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I can still vividly recall how the news of
Deyda Hydara's killing was relayed to me on the morning of December 17, 2004,
after I returned from a trip to Zambia the previous night. Very early that
morning, I called his childhood friend and partner at The Point, Pap Saine, who told
me: "They shot him dead last night." I had to pinch myself to realize that I
was not actually dreaming.My first encounter with Deyda was in 1979
when, as a junior reporter for The Nation
newspaper (published by the late William
Dixon-Colley), I was arrested and detained by the police for a commentary I
wrote about corruption in the police force. Deyda frequently visited me at the
police station and gave me the encouragement I needed to survive the ordeal. As
the then-manager of the first private commercial radio station in Africa, Radio
Syd, and vice chairman of the Gambia
Press Union (GPU), he not only fully supported me in my journalism career
but also encouraged me to apply to be a union member. After that, he became my
friend and confidante. Even when I took over as president of the GPU from him
in 1998, he continued to give me invaluable counseling and advice.
Deyda was quite courageous and very
passionate about defending press freedom in the Gambia, and he would go to any
length to express his views on it in his popular "The Bite" column in The Point. Deyda was not only a
journalist, but a human rights activist and a philanthropist who participated
in various humanitarian causes, including raising funds for the mental wing of
the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in Banjul. He was also quite a sociable
person who had many friends across the social strata.
Since Deyda's murder, Gambian authorities have
not shown genuine interest in investigating his murder, leading the GPU to call for external investigators. We have watched as the Gambian
government invited British investigators to help investigate certain crimes--the
latest being the large haul
of drugs recently uncovered in the country. We are convinced that if the
same dedication had been shown to Deyda's case, it could have been resolved
long ago.
Nevertheless,
while the Gambian authorities have woefully failed in their duties to bring the
justice to Deyda's case, his family, friends and colleagues are consoled by the
overwhelming support and interest that his murder continues to generate, both
at home and abroad. Since 2004, Deyda has received so many international awards
and accolades, the latest being the "Hero
of African Journalism Award" by the African Editors' Forum, of which he was
a founding member.
Rather
than continuing to treat this case as a non-event, Gambian authorities should
assume their responsibility of investigating who killed Deyda and why. That is
what all decent Gambians and the international community expect of them, and
nothing less.
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A great loss to The Gambia.We will never forget Deyda.
We will never forget a true son of the Soil. The face of freedom in Gambia.