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| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Momodou |
Posted - 15 Sep 2022 : 17:27:05
This is No State of the Nation Address!
By Madi Jobarteh
When the Constitution demands that the President delivers the state of the nation address at least once a year on the condition of the country, it does not mean that such address should only be about the plans and intentions of the Government. Section 77(1) rather intends that the President will talk to Gambians about the prevailing issues, concerns, and experiences of the people in the country, and his ideas and solutions for these issues and concerns. In that discussion, the President is bound to refer to or highlight policies and programs intended to address these issues and concerns.
Unfortunately, once again President Adama Barrow has totally failed to speak to the very daily issues, concerns and experiences of the everyday people of this country. Instead, the President wasted the public’s time and resources to only list ongoing and planned projects and highlighting so-called successes and expressing intentions and actions. Most of those projects and successes are in fact failures that have come to cost the people so much!
One example is the Banjul road project, which is not only a failure and blatant waste of public funds but also has come to cost lives and livelihoods in Banjul. But the President never spoke to the illegality of that project. Thanks to that failed project the country is further indebted beyond five billion dalasi annually! On energy and petroleum, Barrow has failed to speak to the blatant corruption involving GamPetroleum and the abysmal failure of the Ministry of Justice to prosecute a case which involves over a billion dalasi.
At the same time, the President has failed to speak about the high cost of fuel other than blaming COVID and the Ukraine War. Currently the transport union is on a sit-down strike thus bringing untold suffering on the people. Yet the President did not even mention that strike much more, offer his solutions and invite the union to more dialogue as any responsible president would do.
The blatant destruction of the environment by fishmeal factories, fishing companies, sand mining companies and other businesses who are occupying the Tan Bi in Banjul was totally neglected by the President. The deliberate encroachment on forest lands and the indiscriminate dumping in forests across the country which threaten the environment were also not addressed by the President. Meantime so many Government ministries and agencies are renting while state lands are being distributed to individuals who do not legally qualify to get them.
While commending the Gambia Armed Forces for its intervention in Foni in the wave of incursions from Senegalese soldiers and Casamance rebels, it is shameful that until today the President himself has not gone to Foni to commiserate with displaced Gambians. But talking about the army and security in general, what has the President done to promote security sector reforms over the last six years? Until today the country is facing military, police, and immigration checkpoints all over the country as if the country is in an armed conflict. These checkpoints do not give any pleasant experience to citizens, rather they slow down economic activity and hamper the free movement of people.
After strategically causing the collapse of the 2020 draft constitution, Pres. Barrow said a new constitution will be drafted to be placed before the National Assembly alongside the reform of laws especially those that infringe human rights. But the President has not provided any timeline as to when the new draft constitution will be placed before the National Assembly. Overall, what is evident is the slow and inconsistent legal, constitutional and institutional reforms hence indicating a failed system change since he took over in January 2017 contrary to his promise in his 2016 manifesto.
Gambia citizens and communities are suffering from severely poor utility services which are erratic and expensive at the same time. Gambians are facing high healthcare costs while public health facilities and workers are poorly equipped to adequately cater for the health needs of the people. The recent secondary school results indicate the poor quality of education services. These are all issues that hugely concern Gambians that the President has failed to squarely address as to his solution for them.
What about transitional justice and the Government’s own White Paper on the TRRC Recommendations? Where do we stand with the implementation of the White Paper? It is now nine months since TRRC submitted its final report and four months since Government issued its White Paper yet today, the President woefully failed to address the issue which is utterly sad and unfortunate because the success of his Government is unattainable without the implementation of that TRRC Recommendations.
The President must realize that democracy and governance are not merely and only about civil liberties, active participation of political parties and citizens and good international relations. If democracy and governance have to be viable and good, it means there should be effective and accountable leadership and responsive administration that address the needs of the people. Currently this is not happening in the Gambia. After kicking out dictatorship, and as Barrow trumpets himself as a democrat, he must be told that the social and economic conditions in this country are dire. People are suffering severely in all aspects.
In essence, the President has failed to deliver an appropriate state of the nation address. He has used it to avoid, ignore and mislead critical issues while diverting attention to issues of interest to himself. The issues and concerns of the people are rooted in the very challenges facing this country due to poor performance of public institutions and officials. He has failed to speak to the issue of transparency and accountability to ensure that the Government indeed delivers. His speech gave the impression that this country is going in the right direction when that is not the case. Contrary to his false claim that the Gambia has a story of success, indeed this country is in severe and turbulent conditions due to his inefficient and corrupt administration.
