By Sariang Marong

Corruption as the name implies is an enormous obstacle to the realization of human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural, as well as the right to development. Corruption violates the core human rights principles of transparency, accountability, non-discrimination and meaningful participation in every aspect of the life of the community. Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status.

For the past two years, Gambians have sounded the alarm of corruption and ineffectiveness of their government led by President Adama Barrow. Conversely an incompetent government who time over time failed to deliver on its basic obligation should be a concern to all citizens. We have seen major projects which cost taxpayers millions of dalasi’s just to find out the architecture was poorly planned as well as executed. The government procurement process was full of kickbacks and back door deals which breeds inefficient execution of project management methodology.

Corruption affects human rights both directly and indirectly, for example corruption in our government can impact the proper and efficient execution of public policy initiatives. But also contributes to an environment in which our government cannot function in carrying out its basic mandate. When many of us decided to join the fight to uproot dictatorship in the Gambia, we want a better and a prosperous Gambia where its citizens will enjoy twenty first century amenities. In hindsight, who could have thought our current situation will threaten our peace and security? Who would have thought those who have given all to salvage our country from the brink of civil war will be forgotten too soon? Who would have thought President Barrow will continue to appoint his friends and close allies who lacked the experience to function in key positions in our government? Who would have thought President Barrow will appoint four presidential advisers who lacked the necessary requisite to be advisors?

Our country needs reforms for our government to function properly, the notion that we need to proof that there is corruption in Barrow administration is laughable. The proof is in the projects they have undertaken so far; check the quality of work on the end product after millions of dalasi are spent. The upcoming Presidential elections should be an indictment of Barrow administration; from millions of taxpayer money spent on the various commissions without implementing the commission’s report! Can we ask ourselves are we better off now than four years ago? These elections should be about the future versus the status quo; a more transparent and efficient government that will serve the interest of all Gambians versus a government that serves the interest of few individuals. The elections should be about recruiting technocrats and experience professionals who understand the function of a government against an administration who filled key positions with friends and allies who cannot deliver on key government functions.

I will urge all Gambians to look beyond the idiosyncrasy of their political beliefs and vote with their conscience to effect change. Our people, our country need all of us to create a path for equality and economic prosperity. We have few months before Gambians cast their votes, reflect on those shared values; the right to a better healthcare, the right to cleaned water, the right to stable electricity, the right to better education system, and the right to equality and good governance. As I conclude this writeup; can we collectively effect change come December and fundamentally change the direction of our country for good. I believe we can for a path forward.

May God bless the Gambia and her people.

The writer, Sariang Marong (pictured below), is based in the United States. 

It’s a good day out in the political field for UDP. Getting Ramou from NPP is big, as big as Suku Singhateh leaving the party and heading the other way.

UDP have taken their revenge on NPP. And with style. Having hundreds of UDP supporters gather at Ramou’s house to escort her to Manjai just goes to show how much this means for UDP. NPP took Suku from them and they responded in kind by taking Ramou. A tit-for-tat.

The last time I spoke to Ramou, there was nothing that suggested she was having issues in the party. She only spoke about how much President Barrow respected her. The president always called her ‘sister’ – and she was even planning a big rally for the president in Sabach Sanjal. But when I listened to her swear on her deceased parents, I realised how complicated this really was.

Momodou Sabally is happy. He has been bringing a lot of people to UDP but getting his own sister onboard is perhaps his greatest contribution to this party. That’s my man, there.

Ramou joining UDP has filled UDP folks with renewed confidence. Darboe speaking at his meeting with Ramou said UDP was winning by 55% but with Ramou coming, he has just taken that up to 66%.

But while NPP is poor for Ramou’s departure, it is not big enough to deny an NPP victory. My view of this election remains the same. Even if I will be accused of being bought by NPP.

By Zakaria Kemo Konteh

Oftentimes, we call out the President for his manifest betrayal of our trust, for glaring incompetence of his administration and for his gleefully naked political ambition to seek another term in office. We do so without malice but out of concern for the country and people we love dearly. We have been short-changed big time in ways unimaginable and this makes the betrayal all the more tragic, sad and unforgivable.

