By Dibba Chaku

It is often said that “the secret to change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” Change management can be a daunting task and if not handled with care and precision, an organization or a nation may slip and fall into some perilous ravine and then be faced with a mammoth task of trying to emerge from that quandary. The Gambia is faced with the conundrum of trying to put herself on the right footing amid novice mediocre leadership and rampant ‘chunneh’ conduct that is doing nothing but stifling her efforts to head in the right direction. It is without a jot of doubt that the initial euphoria that surrounded the democratic transition has worn off gradually, giving birth to the current tense conundrum. After uncaging ourselves from the whims and caprices of brutal dictatorship and autocratic rule, we availed ourselves of the opportunity to start afresh and put The Gambia on the right footing. Four years into our new dispensation, you wonder how much progress we have made so far, with our shameful and ugly past fresh on our minds.

The current administration promised to embark on reforms that we hope would lay down that solid unbreakable foundation we can build on. To begin with, a commission of inquiry was set up to investigate the financial dealings of former president Jammeh. The findings startled many, but most importantly, many were left in a state of bewilderment when the current administration cherry-picked the recommendations of that commission and resorted to preferential treatment for obvious reasons because it is wining and dining with some of the adversely mentioned untouchables. This undoubtedly jeopardized the work of the commission that drained the nation off its meager pecuniary resources. We also saw the setting up of a constitutional review commission that comprises highly educated and experienced people with exemplary characters who were tasked with drafting a new constitution that represents the wishes of the Gambian people. Their integrity was unquestionable from the onset. They had consultations with Gambians both at home and abroad, and crafted a document that captured the wishes of the people. To the dismay of the president, his cabinet and stalwart supporters, this draft constitution would serve as an impediment to Mr. President’s desire to self-perpetuate. That is when they started developing a strong aversion to this important national document and devised a ruse to block its passage. We saw the attorney general’s feeble attempt to “defend” a draft bill at the national assembly in a performance that was nothing but lackluster. He refused to own that bill and acted indifferent to its passage. To add salt to injury, the information minister came up with the pretentious pronouncement that they invested so much in the draft constitution and that they really wanted it to pass. Unfathomable! Even ruminants will struggle to regurgitate that paradox because the inconsistency would rupture their rumens. That is like a lioness telling us that she is an herbivore when she is in fact a carnivore because we see her lay down ambushes to strike down and ravage other animals beyond repairs, feeding on them thereafter. The country is now stuck in a constitutional impasse because the person who was voted to lead a transition government and help fix an inherited broken system has now fallen in love with longevity in that position. He is the epicenter of this quagmire as he is determined to cling onto power even if that means being culpable of moral misconduct.

The biggest slogan of the current administration since its embryonic stage has been reforms. Undoubtedly, this gave hope to the citizenry that we were heading for posterity. One of the biggest reforms that continues to reverberate in our ears is security sector reform. Not much has been done in that area because only the reformers know, see, or feel what exactly is being reformed. The fragility of our internal security is an unfortunate reality that petrifies us daily, although we continue to be under the illusion that there is a security sector reform. It may be helpful to consider reforming both the reforms and the reformers. The so-called eight region was promised voting rights in the next presidential elections. Will diaspora Gambians partake in the December polls by casting votes in their various countries of residence? I seriously doubt this because the current administration has lost its popularity in the diaspora and is likely to come up with some lame excuse of either not having the financial resources or unprepared for it. The powerful minister of tourism insinuated this in the recent meet the people’s tour by saying it would be unfair to extend the franchise to diaspora Gambians in some communities and not others. Therefore, diaspora Gambians who want to vote in December should go back home to register to vote. This administration had almost five years to devise a ruse and work on logistics for diaspora Gambians to vote in December 2021. To not make that happen amounts to nothing but unwillingness on the part of the government.

From 2017 to date, the current administration seems either unable or unwilling to turn things around and put us on the right footing. Now it is asking for more time because it believes or is made to believe that it is doing a fantastic job. The Gambian voters cannot say that they are not in the know as to whether their lives and standard of living have improved or not because he who feels it knows it. Gambians have seen enough of this government’s performance to be able to appraise that performance, so the ball is in our court to either retain or replace this administration, knowing fully well that being elected to office by the general populace provides no guarantee that national leaders will be effective or dedicated to the national interest. David Cuschieri said “The mind is a powerful force. It can enslave us or empower us. It can plunge us into the depths of misery or take us to the heights of ecstasy. Learn to use the power wisely.” A regime change in The Gambia unaccompanied by a system change would be insufficient to put us on a development-bound locomotive.

By Famara Fofana

In this day of breathtaking transformations in the digital media landscape, journalism appears to be a less hard job. Despite being blessed with the internet and the many conveniences it has brought to humankind, the irony is that journalism is in fact a different animal today than it was a decade or so ago. This is even making a lot of people ask the question ‘who is a journalist today?’