I hereby call on the NAMs to invoke their powers under Section 77(2) of the Constitution to summon the President to the floor of the National Assembly when they discuss his address. He should be there to listen and answer the questions and comments that will arise. NAMs must realize that the State of the Nation Address is the only occasion when the Executive and the Legislature at the highest levels sit together in one room to talk about national issues.
Hence in the debate of the address, NAMs should call in the President to be part of the conversation since that session is focused on the President’s address. The President is not a king and the Gambia is not a monarchy but a republic in which governance is led by the President and the NAMs. Therefore, the President should come to the parliament to engage in discussion about his address.
For The Gambia Our Homeland |
| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Momodou |
Posted - 16 Sep 2022 : 19:34:51
PRESIDENT ADAMA BARROW'S STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS (SONA) ANALYSIS TO ESTABLISH THE FACTS.
Introduction
Section 77 (1) of The 1997 Constitution mandates the President to attend a sitting of the National Assembly and give an address on the State of the Nation. It says;
"The President shall at least once in each year attend a National Assembly sitting of the National assembly and address a session on the condition of The Gambia, the policies of the Government, and the administration of the State."
This address is supposed to give policy impact assessment and the way for growth and development.
On September 15, 2022, President Barrow had another historic moment to give an overview of the country's situation and his intention to bring back the lost hope of the people and demonstrate that he is fully ready to right the wrongs and mitigate the failures of his regime after 6 years in power. However, it was the same old story of sugarcoating problems.
As poverty, unemployment, inflation, corruption, and poor governance float have hit our country and this moment was just another missed opportunity on his part to clearly tell how he intends to correct the situation. I will analyze 12 key areas of his Nation address.
1. Debt
2. Economic Growth
3. Budget
4) Agriculture
5. Health
6. Investment
7. Stimulus Package
8. Investment
9. Accountability, Transparency, and Justice
10. Security
11. The Mansion in Mankamang Kunda (Conflict of Interest)
12. National audit report and unaccounted account.
1. Debt burden of the country.
The country is indebted to its neck, the country's debt is edging at an unsustainable level if it is not at that point already.
The President said in his speech “Gambia’s total debt service payment in 2021 was 5.01 billion, out of which, 1.9 billion was external debts service payment, and 3.1 billion was domestic service payment."
He further stated: “The debt service payment increased by 11.1 percent from 4.5 billion in 2020 to 5 billion in 2021. There was no debt service suspension initiative receipt, compared to the preceding year. An update on the public Finance Management, the PFM Act is under revision to address the weakness. Once finalized, the public Finance regulations and institutions will be revised.
This is not a fair view of the debt situation of the country because the President only highlights the payment and not actually the debt burden. At the end of December 2020, the total stock of public debt stood at GMD 77.4 billion (USD 1.5 Billion), of which external debt constitutes USD 858 million (57%), and domestic, USD 640 (43%). The nominal debt as a percentage of GDP increased slightly from 80.1 percent at the end of 2019 to 81.2 percent at the end of 2020. However, the present value (PV) of debt to GDP decreased from 67.8 percent in 2019 to 65.5 percent in 2020. The stock of domestic debt stood at D38.4 billion in July 2022, from D37.2 billion in 2021. However, the domestic debt-to-GDP ratio declined from 35.4 percent in 2021
to 33.3 percent by end-July 2022. Short-term debt still accounts for more than half of the domestic debt and the refinancing and interest rate risks remain elevated.
It will be unfair to criticize the President in this regard without firstly giving you a synopsis of his predecessor’s debt stock. Ex-President Jammeh exited power on January 21st, 2017, and the total debt stock (domestic debt and external debt) of Gambia was 48 billion-plus after 22 years of his administration (Data Source: 2017 Central Bank Annual Report).
President Barrow has increased it to 81.8 billion. This means that he has borrowed 33.8 billion just in 6 years and he is still borrowing.
This is unthinkable especially when the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Gambia is worth $2.08 billion US dollars in 2021, according to official data from the World Bank.
President Barrow's administration is throwing the Gambia back into unimaginable indebtedness. In just 6 years of his administration, he has borrowed a total of 33.8 billion or more since there's no new update. To do what in just 6 years? There is no corresponding impact, at least to mention capital investment, for such indebtedness. The Gambia is back on its way to being a heavily Indebted Poor Country.
