Momodou, thanks for this forward. I wonder why Gassama skipped this article
and chose to forward that shameless betrayal of the people of Southern
Sudan. With all the corruption and outright theft of the shirt on our
backs, Gassama has never once said zilch about corruption and embezzlement
in that country. His classic line is he is not aware of any, which we all
know is a lie in itself.
I encourage the Point to elevate these exposés and name the people that own
these properties. Gambians need to know who is stealing their money and
where they are hiding them. Those days are gone when one can steal from a
nation and go hide in another country. We shall track all the crooks and
they shall pay up. Not even Morocco is off limits. All these things going
on while our people are literally starving - more than 70% living in abject
poverty and that figure is under estimated in my counting. Why would Yaya
go and beg in the name of the Gambian people and then steal the oil gift,
especially with the oil drought in the country. He went to Sudan for the
same thing and they did not say zilch about the reason he went - to beg for
oil in the name of Gambians. How long are we going to let Yaya suck us dry?
Where are the opposition leaders? What more do we need to be outraged?
Can't we see that we are dying a slow death?
Let us stop wasting our time analyzing cooked up numbers they call our
budget. Case in point, we all know that millions are missing from our
coffers and is not mentioned anywhere in that document, and we also know
that millions will be missing in 2003 and beyond, don't we want to talk
about that? Folks, these numbers are neither real nor valid and the
projections are not worth the paper they are written on. What stats do we
keep that's accurate? Now, how are these numbers any different? One would
have to be dumb to present a balance sheet that is not balanced. Where do
we think all the millions of Dollars that they stole is coming from? Do we
even know what has been encumbered? Are we kidding ourselves that the
unschooled overwhelming majority in that Assembly are going to discuss this
and other budgets? Most of them would not recognize a budget if one were to
hit them on the face. So, what where they deliberating on? Come on folks.
We cannot let these idiots sucker us into recognizing their compilation of
rubbish as a sound document. I can bet, 90% of the wording came from the
last document the British left us. Such is our progress. For almost forty
years we're just using a canned report. With all the Accountants, Auditors,
and Encomiasts in that government, this is all we can do? What happened to
presenting the basic financial statements and supporting the numbers with
explanations? No, they have to present us this muddled concoction that is
as unsound as the minds that created it. Nothing but garbage in and garbage
out. How do we expect those who stole from us and continue to steal from us
to present us a factual document? And guess what, it will pass as is, same
way since 1965.
Now that they have composed their cheating scheme, it is time for Gambians
to do their part - don't pay taxes to support their scheme. Do not pay
taxes that you don't have and that they are going to use to support their
habits. Gambians are within their rights to not pay for this criminal
outfit. Foreigners I know will vote with their feet - leave, but natives
don't have that luxury, thus they should refuse to pay this criminal tax
levy. I know some might say that is not good for the country, but has it
ever been good for the country? Why should our people pay for electricity
that they don't have 75% of the time? Why should we pay for garbage
cleaning only to clean the garbage in front of their homes? Speaking of
garbage, have you seen that dump by what used to be the London/Bakorteh
Bridge? How long has that community paid taxes? And if you say that the
people in the community dump their garbage there, then I ask you, where is
the government? If I have to resort to living among my garbage, then why do
I have to pay for garbage collection? Have you been to the Serekunda and
Banjul markets lately and see the unsanitary conditions there? I say
Gambians should refuse to pay taxes. No representation, no taxes period.
These criminals don't care whether the majority of our people starve to
death, how are they going to reduce the poverty in the country.
Chi jaama
Joe Sambou
>From: Momodou Camara <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: FWD:Another Skeleton in Our Cupboard
>Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 10:56:56 -0500
>
>Another Skeleton in Our Cupboard
>
>The Independent (Banjul)
>EDITORIAL
>December 27, 2002
>Posted to the web December 27, 2002
>Banjul
>
>A majority of Gambians don't know it, but there were two things Jammeh
>secured from his trip to Nigeria. One was the usual commitment to bilateral
>cooperation between 'Big Brother' and The Gambia, which was publicised in
>the state media. The other which was a gift of oil to The Gambia never saw
>the light of day in the media. Why?
>
>It was good news to learn that Nigeria is staying true to its commitment
>with The Gambia, by continuing to give technical and military assistance.
>But what was even better news was the offer to The Gambia of 22,000 tons of
>crude oil by Nigeria. Our inquiries revolve around the question of why the
>government is selective on the things they wish to make transparent or not.
>This omission is conspicuous.
>
>In a previous editorial, The Independent pointed out how the lack of
>transparency is gnawing at our Gambian statecraft and how the blemish cast
>overbearingly on our democratic system, founded on the principles of checks
>and balances, probity and accountability, is getting all the more
>pronounced. We want leaders who practise what they preach, not leaders who
>pile up skeletons in the cupboard. We want a government, which would strive
>to deliver and explain to the people why so many things were going wrong.
>We want a government, which is not only democratic and transparent but is
>also seen as such. Our national reality suggests how utopian these
>expectations are. There is no point in time when Gambians need a
>transparent, accountable government than now when everything about our
>economy is going disastrously topsy-turvy.
>
>If the offer was made in the name of The Gambia and not in the name of any
>individual or group of individuals, then the regime has to inform the
>public. It is better to err on the side of transparency than to err
>elsewhere. The Gambia is no a stranger to crude oil sagas. The first
>involved Jawara, which was trumpeted as an issue of corruption by Jammeh's
>government, which spoke lengthily on transparency and the lack of it in the
>PPP day. From 1984 to 86 17 million barrels amounting to $41 million were
>reserved for The Gambia. It provided the ace to pummel Jawara at every
>opportunity. And Jammeh and co were at pains to show how justified they
>were in their criticism of the old order. But two years later, they too
>were involved in a similar saga, linked to an Abacha oil gift to The Gambia
>(not to the government) from the same country, Nigeria. In 1996 $3.8
>million were alleged to have been accrued from the crude oil transaction.
>Jammeh was left with nothing to say but to opt for official silence.
>Although no one betrays himself by silence, in given contexts it could be
>eloquent. In this case it made obvious that something was awry with the
>handling of the oil gift. Our thought at the time was how successive
>African governments and their leaders never learn from the costly mistakes
>of their predecessors and take their people deeper into the dark recesses
>of the abyss called poverty and political privation. Now after this latest
>revelation, we hate to admit that the regime has learnt not from its own
>mistakes or from the one before it. In the end such a mistake cannot be
>called a mistake because it was calculated. Mistakes are supposed to be
>accidental not calculated or contrived for a given purpose. Embarrassing as
>they may be to the government and those who serve it thereof, these issues
>need to be pointed out so that something is done to arrest them. As we said
>in a recent editorial, we do not hate personalities serving the government,
>but anti-social tendencies that characterise their handling of the
>country's affairs. We are all stakeholders in the running of the country,
>hence our abiding interest in all things Gambian. In fact a prominent
>Gambian owns a plantation in Guinea-Conakry but prefers to keep it as a
>secret skeleton in the cupboard.
>
>The truth is uncompromising and excuse us for stressing it. There are no
>two ways about it.
>
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