By Musa Sallah, Brufut, The Gambia
The new Gambia reminds me of the revolutionary struggles against colonialism waged and won by countries like Angola, Guinea Bissau, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Those struggles, like ours for this new Gambia, involved all and sundry – from the opposition politicians to the Gambians living in the diaspora, to the market woman and the cripple in his or her wheel chair. This new ‘independence’ was fought and won by all. Now that President Adama Barrow’s government is appointing the new ministers and technocrats to usher in the new Gambia, business as usual will no longer be viable.
History has recorded the earth moving contributions of ancient Greeks such as Aristotle, Thales, Socrates, Archimedes and Pythagoras in the fields of Science, Philosophy, Mathematics and Astronomy, etc. The common thread among all these great thinkers was that they all went to Ancient Egypt and studied under the tutelage of Africans. They might have been going back and forth to Ancient Greece as ‘semesters’ in their ‘bling blings’ during school recesses; nonetheless, they all completed their studies and went back to Ancient Greece. Their contributions have positively affected the rest of humanity until this day. That spirit of civilization and nation building can be ushered in The Gambia with the dedication, contribution and hard work from all Gambians. The idea of self-entitlement and that; government is the answer to all problems have to undergo collective and societal repudiation.
One of the biggest contributors as a block for the victory of President Barrow’s coalition government is the Gambian Diaspora. These Gambian citizens abroad contributed moneys, moral support, political advice and logistical support among many. They are more than ever needed to be involved in the socio-economic development of this new Gambia. Some of them may be hired as technocrats and bureaucrats in this new government but the vast majority who have technical and /or business experience may rather opt for the private sector instead. Many Gambians abroad are endowed with successful careers in Business, Finance, Engineering, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Management, Mass Communications, Agronomy, Mechanized and Commercial Farming & Fishing, Medical fields and Pharmacology to name a few. These avant gardes in the Diaspora like the Ancient Greeks who studied in Ancient Egypt, must not be ignored or sidelined in this new Gambian dispensation.
The coalition government has a duty to engage this block of Gambians to entice and reverse the brain drain, help repatriate their capital (human and material) back home and to create a more business friendly environment. It is said that, “the dollar goes to where it is appreciated” and this is a cardinal truth in enticing capital and investment. Where there is a flow of investment, there are jobs being created. We have seen the flight of capital and investment, the collapse of the light manufacturing industry, the collapse of the agricultural sector, the collapse of the re-export trade, the dwindling of tourism, and many more sad realities. Our youths have adversely become casualties of the debacle of a dictatorial system. Where there are no jobs or hope for the future, the ‘back way’ becomes the viable alternative.
This coalition government is mandated to politically and legally ‘clean up’ the mess created during the last 22 years and ‘tidy it up’ to a level playing field for the future governments to come. We do not expect for this coalition government to embark on massive white elephant projects. Instead we are looking forward to constitutional reform, electoral reform, investment and tax reform, diplomatic reform, international treaty reforms, etc. Business as usual is no longer viable. The involvement of Gambians in the diaspora is urgently needed if this new ‘independence’ is to be sustainable. It is not wise to totally relinquish and partition off your economy to outside forces whose bottom line is to transfer abroad whatever gains they make here. Heavy Gambian participation and stewardship of the economy are vital. These are some recommendations for the coalition government:
1. The government should setup Liaison Offices at all Gambian embassies abroad to harness potential Gambian investors who wish to invest back home. In other words, get closer to the investors. The Liaison officers will be the intermediaries between potential investors and the respective line Ministries and agencies back home. Standard forms and brochures will be available to enquiring potential investors. The Liaison officers may hold investment symposia and fora at their respective embassies which will not be limited to Gambian investors only.
2. Gambian investors should be given preferential treatment in the areas of tax relief, import duty waivers, land allocation (depending on the investment type and volume). Likewise Gambian investors who partner with foreign parties should also be given similar quotas. Similar policies are currently being manifested in countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Botswana. No wonder most of them are called the Economic Tigers of Africa today.
3. Revise the income & corporate tax code to levels that are competitive. Investors don’t choose a country to invest in based on the smiles of her people only. No, but rather because the tax burden of doing business is lighter than their second choice country among other reasons. Notwithstanding, potential Gambian investors are also concerned about the reality that Gambia is one of the highest tax burden countries in the sub region. Former President Ronald Reagan of the United States of America always said, “Tax by any other name is still a tax”. As examples, a beach bar owner in the Gambia shoulders nine different taxes before he/she can operate. A restaurant owner inside Serrekunda shoulders seven or eight different taxes. A local shopkeeper shoulders four different taxes, and so on and so on.
