Fooled by a Tyrant!

"Now I have the mandate to publicly treat all the diseases on condition that the patient will be treated publicly. … I can treat asthma and HIV/Aids and the cure is a day’s treatment. … I am not doing it for money or popularity. The mandate I have is that HIV/Aids cases can be treated on Thursdays. That is the good news and the bad news is that I cannot treat more than ten patients every Thursday. There is nothing I can do about it and if I go beyond that I will have to pay the price…For asthma, I have to choose between Saturday and Friday. I am also not authorised to treat more than 100 people."- Gambian President Yahya Jammeh

Even in this age, it is amazing how far tyrants would go to fool people;

"It's hard to make a name for yourself as a tyrant in Africa; the standards are pretty high. Jean Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, believing himself to be the thirteenth apostle, had himself crowned emperor and is said to have enjoyed the occasional meal of human flesh. In Congo, the kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko built an airstrip for his chartered Concorde jets in the middle of the rain forest. Now, the president of the West African state of Gambia is doing his best to add his name to the list.

Yahya Jammeh, 41 years old, has been the president of bitterly poor Gambia since seizing power in a putsch in 1994. In the three so-called elections since then, he has not relinquished his seat. Among his achievements to date have been giving Gambia's 1.6 million citizens an impressive triumphal arch -- just like Napoleon gave the French -- as well as founding Gambia's first and only university.

Now he has gone a step further. A few weeks ago, Jammeh summoned his followers and a few ambassadors, dignitaries and TV reporters to announce in a garbled address that, having made some fantastic discoveries, he is now capable of curing AIDS (as well as asthma). The president admitted to his astonished audience that the therapies still had a few limitations -- he could only cure AIDS on Thursdays. Asthma, on the other hand, could be treated only on Fridays and Saturdays.

An estimated 20,000 Gambians -- about 1.2 percent of the population -- are infected with HIV. Jammeh claims to have successfully treated nine of them in January, and 27 more in February. He takes equal pride in the 500 asthma victims that he's cured. And he promises to take action soon to eliminate other diseases, since he claims to have a "mandate" -- apparently from none other than God himself…

The country's health minister is a gynaecology graduate, trained in Ukraine and Ireland. Forty-three-year-old Tamsir Mbowe is always present when the statesman tries out his healing skills -- and even though he really ought to know better, he too praises what he calls the "president's intervention in the health sector." Mbowe even claims that Jammeh's ability to heal any patient has been "medically proven."

Related;
Jean-Barthélémy Bokassa blog
Gambia’s President Claims To Cure AIDS
Gambia links
The Gambia and the IMF