Jammeh must go!!

The tiny West African country of Gambia is in some hot mess at the moment.

And it all has to do with the fact that President Yahya Jammeh has chosen to be unfortunate.

He doesn't want to step down even though opposition candidate Adama Barrow clearly defeated him in that December 1, 2016 contest.

Jammeh initially fooled everyone by accepting defeat and making a concession phone call to Barrow.

But soon after, he ate his own words and said the election was rigged against him.

To cut a very long story short, Jammeh has rejected pleas from regional body ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) to peacefully hand over power to Barrow since last year.

He has also been manipulating the Judiciary in his country in a last ditch attempt to stay in power after the voters rejected him.

On Tuesday, a Nigerian warship sailed closer to Gambia in a show of force.

Gambia's neighbour, Senegal, is also readying troops should a forceful removal of Jammeh become absolutely necessary.

The United States has also asked Jammeh to respect the wishes of the voters and leave.

“President Jammeh is losing opportunities to respect the will of the Gambian people and to peacefully hand over power to the president-elect, which is supposed to happen on Thursday", said spokesperson of the U.S State Department, John Kirby.

Kirby added that "we want to see the president-elect properly installed and to have in place a government, which is responsible for and responsive to the needs of the Gambian people.

"We call on President Jammeh to listen to his own people, to listen to the Gambian people who have clearly called on him to accept the results of the Dec. 1 election".

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But like the stubborn dog who won't heed the hunter's whistle, Jammeh has continued with his manipulations to stay in power.

He has declared a state of emergency in his country and Gambia's National Assembly has adopted a resolution to allow Jammeh remain in power for another three months.

Jammeh is arm-twisting all the institutions in his country to have his wish of staying on become reality.

But the world has to be united in asking Jammeh to leave.

ECOWAS and the rest of the African continent has to be united in reminding Jammeh that his time as Gambia's President is up.

Jammeh has to realise that dictatorships have stopped being the fad there once were around the world and in Africa. His decision to hang on to power will lead to unrest, violence and loss of life in his country and the sub-region.

Jammeh must go. There's no other way around this.