| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Momodou |
Posted - 21 Nov 2024 : 21:31:42
‘Meet The People’ Tour is not a Political Campaign.
By Madi Jobarteh
As the President embarks on a tour of the country as mandated by the Constitution, the exercise should primarily be a fact finding and an evaluation mission where the President hears from our people directly about the impact of his Government’s decisions, policies and programs on their lives. There should not be any jamboree about this tour which is an official working exercise. For that reason, most of the people and many of the activities taking place on the tour should not be happening.
So far information from the tour clearly shows that the tour has been turned into a political campaign jamboree characterized by the indiscriminate dishing of millions to groups and communities. Such actions are nothing but patronage and buying of loyalties.
The Constitution states in Section 222(15) that, “The President shall undertake a nation-wide tour at least twice a year in order to familiarize himself or herself with current conditions and the effects of government policies.”
This means the tour is an opportunity for the President to visit, see, hear and ask citizens about the impact of his policies on the lives of the people. Thus, it is not expected that the tour will be an occasion to spew invectives, distribute money and goods like charity, and solve issues there and then.
In the first place the President does not necessarily need this tour to know the conditions of living of the people, if it was not a constitutional requirement. With a country as small as the Gambia, one can reach any part of this country and return within a day. Secondly the President had always been making frequent and multiple visits around the country all the time. He just recently came back from his village where he spent part of his holiday. Therefore, there is nothing that the President does not know or cannot know about conditions or the impact of his policies.
Hence when he embarks on this tour, it must be organized in a way that factors in everything so that it is not a waste of resources but optimally utilized that it truly has meaning. He should know that the millions spent on this tour are indeed required in so many places to ease the pain of citizens. Needless to say, the President should know that there is widespread poverty and hunger in this country thanks to his policies and programs.
The evidence of poverty and hunger is found in his own Government’s official documents. For example, Gambia Bureau of Statistics, in its Integrated Household Survey 2020, reports that, “the proportion of households experiencing food insecurity across regions and are food-poor are found in Kuntaur (79.1%), Kerewan (73.7%), Basse (68.7%), Mansa Konko (62.6%), Brikama (61.8 %), and Janjanbureh (60.8%), Kanifing (33.9%) and Banjul (14.8%).”
According to his National Development Plan 2023 - 2027, limited access to health facilities has been identified as a national weakness, while noting that youth unemployment stands at 38.6%, with national unemployment at 31.6%. The national poverty rate stands at 53.4%.
These deplorable conditions prevail even though his Government has several policies, multimillion-dollar projects and institutions to address the social and economic challenges of the people. To illustrate this point, here is a list of a few multimillion-dollar projects currently running in the country from 2017 to date.
1. The World Bank is providing $40 million for the Gambia Inclusive and Resilient Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (GIRAV) project, and $92.71 million for the Gambia Resilience, Inclusion, Skills, and Equity (RISE) Project.
2. The African Development Bank is providing $102 million for the Trans-Gambia Corridor Project.
3. The EU is providing 9 million euros for the Responsive and Accountable Democratic Transition Project.
4. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is providing $80 million for the Resilience of Organizations for Transformative Smallholder Agriculture Project (ROOTS).
5. The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) are jointly providing $250 million in support of key economic sectors: Agriculture, Energy, Healthcare, and the Private Sector.
6. There are also the Murabaha Financing Agreements at a tune of $55 million to support agriculture and energy sectors.
These are just a few of the projects in place right now. Apart from these, his Government also receives millions of dalasi in taxes, yet socio-economic conditions remain so challenging that the presence of poverty, deprivation, diseases, unemployment, poor utility services, and high cost of living remain perennial and widespread. It is these dire conditions that are resulting in the increasing prevalence of the ‘Backway’ phenomenon, prostitution, crime, drug abuse, inequality, and dependency across our society.
Therefore, let me remind President Adama Barrow that this tour is not a campaign, celebration or fanfare. Rather he is going to meet individuals, families and communities who are in serious difficulties. Let him not allow politicians, technocrats, surrogates and sycophants to close his eyes and ears and twist his head away from the realities of our people. There is real hardship across the country, and he has legal, political, moral, religious, cultural and human rights obligations to address these challenges.
For The Gambia, Our Homeland |
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