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Who says President Jammeh has done nothing positive, but…..?
Tuesday, 24 May 2011 13:57
It would indeed be quite wrong for anyone to suggest that President Yahya Jammeh has not done anything positive for
The Gambia since assuming the reigns of power in this country 16 years ago. However, there is no doubt that a lot of negative things have also been attributed to his regime.One of the most positive actions recently taken by President Jammeh is no doubt his order for the police and other security forces to dismantle the numerous check points and road blocks that were dotted all over the country. There is no doubt that the main objectives of those check points and road blocks were to extort money from gullible drivers and other road users rather than to maintain security.
Prior to the welcome decision to order the dismantling of those unnecessary check points, The Gambia was by far the worst country in the sub-region to travel by road. Every few kilometers, there was either a police check point or a military road block, all of them being used to not only cause unnecessary delays to motorists and other road users, but also the officers manning them asking for all types of documents and demanding money, all of which went directly into their pockets instead of into state coffers.
Therefore, a majority of the civil population are quite grateful to President Jammeh for at least putting a halt to their daily nightmares on the roads. Everyone is however no doubt wondering how long it will take the police and other security forces to devise other means to circumvent those measures and resume their nefarious extortions spree and harassment of the civil population, which seems to have been the hallmark of this regime since 1994.
However, whether President Jammeh’s positive deeds outweigh the negative deeds attributed to his regime is quite debatable. What is however quite obvious is the fact that there are so many misplaced priorities. In fact the situation in the country is now so confusing that it is hard to distinguish state activities and President Jammeh’s so-called philanthropic activities. A good case in point had been his recent distribution of tractors to divisional governors, district chiefs and other groups, giving everyone the impression that those tractors were bought from his pocket rather than by the state.
There is no doubt that the action was done with the forthcoming presidential elections in mind. However, what the people expect is for the government to come up with a clear agricultural mechanization policy rather than President Jammeh dishing out tractors to individuals and groups of his choice, giving the impression that it is as a result of his benevolence.
It is very likely that most of those tractors will eventually end up being misused by a few individuals instead of benefit the very farmers they are envisaged to serve.
We had seen what had happened to a similar distribution of tractors several years ago, all of which were wrecked within a few months. That was because a few unscrupulous supporters of the APRC used them to transact their own personal businesses such as transporting sand and gravel as well as other miscellaneous services rather than for the benefit of the farmers.
Therefore, it is hard to see what is different this time round to ensure that the tractors will benefit the farming community instead of those unscrupulous individuals in the various regions.
Another clear example of the regime’s misplacement of priorities is President Jammeh’s so-called monthly Qur’anic competition during which he doles out a million Dalasis to the winner and thousands of Dalasis to the runners up. It is indeed hard for anyone to see the rationale behind giving out such huge sums of money to children for merely cramming and then regurgitating Qur’anic verses, the meanings of which they even hardly know, when there are so many other social needs such money could have been spent on in order to benefit the society rather than just a few undeserving individuals.
This is indeed just one example of several similar misplaced expenditures by President Jammeh which went to benefit a few individuals rather than the whole society.
They include the distributions of plots of land and a million Dalasis each to footballers and officials of our national teams for merely reaching certain levels in international football competitions.
There were also the huge sums of money given out to those who composed a song for the July 22 ‘Revolution’ and those who compiled President Jammeh’s ‘best speeches’. This is in addition to the huge sums of money and state resources being spent on the numerous so-called cultural festivals which seem to take place almost every six months.
It is indeed quite hard for anyone to see the rationale of such expenditures when there are so many more urgent and important things to spend that money on.
Written by D. A. Jawo
Source: dailynews.gm
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Comments
If you want to write Jammeh the warrior, u could be right. He has survived more counter revolutions than JJ Rawlings n IB Babangida. If you call him a killer, u are not going to look too far 4 examples. If u prefer the kingly character of his persona, the many highway goodies he tossed out of his tinted SUV or Jeep to waiting crowds, can complement his lavish attaya. As a developer, a 2-year example of all the projects will be sufficient to impress anyone. The man facinates me as a jack of all. He is police chief, army chief, gamtel chief, NIA chief, electricity chief, chief doctor, etc.
One is no doubt tempted to ask this questions:
Where was Jammeh for the past 4+yrs, when these checkpoints were disrupting the lives of innocent commuters all over the country? Wasn't he aware of the existence of these numerous checkpoints up and down the country?
And you think the police and other security agencies will soon find other ways to extort money from the people?
So its blame the police and security agencies for the checkpoints, but commend Jammeh for dismantling them,even though everyone knows where orders for such exercises come from...
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