By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
Political analyst and political science lecturer at the University of the Gambia (UTG), Essa Njie, has said unlike Yahya Jammeh’s regime, corruption is decentralized in Barrow’s government.
Essa, a popular political analyst in the post-Jammeh era has said that the Gambia is yet to take a complete departure from the Jammeh era since so many things that happened in the last regime are still not corrected. He said the issue of rampant corruption has been shifted from being centralized as in the Jammeh era into being decentralized in President Barrow’s government.
“We have not taken a complete departure from the Yahya Jammeh era. Laws that were here are still here. How institutions were, they are still the same. Rampant corruption was centralized. He was the one enjoying it and would jail anyone who ventured into corruption. But under Barrow, it is decentralized. Everyone is into corruption. In this country, corruption is still here,” he said in an interview with LSTV1.
The university lecturer further said that nothing has changed in the country except having people sitting in the media and talking about the government without being arrested or tortured, an action that was prevalent in the Jammeh regime as revealed at the Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC).
Mr Njie blasted the civil society groups and opposition political parties for being silent about rampant corruption in the government. He outlined that the silence of civil society groups and opposition political parties is not good for the country.
“Rampant corruption in a broad daylight, but to see opposition parties talking about it, to see civil society groups talking about it, is hard. That is not good for the country’s democracy. So, that is why I asked what difference do we have with Jammeh?”.
He further explained that it is sad in the country that president Adama Barrow appointed an adviser who never served in the government before. He said some advisers have no idea of how to run an NGO much less a government.
