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Momodou
Denmark
11713 Posts |
 Posted - 07 Mar 2006 : 12:30:53
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NADD’S Flag Bearer Introduced To The People
Saturday 4th March marks the beginning of NADD’s campaign for the presidency. The meeting organised by the NADD activists is new in every respect. It is the activists who conditioned the NADD Executive Committee before they selected a flag bearer that they were going ahead with the holding of an independent rally in Brikama on 4th March to enable the NADD leaders either to present a flag bearer or explain to the public why they could not agree to select one.
The leaders however appeared with a convoy of vehicles welcoming people who stood by their gates to receive NADD emblems and express their enthusiasm. Activists escorted the convoy to the meeting ground with tremendous enthusiasm. People are beginning to compare the crowd with that of the launching of NADD at the Buffer Zone or the meeting at Borehole during the by-election in Serrekunda Central. Interestingly enough the crowd remained up to the time the flag bearer finished his speech.
The people have welcomed NADD with enthusiasm. It is now left to the leaders to march their enthusiasm with delivery of relevant and captivating messages that dwell on national issues rather than personal and other parochial issues. NADD is seeking to govern the people who waited anxiously to know what the leaders had to say.
The non Executive members who spoke emphasized the need for change because of the hardship and the need for the opposition to unite to effect change. They emphasized that the ballot is the bullet of democracy through which their opponents will be defeated.
The members of the Executive explained that NADD is a unique type of alliance in the world. They argued that the alliance is not to help one opposition party to capture political power in the name of the opposition without any conditionality; that the objective is to create an instrument for collective rectification of a system of governance and consolidate genuine democracy; that such an enterprise demanded a type of flag bearer who will be above party considerations, one who will abide by the dictates of all member parties and who will govern the nation not according to his personal whims and caprices but in accordance with the collective will of all the members of the NADD leadership, in particular, and the people, in general. They explained the process of building NADD, the agreement to create an umbrella party on the basis of equality and the making of decisions on the basis of unanimity. They argued that no single party was powerless in NADD. Each had veto power to stop any process; that NADD went all the way to prepare the criteria for the selection of a flag bearer and the drawing up of a list of potential candidates with the unanimous support of the representatives of all five parties. They emphasized that NADD is a collective achievement of the five parties and that reconciliation is desirable.
Mr Landing Jallow Sonko, Mrs Amie Sillah, Mrs Ya Fatou Sonko, Mr Sidia Jatta, Mr Kemeseng Jammeh, Mr Omar Jallow and Mr Waa Juwara, each explained a part of the process of establishing NADD. The argument for unity was put in this way by one of the members of the Executive Committee: Two people with ropes of equal length who need to tie them together to allow their buckets to draw water from a well will be naïve to start arguing whose rope is longer; that if their objective is for each to draw water according to need, the long and short rope are equally important to each of them. They should therefore cooperate to avoid each dying of thirst.
The flag bearer however dwelled on national issues. He explained that the problems of democracy and development are life and death issues; that without development there must be poverty and death and without liberty and proper management of the political life of the country or good governance there can be no development.
He emphasized that there are 185,000 children in our Lower Basic Schools, 66,000 in Upper Basic Schools and 27,000 in Senior Secondary Schools; that if these are added up you will have almost 300,000 children who will be out of school in the next ten years. He argued that the public sector employs no more than 16,000 employees and the private sector a relatively equal number, that the future of the youth is bleak under the current economic situation. He emphasized that economic growth can only come through proper management of public finances and investment. He said there are private and public investments. He said employment is not being generated with speed and development because of inadequate foresight in leadership and poor investment environment for both public and private sectors.
He buttressed his point by indicating that in 2005 alone the transition of foreign currency in the inter-bank market amounted to 15.9 billion dalasis but that credit to the private sector was only 1.9 billion dalasis while government payments to the banks amounted to billion dalasis. He emphasized that the whole government is borrowing more from the banks because of lack of proper management of government finances. Private sector investment is relatively insignificant in bringing about economic boom. He said we now have a government with a 22 billion dalasis national debt which consumes more than 30% of the domestic revenue annually. He argued that out of the expenditure target of 3.7 billion dalasis, a sum of 1.5 billion dalasis is to be utilized to service debts.
He said good governance and proper management of public finances are the ways to handle the debt crisis. This is the only way to win the confidence of the international community to achieve debt reduction and cancellation. He said NADD intends to achieve this; that this is why it is premised on a five year rectification programme for the president after which the person will not seek a second term or support any other candidate to allow the emergence of fair electoral contest. He argued that the APRC government has been unable to achieve debt cancellation because of poor performance in management of public resources. He emphasized that donors pledged 115 billion dollars in Geneva in 2002 but not a butut came; that even the programmes prepared under the poverty reduction strategy paper had to be suspended in 2003 with less than 40% implementation because of suspension of assistance by donors.
He proceeded to examine what is considered wrong handling of public investment using GAMTEL and Social Security as examples. He indicated that GAMTEL is said to have made a turnover of 1065 million dalasis and a profit of 211 million dalasis, but it was able to pay dividends of only 2 million dalasis in 2005. He questioned where public resources of corporations are being expended. He questioned the rationale of using over 345 million dalasis of Social Security resources to purchases and refurbish Ocean Bay Hotel. We will continue his deliberations in the next issue.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 17/2005, 6-8 March, 2006
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