The collective euphoria, hope and optimism that buoyed Barrow’s campaign and paved the way for the ouster of Yahya Jammeh, in 2016, was painfully short-lived as it dissipated under the ignominious weight of greed and hunger for power. The ensuing five (5) years has been nothing short of chaotic governance, corruption on steroid in public institutions, impunity on methamphetamine, general freezing of life-changing developments, increased wasteful spending of public resources, high cost of living and an emboldened criminal activities. Arguably, these are as a result of a President consumed in power consolidation, incapable of understanding the awesome responsibilities of the office he occupies and presiding over a government lost in its track with little or no direction, all of which come with enormous cost for Gambians.

Through various decisions, we could understand the mindset of a President solely focused on political survival even when these decisions are tangential or in direct conflict with the overwhelming national interests.

Barrow’s decision on the Janneh Commission’s Report was a text book definition of how he intended to fight corruption and mismanagement: rehire, retain, reward and elevate indicted financial criminals who have remorselessly, dishonestly shamelessly demonstrated political, ethical, legall and moral malleability.

The President’s covert collusion with some members of the National Assembly in the form of financial inducement and other underhanded political maneuvering to torpedo the people-endorsed Draft Constitution is a testament of Barrow’s zero commitment to get rid of both the colonial-era and Jammeh-era anti-democracy and anti-Gambians laws.

Through Mamburay Njie and his Supplementary Appropriation Bills, we could understand the nefarious and wasteful schemes of the sitting President to defraud Gambians in broad daylight for political purposes.

Through Bai Lamin Jobe, we could discern the willingness of President Barrow to award shady government contracts and kickback to his donors.

Through Dr. Lamin Samateh, we understand the President’s absolute lack of care and diminishing priorities for our healthcare systems which has seen recent spike of maternal and infant mortalities our hospitals.

When Gache company imported hundreds of lethal weapons into our country for private use, we realized that Barrow would go to any length to compromise National Security in order to satisfy any compensate his financiers..

And Barrow’s non-commitment towards justice and victims of the former regime’s decades long terror campaign is on full display when his NPP, in an act of political desperation, has turned to APRC for possible alliance the cornerstone of which will all but certain be about shredding of the TRRC’s findings and the potential criminal indictment of Yahya Jammeh for mass murder, torture and crime against humanity.

Thus, with these and so many other examples out there of tragic political, legal, economical and governance failures that have defined Barrow’s Presidency in the last five years, it would be a betrayal of conscience, delusional naivety, rewarding and immunization of wholesale incompetence to give him another chance in office. We should have the presence of the mind and care for the future to recognize critical danger zones and red flags in Barrow’s leadership and commit to ending it on December 4th, 2021.

Making Barrow a one termer would place him in the categories of fellow failed leaders in other nations around the world who have placed personal interests above their people’s, who have squandered historic opportunities, who have shattered the optimism of their constituents and who have failed to deliver for their country. Time to send clear, unmistakable message to our non-performing Commander-in-chief that his days in the State House are ending faster than he’d bargained for, that betraying Gambians comes with a cost and that the only thing in store for him post election is to go back to climbing his 500m Kabaa Tree in Jimara…

By Madi Jobarteh

Look at these expensive vehicles posed in front of muddied lakes in our communities as if shooting of a Hollywood action movie is about to begin. These is how politicians hoodwink and exploit their people. They keep them so impoverished, uninformed and destitute and then appear before them in shiny hardwares and in immaculate dresses as if they are not from those people.

What is President Adama Barrow trying to prove here? For over one year, public announcements and advertisements are bombarded on our radios and television about OIC coming to build 20 new roads as if that will make The Gambia look like Dubai! Yet where are the workers and equipment to build the roads? OIC summit is in November 2022 yet the construction of 20 new roads, not to mention building hotels and hospitals, are yet to start. It is less than 20 months to November 2022. Is it that in every month a new road will be constructed?

