Gambian president calls his citizens lazy, threatens to fire them

President Obama delivers his State of the Union address next week. If he really wants to get the cable channels talking, perhaps he should take his cues from Gambia’s just reelected president, a humble fellow who goes by the name of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh. Yahya was just ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
SEYLLOU/AFP/Getty Images
SEYLLOU/AFP/Getty Images
SEYLLOU/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama delivers his State of the Union address next week. If he really wants to get the cable channels talking, perhaps he should take his cues from Gambia's just reelected president, a humble fellow who goes by the name of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh. Yahya was just sworn in for his fourth term after a widely criticized election, and he's not exactly into the hopey-changey stuff:

President Obama delivers his State of the Union address next week. If he really wants to get the cable channels talking, perhaps he should take his cues from Gambia’s just reelected president, a humble fellow who goes by the name of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh. Yahya was just sworn in for his fourth term after a widely criticized election, and he’s not exactly into the hopey-changey stuff:

"You cannot be in your offices every day doing nothing… and at the end of the day you expect to be paid," he said on a televised address on Wednesday.

"This has to stop. You either do your work or leave or go to jail," the president said.

"I will wipe out almost 82% of those in the workforce in the next five years starting this Friday unless they change their attitudes," he said – without elaborating.

Yahya evidently hasn’t decided to soften his tone in the wake of recent turmoil in the Middle East and Africa. He’s told his critics they can "go to hell" and vowed to rule for "one billion years."

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

Tag: Gambia

More from Foreign Policy

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.

At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment

Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.

How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China

As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.

What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal

Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.

A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.
A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.

Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust

Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.