afrol News, 17 January - President Yahya Jammeh has again left Gambians talking after he had claimed to personally have cured patients in critical conditions at the Royal Victoria Teaching hospital in Banjul. Mr Jammeh claimed to combine the Quran and traditional herbs to cure patients of asthma, AIDS and other critical diseases.

This purportedly left many people, including doctors at the hospital, stunned.

"Nowadays there are a lot of strange illnesses. It seems there is no remedy for them and most of time even if there is remedy, it takes a lot of time for patients to heal. So I think its time for me to come out from hiding and show them what I can do," President Jammeh told journalists after curing patients.

"I told Gambians since 1994 that there are a lot of things that I can do. But Gambians would never know the Yahya Jammeh that is here. I believe in two things. If somebody is sick and you cannot cure the person with the Holy Quran, the person is certainly going to die. And it would not take 24 hours."

"There is no disease in this world that you cannot cure using the Quran and some natural herbs that are existing either in the forest and/or at our homes. So this is traditional herbal medicine but basically used in the Quran. It is spiritual. So you will realise that the whole ward that we took care of yesterday were coincidentally, all Muslims."

President Jammeh claimed he was happy to relieve the pain and suffering of two patients who were in critical conditions.

The Gambian President further claimed to have been mandated to cure a certain number of patients during specific days. "I have been mandated to treat some diseases only on Thursdays," he stated.

Last year, President Jammeh publicly exhibited what he called "kube jara", meaning cure all bottled medicine. He said the medicine was jointly made by him and some traditionalists from his home village of Kanilai. He said to protect the medicine from black market fraudsters, the medication would only be marketed in specific Kanilai trademark bottle with certain codes.

While the medicine is said to have cured some people, others complained of stomach complications after drinking it.

One satirical writer asked Gambians to go through the medically approved treatment at the hospital when they are sick. "If you are sick, go to the hospital because when President Jammeh and wife are sick, they go abroad for treatment. If you can't afford the hospital bill, die in peace. It is still better than taking a non-clinically proven medication full of bacteria," he said.

Jammeh's critics said if he had truly possessed divine healing powers, he would have cured the epilepsy of his only surviving daughter. "The fact that he cannot cure his own daughter who has been living with epilepsy for years, goes to show that Jammeh's healing powers are doubted," sounded a critic.

By Musa Saidykhan

© afrol News

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