Editorial:Gambia's fake Vision 20-20 dream revisited-Jammeh betrayed Gambians!!
Today, we want to revisit Gambia's failed vision 20-20 master plan,
which was designed among other things to improve the living conditions
of  poverty stricken Gambians . "To transform The Gambia into a
financial centre, a tourist paradise, a trading, export-oriented
agricultural and manufacturing nation, thriving on free market
policies and a vibrant private sector, sustained by a well-educated,
trained, skilled, healthy, self-reliant and enterprising population
and guaranteeing a well-balanced eco- system and a decent standard of
living for one and all under a system of government based on the
consent of the citizenry." These were the exact words of President
Yahya Jammeh when he formally launched the failed program in May of
1996. The realities on the ground today is the reverse. Almost, all
sectors of development in the Gambia have collapsed, thanks to
President Jammeh's leadership shortcomings. Be it education,
agriculture, tourism, trade and other developmental sectors have
suffered a natural dead. The then junta led by Chairman Jammeh
inherited sound economic and political policies from the deposed PPP
administration, but in a span of six months what was known to be  the
much talked about national cake had been hijacked by the coupists, who
championed themselves as "Soldiers With A Difference." Yes, they were
soldiers with a difference since they have succeeded in wrecking our
much cherished peace, economic and political stability under Sir Dawda
Jawara's government. Jammeh can be best remembered for bringing "white
elephant projects" to our people without any serious or meaningful
development over the years registered by this administration. These
projects are not making any improvement on the lives of  oppressed
Gambians. It's in fact an obstacle to development. Its objective was
to lobby political  support base  for the regime, which is
increasingly becoming unpopular by the day.

Lets closely scrutinize Agriculture, which according to the master
plan document "is the dominant sector in the Gambian economy,
employing about 70 per sent of the total work force and contributing,
on average, 22 per sent of GDP. Notwithstanding, ANR continues to lag
behind other sectors in productivity and modernisation and is still
characterised by an undiversified primary agricultural system. It is
also conditioned by a seemingly unbreakable cycle of erratic
inadequate input supplies, inappropriate technology, low output and
productivity growth, low incomes and an acute inability to generate
savings for investment. An unsatisfactory land tenure system is seen
as a major obstacle to the development of commercial agriculture at
modern, economically viable scales."

Indeed, besides Tourism, Agriculture played a crucial role into the
nation's economic health. But since the coming of Jammeh, the said
sector has failed miserably. Despite the President's past moves to
allay the nightmares of  Gambian farmers, who continually sold their
groundnuts on credit  basis for four good years, the problem of ground
marketing still is  becoming a major problem in the Gambia. The
government of the day has demonstrated its inability to meet the needs
and aspirations of  the farming community.

Efforts made by the private sector to save the government from its
financial shortcomings to purchase the farmers nuts never
materialized. The intervention of the private sector in the marketing
of groundnut in the Gambia brought more night mares for the
impoverished farmers. The private operators lacked the necessary
budget to pay the farmers, who relied on farming for their livelihood.
These poor farmers settled their kids school fees, domestic and other
family needs from the monies they derived from their produce.

An international Groundnut Marketing Firm  called Alimenta, which
earlier reached an agreement with the Gambian Government to purchase
farmers nuts was never given free hand to do their job in the Gambia.
Its Management were kicked out of the country, following the
government's allegations that Alimenta was involved in an alleged
money laundering scheme to undermine the country's ailing economy.
Armed Paramilitary police stormed their Denton Bridge offices and
ordered all staff to leave the premises. Alimenta's boss was briefly
detained by the NIA, prior to his expulsion from the country.

Interestingly, Alimenta's money laundering case never reaches the
Gambian courts. To some extent, this had rendered the government's
allegations against Alementa unbelievable. A significant number of
Gambians were rendered unemployed due to the government's "unpatriotic
move" to harass foreign investors, whose main goal was to better the
lives of Gambian farmers and also to revamp the country's agricultural
industry.

