Stemming abuse of public property?

Last Thursday, November 5 2009, another minister took oath of office to serve ‘‘without fear or favour, ill will or affection.’’ Dr Abubakar Gaye became part of the rank of Gambian ministers as the new minister of Health, replacing recently sacked Dr Mariatou Jallow in the most unpredictable government on planet earth. A ‘‘difficult task,’’ Yahya Jammeh himself admitted, when presiding over the swearing ceremony at State House.
A very important thing about this development is that quite a number of important issues were raised at the cabinet room, interestingly by the president himself as when it comes to talking, he dominates such gatherings. Corruption, mismanagement of public properties, drug theft, etcetera, are frankly regular happenings in today’s Gambia.
However, even before he would officially assume his duty, Dr Gaye naively suggested the obvious; that is, that the oath of office doesn’t actually matter as far as serving Yahya Jammeh is concerned. The president himself has become the greatest desecrator of the Holly Qur’an which he swore by as president, violating the rules on a constant basis.
As part of his acceptance speech, the newly sworn-in minister said: ‘‘I will thank our dynamic leader in whose heart God has placed me and has accepted God’s will to appoint me as the minister of Health. I am grateful and do hope that I will never disappoint you and you will never be disappointed.’’
While there is absolutely no problem thanking the president for bestowing hope on you, it is important to realize that you have been hired to serve the Gambian people. It is therefore worth noting that the concern here is the Gambian people, not the president. Yahya Jammeh barely knows it when things have gone wrong, when the people do not get proper medical attention, when negligent officials abandon their responsibilities. Corrupt officials, from the minister right on top, have put down measures to ensure that no such information goes out. All the talk of failure to meet responsibilities is nothing but cover-ups. The only explanation to all these endless sackings is that rogue elements and state-paid liars report people for demonstrating some anti-Yahya Jammeh or anti-APRC feelings. That is all! The quickest way to get sacked these days is by denying anything to anything relating with Yahya Jammeh or anybody related to him. That is why Kanilai has become a place of abuse of public properties.
The mention of God’s name as having influenced Yahya Jammeh’s decision is a very important factor that will guide Dr Gaye’s running of the ministry. Just like it has always been, the interest of the person of the president is the number one priority. As a matter of fact, unfortunately, things are only considered public properties, and their abuse condemned only when they involve all other people other than Yahya Jammeh, his immediate family and a select group of people in his best list.
This leaves me wondering if he (the president) really means it when he challenged the new minister to tackle the corrupt practice of using public health properties for individual purposes. The whole Gambia knows that Yahya Jammeh is the master in that today.
Nonetheless, probably all this is supposed to end as from now on. Dr Gaye though would certainly render a great service to Gambians if he begins by clearing the new Serrekunda Hospital complex of those so-called HIV/AIDS patients whose time is being wasted as they wait for the cure of an incurable disease. Nurses that have been trained and employed by state coffers are being used by Yahya Jammeh as theatrical objects in his shows of HIV/AIDS and other fantasy cures.
To the minister, at the end of the day what matters is what satisfaction you will derive from looking back after been sacked and say I have done this, this and that for the people, not for the president.
And I am just weary that we are set to lose yet another of our well trained doctors who will soon abandon his ethical principle to embrace the ridiculous claim of HIV and other diseases cure.

Politicizing corruption

Any success in pulling off the desired state of affairs in Gambia is enormously dependent on a genuine disposition to hold all sections of society accountable - accountable first and foremost to our consciences. This is the only sure way through which can be reached an appreciated system of governance that is based on the true aspirations of the citizenry.

Have you ever wondered why, despite the obvious humiliation that awaits appointees into the APRC government, there has always been a pool of readily available people to hire (No disrespect to the very few trustworthy people I have come across who worked/work with the government)? It’s because the same sickness of dishonesty, treachery and hate that plague the top is what abound at almost all levels of society.

To say that Yahya Jammeh is difficult to work with will be an understatement, but it is also fair to point out that he has people who help somehow to justify his ways of doing his things. Thanks to an entrenched fidelity to selfishness, some Gambians, even if they are oppressed, as is obviously the case for most Gambians today, are better-off keeping quiet. The reason? The system in place is a perfect one for them to subsist.

The APRC as a political party is the most corrupt institution in Gambia. I say so because I have seen, heard and experienced some of it. The number and frequency of changes that has been effected by the party’s supreme can also attest to this. Or are there other reasons for those sackings? I’d like to know. Additionally, Gambia’s position at 158 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2008 corruption index speaks volume.

An abhorrent attitude of arrogance within the leadership, unfortunately, has added to the difficulties in tackling this as it has made it impossible to pass on information to relevant authorities for appropriate action. Everywhere is infiltrated by so called APRC bigwigs, actually wielding powerful influence as far as the present government is concerned. A slight demonstration of honesty on the part of anybody is enough reason to get rid of you by all necessary means. Many people, very many people, have suffered humiliation just because they saw counterproductive acts been done, and in their effort to stop it, they were branded as the bad ones.