Fake news, which could mean different things to different people in some instances continues to pose one of the biggest threats to the credibility of the news media industry.   In case you wonder why I stated that ‘fake news’ could mean different things to different people, look no further than a certain Donald Trump, who despite being flagged several times for his own culpabilities in that regard, is reported to have mentioned ‘fake news’ more frequently than his campaign talisman ‘build the wall’ since he first used the term on December 10 2016. That was a ploy by him to discredit those that were not singing from the same political hymn sheet as him.  By the way, The Donald is not the only guilty party here. Politicians elsewhere and some leaders with populist tendencies also are in the habit of branding criticism(s) as fake news when they have their back against the wall. The term seems to be carrying a similar connotation as propaganda in the political arena of yesteryear.

Let’s face it! Journalists like the rest of society are bound to make mistakes. However, the thing is that even the most minute of errors by a reporter or an editor (the supposed gatekeeper) in his or her line of duty can have catastrophic consequences for society.  This is even more true of a country like ours where the pursuit of both personal and political capital in a year of elections means any little lapse on the part of a journalist can be received with explosive kneejerk reactions and rightly so. But beyond politics, the publishing or dissemination of news that is found to be unfounded in the end can have serious ramifications for both persons and establishments at the center of those stories.  Careers and reputations can fizzle in a jiffy with the publication of stories that border on fake news or fabricated information that mimics news. Apart from established media entities, there is also the small matter of individual journalists in The Gambia the habit of copying and pasting news  on social media without  citing sources, thereby leaving their publics with more questions than answers.

And despite the fact that some people in our country frown upon the classic tabloid style of news reporting that thrives on hyperbole and melodrama, it is worth stating that sensational or Yellow Journalism as championed by the likes of William Randolph Hearst in the 1890s, may in itself not amount to fake news. Rather, it is the proliferation of citizen journalism, digital activism, chaotic communication, among other forms of online reportage that has increased the tendency for misinformation and/or the spread of fake news nowadays. This problem seems to be further compounded by the new-found super aggressive competition between different news media in dropping scoops with attention-grabbing headlines. Some would argue that the quest for ratings and views, coupled with an urge to   satisfy sensationalism-loving generation is also a reason why the media today doesn’t do a robust news processing and packaging job where every T has to be crossed and I’s dotted.

But whilst the untrained or unconventional journalist can be excused for letting go some basic tenets of the trade, a professional is expected to have his or her work grounded in facts and truth-telling – nothing more – nothing less.  So, in an era when even mainstream media houses in The Gambia and other parts of the world do fall back on non-journalists for videos and eye witness accounts of certain developments, what then should be the role of the journalists or a given media house or online platform in dealing with such secondary products?   The obvious step in the first place is to substantiate the veracity of the incident/occurrence at hand. By so doing, one would be required to go few steps further – to not just ensure the authenticity of the videos alone that easily go into online circulation these days – but utterances that are made by individuals in those clips ought to be more than double checked.

At times also, the problem is not about WhatsApp videos or audios that are peddled around with such a speed and precision but even ordinary people and what they post online, especially on Facebook, should be taken with a pinch of salt. The temptations are there for journalists to take some people’s words as the gospel truth on account of their reputation and/or profile in society. Be as that may, a degree of caution would be required in such circumstances given the implicit bias in us as human beings.

Of worthy mention here would be recent widespread reports that large quantities of ‘Cocaine’ were found in Kombo Sanyang on a day of mayhem and grief in the coastal community. On the back of the seizure of large quantity of ‘Nose Candy’ at the Banjul ports, the Sanyang cocaine claims sent a bewildered nation into another meltdown until the country’s anti-narco agents shot down those reports as false.  That tells you the power of misinformation. It has also what it takes to send people into jitters but how the media deals with unsubstantiated information from a people crumbling under information overload can help the rest of us. By virtue of its very powerful Magic Bullet or Hypodermic Needle capabilities, the effects of mass media, audiences (particularly passive ones) are likely to believe and accept that which come from journalists without any second thought.

Our current realities are best summed up by Silvio Waisbord of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs   in his paper Truth is What happens to News: “Journalism as a single institution cannot possibly control this environment. Certainly, individual news organizations have the power to determine what they publish and what norms should be followed, as they struggle to reassert their position as a “news authority” in a crowded landscape of information flows.”

The tangle web of the digital age is here to stay. For the media, the opportunities are immense but so also are the downsides in the context of fake news and/or misinformation and the dangers associated therewith. Over to us, Gambian journalists.

Famara Fofana is reading Media and Communications Studies at the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Ankara University. He is a Freelance journalist and also the author of When My Village Was My Village and Recollections of An African Child.

