The Gambia- a looming failed state
  In recent years to through careful and diligent studies, many independent Non government organisations using all types indicators have clearly categorise Gambia has among failed states. To be realistic most of these studies are a searing account of the Gambian experience of graphically an unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, squalor, hunger, human rights abuses, corruption, and growing unemployment under Yaya Jammeh and his APRC Government, all of which is written with unblinking honest, fury and great humanity.
   
  The recent study by International Labour Organisation has documented a massive increase in the trend of both rural and urban poverty since after its 1992 survey. It will not be a surprise in few years to time to see our citizens scavenging for food like animals because of increasing condition of economic hardship. Lack of food, malnutrition and hunger is visible in today’s Gambia as most households cannot afford three quarter mills a day.
  Gambians are living on the edge confronted with all types of development crisis. 
  The development problems confronting our country range from food poverty, income poverty, illiteracy poverty, poor health and sanitation, lack of safe drinking water, environment degradation, unemployment, human right violations and lack of democracy, population growth etc. There is no fix solution to development but the despotic regime in power, failed to realise that any development for Gambia should be base on the solution of democracy as a formula to the conditionality to foreign or international aid. With failing agriculture and poor agricultural marketing cause by 12 years misrule under Yaya Jammeh and his APRC Government has resulted to increasing condition of hopelessness and despair in rural Gambia.
   
  The recent realities in the Gambia are almost similar to descriptive account of George Orwell’s road to Wigan. The Gambian society is towards sloppiness and all the indications are decadency, redundancy and appalling conditions of dehumanisation inflicted our people by the criminal regime. Every sector of Gambian life is further deteriorating. From the economy, infrastructure, health, education, environment etc. With stagnation of salaries, effective and efficient public service becomes a thing of the past, while corruption and bribery syndrome becomes a hierarchy in the officialdom.
   
  The 1994 take over of Government is a cataclysmic shock for everyone who was aware of the 30 year of rule of law and democracy that was nurtured. With 12 years of political deficiency and social degeneration, every Gambian should nourish the fact that the regime back home is too dangerous to be left to containment and our mandated policy should be regime change through the ballot box. The year 2006 is the last chance for Gambia and our liberation from the yoke of Yaya Jammeh’s dehumanisation will be welcomed with rose petals. 
   
  Failure to effect change can lead to more fragility, which can have both a serious political and economic impact on our nation and the people. Failed states are a magnet for political turmoil especially if there is a deep rooted antagonism within the security forces and a fragile geopolitical environment. The recent conflict in Casamance was very close to home and nobody can rule it out, has it can be just like a wild fire spreading into the Gambia. The conflict in Casamance have a serious impact on the geo-political realities of our sub-region and at the moment the hard-line rebel faction which is not prepared for ceasefire is now concentrated along the porous border between Gambia and the region. The MFDC rebels have officially use our country has a rear base, collaborating with the criminal regime of Yaya Jammeh in fostering all types of tyranny and crimes against humanity on peaceful and hardworking people of that region.
   
  Productive and effective public service is a determinant to measure the progress of a nation. Gambia under Yaya Jammeh’s APRC regime, productive work ethics in the civil service is been sacrificed for sycophancy and showing loyalty to the President. In today’s Gambian for fear of loosening your job, marabou culture and juju mentality becomes embedded in the cranium of the president and almost all the civil servants. President Yaya Jammeh always manifests this cult following mentality as all his appears and dresses are covered with jujus and always boost about his spiritual powers. Lately, he was promoting Kanillai medicine and some few weeks ago according to sources, the President sent a mysterious Juju man to most of the villages in Foni to fight so-called witchcraft. These are all the indications of the trend of psychological sickness, paranoid and madness of Yaya Jammeh which our people are engulfed into in today’s Gambia. Our fellow countrymen think that stealing our
 nation’s coffers or alliance to one marabou et al is what will give you promotion or keep in government office. It is disheartening but these are the realities of illusion and social sickness in our society.
   
  The deterioration of quality of life in today’s rural Gambia is beyond imagination. I was privilege to work as a rural development agent after completing a Higher Diploma from Gambia College, which gave me the opportunity to either work or trek all the divisions in that country. I know how much farming means for the communities from Kartong to Koina. My interaction with many farmer communities, help to know how innovative and determine many of these people are ready to adopted all types of technologies and taking all types of risks under adverse climatic condition in order to increase their productivity year in year out. It is agriculture which is the major employer and source of income for our people. 
   
  The coming of Yaya Jammeh into power in 1994 has destroyed Gambian Agriculture and the glorious days of trading season in rural Gambia. The Gambia Government cannot pay farmers for their groundnut for three year now. Sometimes, I wander what is all the hallucination from this chick brain about back to land policy. The only back to land policy means going back to Kanillai and farm for Yaya Jammeh. Ministers, Directors and Senior Government officials leave their urgent official duties to show their loyal as the sycophancy culture which embraces Gambian public life.
   
   
  There is no fix solution to development but for agrarian economy like the Gambia, banning or dissolving institution such as the Gambia Cooperative Union which is the nerve centre for farming is one of the narrow minded policies of the criminal regime. The Gambia Cooperative Union and its member cooperative societies were not only the marketing outlet for agricultural produces but the main source for the provision agricultural inputs and implements to the farming communities.
   
   The illegal accusation of ALIMENTO for money laundering and court case which the criminal regime lost costing Gambian tax payers millions of dalasi, after falsely accusing a company with a good track record in the global agribusiness consortium has further contribute to the present dilemma of our farming communities. Political manipulations of the agricultural sub-sector and looming instability have reduced investor’s confidence to venture into such a viable sector of the economy that needs to be diversified.
   
  Over fishing off the Atlantic Coast of the Gambia is a major environmental and economic issue. Corruption and lack proper regulation of the fishing industry is really undermining such an increasingly important export market. The policing of Gambia’s territorial water are under the command of the Gambia National Army. There have been report of illegal issuing of license to many fishing vessels without passing through a regulate body by the President and some senior army officials who are cohort in the fishing business. Frequency of fishing vessels in Gambian water have recently exceed quotas or fishing without any license. It is sad such a vital source of income for the country is use by few to enrich themselves. With well documented cases of Yaya Jammeh’s criminalisation now, what is required at this moment in time is to cut shackle of chains to liberate the Gambian from this dictatorship and restore Gambia to its democratic credentials.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

 		
---------------------------------
 All-new Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