4. The government can identify and create environmentally friendly trade and industrial zones throughout the country. Architects and engineers will design these zones to international standards so as to accommodate the requisite industries. The River Gambia is a sea vessel worthy highway from the hinterland to the port of Banjul. Some of those industries in close proximity to the river may use the river as an alternative means of transporting their finished products. These industries will bring in tax revenues for the government, create jobs and development to the most remote villages in the Gambia. A similar example can be drawn from mainland China during Premier Den Xiao Peng’s era. His government created the different trade and industrial zones throughout China. This methodical planning ushered in the tremendous progress registered by any country in recent history. Countries like Vietnam and Indonesia have adopted the Chinese model of industrial zoning. This is earnestly benefitting their economies for the short and long term.
5. The government should look into privatizing the following companies: GAMCEL and GNPC. Companies like GAMCEL have their hands tied. They cannot compete in a dynamic telecommunication sector when government overreach hampers that process. We have to keep in mind that governments are usually not the best business CEOs. The need to reinvest in better technologies, streamline operations, cut costs and government’s hand in their pockets renders GAMCEL to be a second rated competitor. GAMCEL must be liberated to compete efficiently which will inevitably benefit the average consumer. On the other hand GAMTEL should divorce from GAMCEL and remains a parastatal. GAMTEL will continue to oversee the building of telecommunication infrastructure, manage the Gateway and the call terminations.
6. The government should avoid sole sourcing vital sectors such as making of license plates, importation of petroleum products and medicine to foreigners. There is no country on earth where these sector are doled to potentially risky characters.
7. The government should look into developing standards for consumer goods and commodities. Many imported foods, condiments and used furnishings are potential health risks to the population. Items like GMO foods, highly concentrated salt condiments/spices and used mattresses are some of the culprits. It is obvious that people neither go to the market to knowingly purchase harmful food items to feed their families nor will they knowingly purchase disease infested used mattresses for their families to lay on. If some of these problems are not addressed, it will be a vicious cycle of sick, unhealthy and unproductive population who will overly burden the public health sector. Gambians who import some of these items should remember that they will never go to a market and knowingly purchase rotten meats and vegetables to feed their families. Instead they will carefully examine and buy the freshest meats and vegetables. Therefore importing quality goods to our country should be seen as a moral duty.
We are witnessing the support coming from the European Union and the World Bank. These funds must be put into good use. The government should avoid creating more and more bureaucracies. It is my opinion that when only bureaucrats meet to design policies regarding job creation and tax relief, more unnecessary levels of bureaucracies result instead of jobs being created. Consultation with the private sector in developing policies is vital. Besides youth training schemes, capacity building and deficit spending reduction, etc., some of these funds should be allocated for tax relief to potential Gambian Diaspora investors and suffering businesses at home to help bring back the many private sector jobs that have been lost over the years.
If the government succeeds in creating an environment for a more vibrant private sector economy, self-entrenchment, redundancy and corruption in the public sector will dissipate significantly. Worthy civil servants in the public sector will briefly serve their quota in government knowing that they can join a vibrant private sector eventually. The sense of nationalism has dawned in this new Gambia thereby requiring a paradigm shift. Policies of the 20th century may not be practical in the 21st century.
The first republic ingeniously developed the re-export trade into a successful sector. The second republic squandered that sector thereby giving Senegal the competitive edge. Subsequently our re-export trade volume and currency adversely suffered. So we must not cry over spilt milk or play second fiddle in the re-export trade competition given the reality of our geographical disadvantage. We must think outside the box again to steer Gambia into a brighter future. We must think and act globally in making and selling products and services that are unique and second to none. In closing, I believe that the new Gambia will be ready for business.
In October 2013, The Gambia government under then President Yahya Jammeh withdrew from the Commonwealth, 48 years after joining it. The then Gambia government branded the 54-member grouping, which includes the UK and most of its former colonies, a “neo-colonial institution”.
What is the Worth of Isatou Njie Saidy?
By Madi Jobarteh
In the first place the Cabinet members of the ancien-regime lost a great opportunity for self-redemption when they failed to apologize and seek the forgiveness of Gambians in their meeting with Pres. Adama Barrow on Wednesday February 16. This is because they stood by a despot and his regime that practically and directly destroyed the lives and rights of Gambians with impunity. Hence any Gambian who worth his or her name and had supported Yaya Jammeh must be clear to oneself that indeed one had aided and abetted dictatorship in one’s own motherland. Hence when the members of the APRC Cabinet met the new administration, if they harbour any iota of conscience and patriotism, I expected to see and hear remorse from them for their open support to entrench tyranny in Mother Gambia.