What’s the value in visiting it these roads? Is it only to dirty expensive vehicles bought with poor people’s money? These pictures should make the President ashamed to realize that the masses of our people live in these communities thanks to Government failure.

People have to be jumping like frogs amidst these lakes of mud in our streets just to avoid being stained and dirtied. People have been struggling to get to and from home because of these muddied waters because they don’t have such vehicles that the President and entourage are brandishing here like movie stars in an action thriller.

To bring these vehicles here is utter mockery, insensitivity and blatant display of opulence! Utterly irresponsible and unnecessary! This is nothing but a show to wow the people into believing mere propaganda!

Instead, let the President respond to the leakage at the airport. To spend 14 million dollars on such a edifice only to have it leaking is unacceptable.

Let the President respond to the bad roads that are said to be newly constructed such as the Ice Man road or the road connecting LK Sabiji market to Coastal Road in Wellingara or the never-ending construction of the road from that same market going into Sukuta.

The road from Jokor Westfield to Abuko via Talinding and Faji Kunda is horrible. These are among many public works that are substandard yet millions are spent on them. Let the President address that. All of these roads indicate bribery and corruption and inefficiency.

Finally before coming here, let the President address the poor drainage and sewage systems all over the greater Banjul area.

The Minister of Health has just announced a polio outbreak precisely because of poor drainage and sewage. The polio virus were discovered in Banjul and Kotu yet the President has not even talked about that!!!

Polio is a more dangerous situation than COVID because it targets children by making them physically disabled hence undermining their growth, denying them opportunities and equality in future!

Let the President stop the foolery and respond to urgent national issues. If you have already secured funding for 20 new roads, then let the work begin than taking expensive vehicles to dirty them in the mud for nothing. Stop playing with public resources!

For The Gambia ?? Our Homeland

By Cherno Baba Jallow

In the presidential elections of 2016, Gambians were presented with a Hobson’s choice: return an erratic dictator to power or hand the presidency to an inestimably inexperienced candidate.

Enter President Adama Barrow.

Gambians were never in doubt about Barrow, the man they were going to entrust with the custodianship of their national affairs. He was a complete greenhorn in statecraft. He knew nothing about governance, about government, this sprawling industry of institutions and personalities and policies and ideas.

Getting rid of Jammeh was key to the Gambian voters. It offered them a much-needed springboard for a fresh start, a new direction. Jammeh had to go. The country had to be pulled back from the looming possibilities of societal disintegration. But the voters were also hopeful that his replacement, though woefully ill-equipped, would do better at some point in the long-run.

How? First, by surrounding himself with the right people, the people with the ideas on the knots and bolts of governance. And second, by the gradual process of self-inculcation, learning on the job, immersing himself in the conceptual and deliberative processes of decision-making, understanding policies and messaging, presentational and aspirational leadership.

Gambian voters didn’t expect Barrow to be proficient in his job as soon as he entered the State House. But they expected him, and time permitting, to master, at least, the rudiments of leadership, and in consonance with the aspirations of the people who voted for a change.

But like a man caught in a quicksand, Barrow is either stuck or drowning. He has been unable to impress with any new-found skills. It’s not even the fact that he has been snail-slow in the leadership-learning process. It’s the fact that he hasn’t learned anything at all. There are many factors to account for that, but his failure to thrive is mainly because he has had advisers who don’t know anymore than he does. It’s the blind leading the blind.

Consider Barrow’s recent proclamation that he would stop political rallies if he won the forthcoming elections in December. No leader who had been well-served by his advisers and who understood the basics of electioneering, would reveal such a hostile mindset, and certainly not in an election year.

Barrow, in barricading himself and in a desperate attempt to mollify our fears over his recent faux pas, can’t do himself any good by hiding behind the recent press release of his spokesman or by expecting us to accept the famous quip that leaders should never be judged by what they say but rather by what they do. This is no waiting game.

This is a matter of immediacy. A leader threatening to end political campaigns —- the lifeblood of any democracy —- shouldn’t be ignored. He should be put under the microscope. All the way to Election Day. Gambian voters shouldn’t wait until Barrow acted on his threat before they took him seriously. They should. Now.