The son of Momodou Sanyang, ‘Director-General’ of GRTS, is one such person under the protective shield of his father who is sparing no chance in exploiting his deceitful influence over a president who rules with emotion rather than wisdom. Yes, Sanyang, if his own words are to be believed, does have influence over Yahya Jammeh.

Actually this article is not about Sibi, but just to make a common reference, was it not Lamin Sibi Sanyang who got arraigned on economic crimes related charges in Banjul? And all of a sudden we saw him reappeared stronger at the same place where he purportedly committed those crimes? If the APRC government under Yahya Jammeh is actually serious about stamping out corruption, like he stated on his facebook page as his mission, ‘‘Fighting corruption, witchcraft and H.I.V,’’ Gambia’s Washington mission is a good place to work on.

Certainly pardoning someone like young Sanyang and rewarding him in this manner is not a good example at all for some one who really wants to stamp out corruption. Is it not fair to say that it is morally wrong to treat Lamin Sibi Sanyang the way he has been treated? Some other people who have had to be prosecuted on similar or lesser crimes have had to serve their terms and they never got to be reinstated. Young Sanyang r even got to see the inside of the court; he was pardoned under so-called humanitarian grounds and effectively rewarded with another position, probably higher than what he had been assigned to, in the same mission. What kind of message is Yahya Jammeh sending?

But it is obvious that that terrorist of a director general called Momodou has been able to influence many of Yahya Jammeh’s decisions no doubt, and he goes about bragging about it.

But Momodou Sanyang is just one among a club of senior people at high position who use their position to perpetuate their acts of corruption and deception.

Take for instance the Gambia Football Association (GFA), as it is the latest focus of attention, although both the government and the bunch of ham-fisted crooks that run that institution are doing all they can to redirect focus away from it, the reasons being quite obvious.

By the way, I am not one of those fanatical football lovers, but our humiliating performance in Nigeria touched me just like it certainly did all other football lovers, and it has rekindled a lot of thinking in me. In my quest to make a sense out of it, I have established some similarity to the idea of exploiting politics to perpetuate retrogression.

What operates at state level, in many respects, has quite a bearing on what goes on in places like the GFA, GNOC and the many, many other Mafia-like institutions that abound in Gambia today. These unjust people have been able to succeed in their trade by infiltrating the APRC party – most, if not all of them, are by no means loyal to neither the party nor its leadership, but to their individual interest which to them clearly supersedes that of the greater Gambian people. Unfortunately, they will always succeed in their gimmicks because of the excessive pleasure the president derives from praise singing, which many Gambians have become accustomed to.

If anything, the appalling performance of the Baby Scorpions clearly suggests that something is amiss within the sport governing body of the country. The least you would have expected of members of the GFA is resignations – at least from within the executive rank. Hasn’t some one got to take responsibility? That is the way people who have scruples operate, anyway. That way you do not only give chance to others to learn from your obvious mistakes, but you also demonstrate a feeling of remorse and responsibility.

The more I read about the team now, the more it becomes clear that since after our commendable performance in Algeria, we had been set to end the Nigeria tour dismally. And all indications are that the GFA top officials are responsible for this; no matter what they say today in defense of their records. Instead of resigning, all the GFA did was to come up with some demeaning press release, packed with boisterous vocabularies, recounting past glories. As if winning the World Cup twice in the past is reason enough for a team to perform so badly without some one having to be blamed.

My indictment of GFA officials is based on inconsistencies I have realized which apparently stemmed from their reluctance to deal properly with the so-called MRI test.

After Algeria, a responsible football association would have been able to know who among their players were likely to make it to Nigeria. In this day and age, the argument that birth certificates are not reliable isn’t a tangible excuse. Since we are talking about national issue, hospital records can be exploited to establish facts about players concerned. But this is in fact not about not knowing the age of the players; it as about timeliness. Countries like Nigeria foresaw and did what they were supposed to do. There timely action allowed them enough time to prepare their new crop of players for the good job they are doing now. As I write now, Nigeria is beating New Zealand 3-0, and there is every reason, according to the able commentator, that, that they might extend that lead. But GFA would wait for about four months – April through September, before considering wasting money to carry out the MRI test.

Having carried out the test again, GFA officials refused to disclose the result, hiding behind frivolous talks of protecting the image of Under 17 players. What image? Since when did it become a source of discomfort for one to grow older? Could there have been some hanky-panky game by the football officials? Probably that explains report that eventually emerged that the team was forced to send off four players while they were already in Nigeria. Could it be that was why GFA refused to disclose the result of the early MRI test? So that it could include players they know quite well were unqualified?

And after the team had played it second match, it emerged that in fact the fans were still in Gambia. One begins to wonder what went wrong with Yahya Jammeh’s highly publicized offer of ferrying 350 Scorpion fans. Clearly they were waiting to see if the boys would make it far before state coffers would be tapped and the entire credit given to Yahya Jammeh on his so-called humanitarian gestures. This is how he has exploited national gains in the past and made them political capital, all at the expense of a rather naïve segment of the youth population. And he has largely been able to succeed in doing so thanks to the corrupt and largely incompetent and shameless officials within these institutions concerned.