The speech of the President failed to adequately address these legitimate questions/concerns:
a) Why did he borrow 49 billion in 6 years?
b) What was done with such a huge amount or which projects/programs were implemented with this amount in 6 years?
c) How and when will this debt or liability be serviced and what is the interest on this lending?
The President said, “The repayment on our domestic debt stock has been structured under the current IMF-supported economic program. The government is now working to validate the stock of other domestic debt.”
How can he depend on IMF's Economic program to structure the repayment of his domestic debt?
2. Growth
President Barrow said, “Despite the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Gambian economy, growth rebounded to 4.5 percent in 2021. Although the growth remained below the pre-pandemic level, it was still significant; however, the slowdown of business activities in 2020 and the third wave of the virus in July 2021 affected the economy's recovery".
The failure or decline of the economy cannot be blamed on COVID-19 alone. Why didn’t President Barrow talk about corruption, fiscal indiscipline, tax evasion, and the audit reports from the National Audit Office which showed how millions of public funds were diverted from the consolidated account to private accounts? The President failed to mention that the Gambian people no longer trust the banking sector as a result of his government’s failure to service their accrued liabilities owed to commercial banks. The President smiled saying
He further stated "Notwithstanding the challenges, the fourth review of the extended credit facility with the IMF was successfully completed in December 2021. We remain committed to sound economic management, as detailed in the medium-term Economic Fiscal Framework (2022-2026). The framework is to improve-fiscal stability".
But he failed to mention that such growth will only be achieved if certain conditions are satisfied or some benchmarks are met, some of which include, but are not limited to:
1) Building confidence in the banking sector
2) Addressing Inflation
3) Mitigating Liquidity Crisis (Currency Reform)
4) Attracting Investment (FDI)
5) Tax reform (addressing evasion)
6) Increasing exports
7) Maintaining strong fiscal and monetary policies
8) Cushioning prevailing shocks (e.g. exogenous and endogenous), etc.
Finding concrete solutions to these gaps requires stern political will and structural reform. Local resource mobilization is critical. Sadly, this government is wholly dependent on aid, grant, and loan to survive. The administration lacks basic ideas to maximize local potential, increase revenue base, and create wealth.
To be continued... |
| Momodou |
Posted - 16 Sep 2022 : 15:05:49
President merely read an activity report of an underperforming govt-political scientist
The Standard: SEPTEMBER 16, 2022
By Tabora Bojang
https://standard.gm/president-merely-read-an-activity-report-of-an-underperforming-govt-political-scientist/
Essa Njie, a political science lecturer at the University of The Gambia, has described President Adama Barrow’s state of the nation address yesterday as a mere activity report of an underperforming government because it failed to address the country’s myriad and pressing national challenges.
Mr Njie, who holds a double master’s degree in human rights and democratisation in Africa, as well as security and leadership studies, argued that the president’s address is the ‘worst’ he has ever delivered.
“I called this a mere activity report of a government that has been underperforming for the past six years and has not registered significant improvements or records in addressing the challenges that we are facing as a country. Yes, it is not bad for a government to blow its achievements but as the name implies, the focus of the state of the nation address should have been on the state of affairs of the country, such as the most pressing issues we are facing as a country and more importantly what are the plans and the strategies that the government is putting in place in order to address these things but that was clearly missing in his speech,” Njie observed.
He said the president’s speech fell short of addressing the issue of rampant corruption, a broken economy, high cost of living and the increasing crime rate.
“We see allegations of corruption in our media platforms every day. The president only mentioned that the Anti-corruption Bill is before the parliament and everyone knows that but apart from that what strategies is he putting in place in order to address this cancer to our development? What is the preparation of the government and how concerned is he about corruption? But I am not surprised that the president and the top brass of government are not interested because there has not been any seriousness on their part in the fight against corruption.”
Njie observed that pressing security matters were also not addressed by the president as expected.
“The president did not talk about the security situation of the country. Dirty crimes and banditry are rampant and every now and then we will hear murder cases. People’s lives and properties are not secured. Is the president concerned about this? What does his government have in place to put an end to this? What is the presence of ECOMIG forces in this country? Why are they still here? What are the plans of the government in making sure that the security of the country is given to our brothers and sisters in uniform. The issue of high cost of living, the president always makes reference to Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war. We have been hearing this for the past months or years but he should tell us what plans his government has to address the high cost of living and the extreme poverty that our people are facing. We have a dire economic situation and we expect him to tell us what his government is doing to address it? This was completely missing in the president’s speech and for me it was merely an activity report of an underperforming government without addressing the most pressing challenges,” Njie argued. |
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