Banning political errands or speech is the legerdemain of dictators or leaders hankering after power, the concentration of its allocation and the pervasiveness of its reach. It is dictators like Saddam or Jammeh or Hoxha who show such perniciousness. Leaders, like Barrow, whose ascendancy arose out of the crucible of democracy, and who, in particular, defeated one of Africa’s last hold-outs of dictators, ought to know better. They are expected to be staunch allies of democracy, promoting and strengthening the ideals of free speech and association, the rule of law and citizen-sovereignty.

But Barrow has gone off-tangent. This is the first time he has shown flickers of arrogance of power. This is out of character. Until now, Barrow had carried himself well. He hadn’t cared publicly about the acerbic criticism, ridicule even, some in the citizenry had been throwing his way. He knew how to tune it out. He didn’t howl back. He didn’t arrest or detain journalists or opposition leaders. He just kept to himself, taking the vitriol on the chin and moving on and confounding his critics with his reticence.

Going into the elections later this year, Barrow’s strongest suit has been his tolerance for dissent. The Gambia is enjoying an unprecedented level of freedom of speech. Barrow isn’t the provider of this freedom. This was earned. But in Barrow, a man known for his humility and not easily thrown into irritability, The Gambia’s new-found and healthy expressiveness has found the right ally.

No longer? By his recent pronouncement, and which was, by no means, an unforced error in political speechifying (he was both blunt and precise), Barrow has begun squandering away his most substantial political capital. And on this issue, he has both shaken the confidence the people had in him and gifted the opposition a strong talking point going into the elections.

Should he lose in December, Barrow should look back on his recent speech as the catalyst for his political demise. We will find out in the coming months.

About the author: Cherno Baba Jallow is a native of Basse and currently lives in New York City. You can personally write to him at: [email protected]

By Basidia M Drammeh

A troubling image making rounds on social media of the Banjul International Airport inundated with water speak volumes of the country’s state of affairs. The reported leakage at a recently renovated airport to the tune of $14 million reflects the poor maintenance quality due to suspected corruption. Incidentally, a friend of mine who recently visited the Gambia relayed his impressions about the much-vaunted face-lift of the airport. He told me that the tiles are of poor quality, insisting that he would prosecute the tile layer for corruption if he were President Barrow!

Corruption is endemic and pervasive across all sectors in the Gambia in the form of bribes, kickbacks, favouritism, nepotism, and the embezzlement of public funds. No official has ever been charged or indicted for corruption despite reported corruption cases since the Barrow Administration came to power in 2017. A recent survey by Afro Barometer has found that the Majority of Gambians see corruption increasing and the government failing to fight it. According to the report: “Over the past three years, citizens’ perceptions of widespread corruption among public officials have increased significantly. It also noted that a substantial number of Gambians report having to pay bribes to obtain public services, and only half believe they can report corruption to the authorities without fear of retaliation.

Likewise, the United States has recently issued a scathing and damning report accusing the Gambian authorities of turning a blind eye to corruption, lamenting the Government’s inaction to combat graft.

In the same vein, the Kanifing Municipal Council has been mired in corruption allegations, with the CEO put on administrative leave as investigations proceed in financial misappropriation. The Deputy Mayor also resigned, citing family reasons following a report published by the Freedom newspaper alleging that the Deputy was caught on a leaked tape involved in a bribe of about one million dalasi. Observers believe that the alleged corruption at KMC only came to light because the Freedom newspaper decided to blow the whistle; otherwise, everything would have been normal.

To stem the cycle of rampant corruption in the Gambia, the long-awaited Anti-Corruption Bill should be passed by Parliament to ensure that alleged corruption cases are fully and thoroughly investigated and that those found wanting face the full force of the law.

Back to the airport saga, we don’t need another toothless and ineffective commission of inquiry. Instead, all the officials involved in the renovation project must be suspended immediately and questioned by the police. Anyone found guilty of dereliction of duty and corruption should be fired and prosecuted, and there must not be any sacred cows!