By Madi Jobarteh

The Gambia Police Force must be advised that the issue in Sanyang cannot be addressed by mere arrests, detentions and prosecutions. This is because the issue in Sanyang, just like in similar communities, is first and foremost a political issue that needs political attention, and not necessarily a security response upfront. The Police did well to restrain themselves in the Sanyang Riots such that they did not cause the death of anybody as they did in Faraba in 2018. While that is commendable, the Police must therefore continue to restrain themselves lest they shoot themselves in the foot.

When the Faraba Riots took place, a commission of inquiry was instituted led by lawyer Emmanuel Joof, now the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission. After two months of fact finding in July and August 2018, their findings and recommendations squarely predicted the Sanyang Riots two years and nine months later. Hence the fact that these riots did erupt in Sanyang today can be said to be the result of the blatant disregard of the Faraba Commission Report hence the direct fault of the Gambia Government.

In its recommendations especially in preventing the recurrence of a similar riot, the Commission unequivocally stated that,

“The recent incidents in Gunjur and Sanyang Fishmeal factories operated by Chinese owned companies almost erupted into violent confrontation because of issues surrounding environmental pollution which if not properly addressed, will lead to public unrest and possible violent confrontation. The authorities cannot continue to sweep issues of environmental concerns under the carpet and hope that they will go away. There must be political will on part of the Government to implement these changes.”

When this report was done, there were already several incidents taking place in these coastal towns against the unethical behaviour of these poisonous factories leading to some arrests and court cases. Thus, the issue of the Senegalese man was only an unfortunate trigger, but it already found on the ground a well-established smouldering situation waiting to erupt. The question therefore is, why did the Gambia Government refuse to address the findings and recommendations of the Faraba Commission? That is the problem. Squarely.

Not only did the Commission raise the need for communities to benefit from the proceeds of these mining activities and factories in their localities, but it went further to say that these factories must also not pollute the environment and must as well invest in the welfare of these communities. It is obvious that these fishmeal communities are best only at polluting the environment as well as denying benefits to the wider communities around them. Yet the Gambia Government continues to ignore public outcries about these concerns.

In fact, the Faraba Commission highlighted the lack of an EIA being carried out before these factories were set up as required by law, while the necessary monitoring by public institutions were not done. Furthermore, the necessary consultations with communities before the issuance of licences were also not done hence the reason for the unending tension in these communities. Indeed, the Faraba Commission was very thorough in its findings and recommendations.

The Report even went further to bring in expert opinion on conflict analysis and mitigation to say that land ownership and land use was a source of conflict in several communities. While noting that there were many unsolved conflicts surrounding the private sale and transfer of landed properties, these conflicts also have the tendency to take the dimension of tribal and religious lines in Kombo South, particularly in Gunjur, Sanyang Taneneh and Tujereng. To prevent or solve these conflicts, the Report expressed an expert opinion that there is a need to create an independent land commission to adjudicate, advise, monitor, demarcate and mediate land issues.

Therefore, after almost three years since this Report was issued, why and how come there should be another riot over the same issues, especially in Sanyang today? The purpose of Government is to protect the rights and fulfil the needs of its citizens. The access, control, ownership and use of land and natural resources are fundamental human rights issues. If, because of the abuse of the land rights, citizens were compelled to riot and cause the destruction of life such that the Government had to set up an inquiry in order to understand and bring solution to the issue, why then should that Government ignore that Report?

As the Faraba Commission Report indicated, the Government cannot push these issues under the carpet. The Sanyang Riots are therefore caused by none other than the Government of Pres. Adama Barrow and he must be held accountable. The National Assembly as well as the National Human Rights Commission including the civil society and the communities in particular must confront Pres. Barrow to explain why he ignored the Report of the Faraba Commission that he himself established on his own.

Therefore, the Police must stop the arbitrary arrest of the youth and let the political leadership take ownership to address this situation. It is utter negligence of duty by the Government which caused this unnecessary and painful destruction of life and property in the first place for which the President must be made to pay for it. If the President had paid enough attention to the Faraba Commission Report and ensured the thorough implementation of its recommendations indeed we would not have gotten here today.

We must not allow the Government to let factories to wilfully exploit the country’s natural resources and then pollute the environment in total contravention of the law but then clampdown on citizens who respond to these acts of blatant destruction of their environment and livelihoods. If the Government is indeed interested in law and order, then why is it letting factories to break the law without consequences, but then subject citizens to severe punishment for responding, even violently, against these factories who first violated the law? After all, before citizens rioted, they had first cried out for help from the Government without any success. May we ask therefore, whose interest is the Gambia Government really protecting?