Failure to seize this unique moment to seek the forgiveness of their own people was therefore insensitive at best and rudely dishonest at worst. But what is even more dishonorable was to hear the former Vice President Isatou Njie Saidy claim that what happened since December 9 to January 19 was a ‘little problem.’ It appears to have lost on Isatou Njie Saidy that the very ceremony in which she made such a despicable remark was itself a confirmation that indeed what happened was far from a ‘little problem’. In which country have we seen a transition process between an outgoing and incoming government taking place after one month into the term of the new regime? Hence the fact that Isatou Njie Saidy came to that ceremony to speak about transitional arrangements itself spoke volumes of the huge problem we had.
It is important that the people of the Gambia remind Isatou Njie Saidy of her own track record in the catastrophic tragedy they unleashed on Gambians. In April 2000, it was Isatou Njie Saidy who publicly declared that it was from young schoolchildren that gunfire was released even though none of the paramilitary forces were shot to death. Instead it was 16 students who dropped dead on the ground while many more suffered broken bones. Yet Isatou Njie Saidy claimed firing came out of the students as if the bullets that were fired took a U-turn to hit back at the students.
Let us remind Isatou Njie Saidy that it was her who used her office and influence in August 2012 as a platform to legitimize, legalize, justify and defend the murder of nine Mile 2 inmates on the pretext that they were sentenced to death. Yet Isatou Njie Saidy knows that Section 18 subsection 3 of our constitution states that 10 years after the coming into force of this constitution, the National Assembly will consider whether to abolish or not of the death penalty. Yet since 1997 when this constitution has been in force, the National Assembly never fulfilled this constitutional requirement. Yet Isatou Njie Saidy’s regime went ahead to kill fellow Gambians and a Senegalese lady without due process. To add salt to injury, until today Isatou Njie Saidy and Yaya Jammeh have refused to hand over the bodies of those murdered back to their families. This is not to mention the fact that Isatou Njie Saidy and Yaya Jammeh never ever informed neither the families of the victims nor the Gambian population that a death penalty was to be carried out as required by law.
Let us further remind Isatou Njie Saidy that it was her regime that killed hundreds of Gambians including Deyda Hydara, Daba Marenah, Jasarja Kujabi, Enor Kolley, Almamo Manneh, Elo Jallow, Chief Ebrima Manneh, Kanyiba Kanyi, Koro Ceesay, Njagga Jagne, Lamin Sanneh, Solo Koromah, Solo Sandeng and forcefully caused the disappearance of tens more of our citizens. It was her regime that has caused the rape and beating of women and girls when at the same time Isatou Njie Saidy trumpets gender equality and women’s empowerment in national and international forums.
What conscience does Isatou Njie Saidy have? What is her worth as a human being, a woman and a citizen that she could watch her fellow women and girls being raped and beaten by sadistic beasts yet she claims what happened was a ‘little problem’. If indeed what happened was a ‘little problem’ then why would we have to live with foreign soldiers inside our country thereby compromising our national sovereignty and our territorial integrity and our human dignity? Has Isatou Njie Saidy not seen the ridicule in which she and Yaya Jammeh have put the name of the Gambia around the world? Yet Isatou Njie Saidy, without remorse or shame said what happened was a ‘little problem’. Was Isatou Njie Said waiting to see the Gambia go up in flames first so that she could acknowledge that indeed we faced a huge problem? How can a legitimate son or daughter of the land be so heartless and wicked!
It pains my heart that our Chief Servant Adama Barrow would invite these APRC Cabinet ministers to preside over our national affairs when it is glaringly clear that these bunch of desperados practically sought to burn down the Gambia. Isatou Njie Saidy, without fear or shame, had the audacity to speak in front of Adama Barrow that Yaya Jammeh had advised them to give all the necessary support to the new government. Was she telling us the truth or was she merely being a snake in a green grass? If she was indeed telling the truth, why did she not put it to Yaya Jammeh instead that such a statement was immoral since he had rejected the election results on December 9? But it appears that this lady lacks the moral strength to defend her motherland for God and conscience! Or is Isatou Njie Saidy a self-made slave to Yaya Jammeh that she was prepared to go to hell for a man who does not worth even a peel of mango.
We must tell Pres. Barrow that our vital national interests must not be compromised on the false idea of reconciliation especially with species like Isatou Njie Saidy and her former cabinet colleagues. These ministers have no value for our country and one must not entertain the idea that the country needs them. No society needs sons and daughters who are hell bent on setting their own society on fire. There are uncountable number of decent sons and daughters that can steer the affairs of this great nation to success. Let us search and engage those people.
What we expect from Isatou Njie Saidy and her cabinet colleagues is to go on a National Apology Tour for the torment and trauma they have unleashed on their people. In the meantime, let Isatou Njie Saidy be informed that we will pursue her through the rule of law to bring her to justice for crimes and atrocities she committed against Gambians. Time will tell.
God Bless The Gambia