after voting with his wife in the capital, Banjul, President Jammeh predicted a decisive win.
“This will be the biggest landslide in the history of the country," said Jammeh, but Barrow correctly predicted that Gambians were ready for change after more than 20 years of the Jammeh regime.
"He is not going to be re-elected; his era is finished," Barrow said.
Jammeh came to power in a coup in 1994 and then swept elections in 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011 after a 2002 constitutional amendment removed presidential term limits.
More than 880,000 voters were registered to participate at more than 1,400 polling stations, where they were asked to place a marble in either a green, silver or purple drum depending upon their choice.
Jammeh said before the vote that he would not allow even peaceful demonstrations, dismissing them as “loopholes that are used to destabilise African governments.”
By accepting defeat, Jammeh joins at least five other African leaders who accepted defeat after elections in their respective countries. They are Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Goodluck Jonatahn of Nigeria, Rupiah Banda of Zambia, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Aden Abdullah Osman Daar of Somalia.
This list should be extended by other African politicians to save the continent from unnecessary political upheavals.
Congratulations Jammeh.
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