So if we are to stem some of Yahya Jammeh’s tricks, we should be able to focus the pressure somehow on some of these people when there is the reason.

A marriage of inconvenience

Lately I have been wondering what has come over the opposition in Gambia. But the thought of the perilous condition under which they operate leaves me with little basis to blame them entirely for the predicament that faces the country.
As time unfolds, reasons of passed and present happenings reveal themselves. One very important thing that recently captures my attention is the delirious ranting that continues to come from that tragedy of a figure, Waa Juwara. I can remember someone at the heart of the APRC establishment confiding in me in those hopeful formative days of the now almost whacked opposition alliance grouping, the National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD), that this guy had been planted within as part of plans to frustrate efforts to achieve the real purpose of the alliance.
Unfortunately for Gambians that malicious intent was achieved, thanks to Waa’s unbecoming and premature behaviour all over the place. But after such an epic malevolence achievement, I expect this guy to keep quiet and enjoy his benefit, the reward of appointment, first at the ridiculous position of a local government area councillor, and then as a governor. But that is not Waa. It is only death that will silence him. That is one of the negative implications of studying in the former Soviet Union and failing to upgrade oneself. Jammeh knows this very well about Waa. No wonder he threw him at the Lower River Region where he is likely to have problem making telephone calls. Besides, what are political puppets for? To be used and dumped; that is all. Between Yahya Jammeh and Lamin Waa Juwara, it is just a matter of time. All I have to say is that this is a marriage of inconvenience we are witnessing.
I assume the rest of the opposition people in Gambia equally know this about Waa, and that is all the more reason why I do not expect people like Ousainou Darboe or Femi Peters and the rest of the opposition community to react to him, because when you do, you are only helping him in legitimising his worthless views. But more importantly, you are giving him the voice he so desperately desires.
The man is so desperate for a platform to voice himself out that he is capable of luring half-baked reporters to publish whatever nonsensical statement he utters in the name of freedom of speech.
I have the feeling that what I have found out to be a dangerously erroneous piece of news published by the respectable AFP news agency must have come from no one order than Waa. He is of the habit of cornering reporters and enticing them into giving him space to make irresponsible statements. I do hope that AFP will have the courtesy to question their person in Gambia and find out about the authenticity of that report. We do not know AFP for this sort of erroneous publication.
Yes, there is/was a coalition of five political parties that formed what is now called NADD (National Alliance for Democracy and Development) and not National Democratic Alliance Movement, which in fact has never existed in the Gambia as a political party, before or after independence. I have searched throughout the World Wide Web; the conclusion of my finding is that it is only AFP that published such a joke and demeaning release, which I blame on their clearly unethical reporter. Such a statement could only have come from a sell-out like Waa Juwara. It is therefore unfair for it to be portrayed as a statement from the Coalition. It sent shock waves through my spine.
Even as that article was been published, a section of the opposition in Gambia, which forms part of NADD, was battling with that very same government for campaign space, despite the spacious nature of Serrekunda. How can it be correct under such circumstance to report that the opposition is calling on Gambians to support a vicious government?
And for Waa Juwara to say that the opposition in Gambia is dead, as published on the Daily News in Gambia is a shameful indictment on himself, for someone who spent his whole life in the opposition wing, despite been the master political scientist he considers himself.
His unwarranted condemnation of respectable and principled people like Femi Peters in that interview further exposed a deep seated feeling of jealousy and hatred Waa harbours for Peters; but it also tells the real side of a frustrated bigot.
I hope you have come to the ultimate realisation that your days in Gambia’s political platform are over, because you have joined the wrong group. As a neo-Nazi-like bully, you have no place in a vindictive system like the APRC, because, (1) you are no asset anymore and you have no political followership; (2) you are mouthy, and president Jammeh wants people who will do only what he tells them to do; (3) you are obsessed for power, and president Jammeh thinks he was sent down to die for Gambians in that State House in Banjul; (4) you are intolerant, and two intolerant people can not fit in the same boat - the simple physics rule – (like charges repel, unlike charges attracts); (5) you are a thorough-bred tribalist, and Jammeh can not watch you outshine him in that game. By the way, you remember what you said to Baba Jobe at the entrance of the High Court in Banjul when he was being escorted to his cell in Mile 2 after been sentenced? That Jammeh is anti-Mandingo? What has changed since then, Waa? Or are you trying to fool the present Grand Master of Gambian politics? Remember, he has spent all these years reading contemporary literature, while you wallow in an illusory feeling of supremacy in political science with your old fashion Soviet Union theories.
I have spoken to many people who, at one point, were so much convinced that you were sincere in the stance you took; so much so that they could even shed their blood for your course. But your present demonstrations of dishonesty have made them shun politics as a practice. So stop fooling yourself with the thought that you have a political base, you have none. You can never do what people like Yankaba Touray has not done.