For The Gambia Our Homeland

By Madi Jobarteh

It’s 4 days since the IGP issued a press release on the Poliso Magazine Facebook page. In one sense it gave a reassuring message that the police will act according to law. But in another sense it raises more questions as to why the ‘vigorous patrols’ in Sanyang if the police already had said that the situation was under control.

But since then dozens of youths are being arrested yet Poliso Magazine has not provided an update! The initial report said there would be investigations. But now arrests are taking place when the public is not told if the investigations indeed took place and what was found!

The police cannot stay mute over its actions in Sanyang. It must not use the riotous incident to unjustly and illegally arrest and detain.

There are already unconfirmed witness accounts that some of the arrested youths are being tortured. There are reports that others are arrested at night. These are unacceptable actions if found to be true.

Arrests and prosecutions will not address the core of the problem in Sanyang. Since the Faraba incident 2 years ago, the Commission of Inquiry Report predicted this kind of incidents erupting in coastal towns if necessary action is not taken to address issues of land and natural resources. The Government only failed to implement that report.

For so long, the youths of the coastal towns have been raising serious concern about the destruction of their environment by the Chinese fishmeal companies. Yet The Gambia Government only ignored those concerns.

Riot, according to Martin Luther King is the language of the unheard. So let the Government listen to these youths and their communities to address their concerns than to ignore only to use force and law when hell breaks lose.

Gambians must not accept ever again the arbitrary and illegal use of force by the security institutions on our citizens.

Yes, it is utterly unacceptable for citizens to burn down a police station or engage in violence in expressing their grievances. But the solution to that is not to further ignore the original concerns and only focus on the consequences of that negligence that comes in the form of riots!

Therefore can the IGP issue an update to citizens as to what is reason for the spate of arrests in Sanyang! Police services in a democracy are expected to be transparent and accountable to the public.

The National Human Rights National Human Rights Commission, The Gambia must monitor the situation to equally update citizens and ensure that they police act within the law and not violate rights.

TANGO and The Gambia Bar Association must also be seized with this issue in the internet of justice and human rights.

For The Gambia Our Homeland

By Dibba Chaku

In the annals of Gambian politics and our unflinching determination to untether ourselves from dictatorship and tyrannical rule through democratic means, one institution that was inundated with a plethora of praises and commendation is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) due to the pivotal role it played in ensuring that the will of the Gambian people was not subverted in the 2016 presidential elections. One would have expected the IEC to build on that success but that has not been the case. Just before the announcement of the final results of the Niamina West by-election, we saw the current chairman of the commission punching numbers on a calculator in what I think was the addition of numbers.

A sickening sensation assailed me upon seeing that because the IEC should not have an eighty-six-year-old using a calculator as a final check of the arithmetical accuracy of election results. He should be reading the results from a wide screen, with the numbers having been entered and checked by some computer program. Even a simple excel spreadsheet that is prepared and reviewed by multiple people could be used in this case. From 2016 to date, the IEC’s performance continues to be mediocre. If there is anyone or any institution that is oblivious of the fact that the next presidential elections will be held in December 2021, that is certainly not the IEC. They had almost five years to prepare for the conduct of the next presidential elections. Arguably, that is ample time to put its house in order and be election ready.

With political parties sprouting left, right and center in an environment that is nearing saturation point, the IEC ought to see the tenacity of Gambians in the democratization process. Thousands of fourteen-, fifteen-, sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds in 2016 have all reached the voting age and should be ready to cast their votes in December. What could be more monumental in the activities of the IEC than a registration exercise that would put voter’s cards in the hands of these young people? Shouldn’t the IEC sensitize the public on this pivotal exercise, weeks or even months before the commencement of the registration exercise? Should they not hold a press briefing to detail out the plans and modalities of the registration exercise? To our utter dismay, they issued only a statement-long press release that the registration exercise was postponed until further notice, just a week before the commencement date of the voter registration. When they later appeared before the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly, the IEC argued that they could not conduct the registration exercise because their requested budget has been cut significantly, meaning they have not been given enough financial resources to conduct such an exercise. FPAC’s reason for slicing the IEC budget was that a lot of prices for the items listed in that budget have been inflated, so they had to redo the math thereby cutting the budget numbers to reasonable amounts.

The IEC responded by saying the items will be used for several years, so they ought to be of the highest quality. The issue here does not require the services of a mediation expert to get resolved. Let the Gambia government buy the requested items at the reasonable prices and not the IEC-inflated prices, and then hand those items to the IEC. Then we will see if the commission would reject the items and demand the receipt of funds instead. It is my fervent belief that they will not be that infantile.

Election 2021 is a monumental event that Gambian voters are looking forward to, considering the level of political activity in the country despite the global pandemic that has ravaged communities and confronted every level of the world economy. The quality of refereeing in this national event should neither be mediocre nor feckless. This institution must understand that its decisions and actions have more profound consequences than one might think.