Unhappy with  the government's action, Alimenta resorted to slamming
millions of dollars law suit against the Gambian government. The
matter was a subject of  a legal litigation at  a Swiss Dispute
Settlement Court. A judgment was later delivered in favor of  the
Alimenta Company, with the Gambian Government reaching a payment plan
with the plaintiffs. Reports even have it that the government is yet
to fully serviced the money its owed to Alimenta. This government has
been known for breaching contracts.

A UK based Chantrills  Oil Firm sued the government for breach of
contract and also won the said case. Chantrills in a court deposition
says the Gambian government refuses to honor an agreement that was
reached to lift crude oil barrels from Nigeria for the Gambian
government in 1996. The oil amounting to millions of dollars was
extended to the impoverished West African country, by the late
Nigerian Dictator Sanni Abacha. Chantrills says the contract was
executed to the letter, with 26 Million dollars of the funds derived
from the crude oil transferred to a Swiss Bank Account. The account
believed to be owned by President Jammeh,  was a subject debate within
and outside the county.

The Jammeh government has no solution to the current predicament our
farmers have found themselves. This is not the government which is
going to wipe the tears of our dying farmers who are hard hit by
poverty. The Ruling APRC is a failed government. Its leadership lacks
sense of direction. All serious investors have turned their back to
the Gambia. It would take decades for this administration to repair
the damage it had perpetrated against our beloved country.

Looking at Tourism, according to the Vision 20-20 document, which was
the brain child of the sacked Finance Minister Dominic Mendy "The
objective of Vision 2020 is to build on this base to make The Gambia a
tourist paradise and a major tourist destination, through product
innovation, quality improvement on investment returns and
diversification of the gambia's tourism product. Special emphasis will
be on attracting high value and high spending tourists. Tourism will
be diversified and innovations will seek to introduce and promote
eco-tourism, cultural, inland and community-based tourism as well as
conference tourism. Marketing efforts will intensified in order to
diversify and expand source markets. Another objective in this sector
is to strengthen the linkages between tourism and other sectors of the
economy and increase Gambian participation so as to maximise returns
to the domestic economy."

Tourism under Jawara's government was proactive and progressive. While
Jawara had the competent technocrats to market the country's image
outside, under Jammeh's rule is the opposite. The Department of  State
For Tourism, has been reduced as a political organ for the regime,
with little or no meaningful development initiated. The said
Department of State devotes too much time on land sale, which under
normal circumstances should be carried out by the Department of Lands
and not the Tourism Department. The State reserved lands along the
Tourism Development Area had been commercialized now.

First, was Minister Yankuba Touray, who sold lands to friends, family
members and so called investors. A government Commissioned into the
said land sale, reveals that the transactions were dubious. One of the
reasons why Minister Touray was fired was due to the uncontrolled land
sale at the TDA, characterized by corruption. Many millions of dollars
have found its way into the pockets of corrupt Tourism officials. Up
till today, the illegal land sale effected by Minister Touray had not
been revoked. Monies derived from the said sales had also not been
recovered by the government.

On the issue of attracting tourists into the country, the government
has created the conditions for tourists not to visit the Gambia. Time
and time we heard about tourists being murdered in the Gambia. The
most recent murder involves  a British couple. How about the British
national who was murdered and buried in Casamance? What about the
country's fragile peace? Coups and counter coups continue to dominate
the political show. Armed robbers are also not giving up. Many
communities have been traumatized by these robbers. Common on the
APRC…. Can you call this development???

In Jammeh's government, it's only Edward Singhatey who can beat his
chest that he tried to enforce the vision 20-20 document. While
serving as Trade Minister Singhatey made serious efforts to make the
Trade Ministry viable and produtive, but his efforts were hindered by
Jammeh who rehired corrupt officials indicted by the Paul
Commission.Thanks to Singhatey's efforts Gambians were able to  know
officials behind the economic crimes that had taken place in this
country under Jammeh's watch. Many donor partners have lost confidence
into the government, since it's not complying with the Commission's
recommendations to tackle official graft. Jammeh might not  like this
statement of us, but the truth be told, Edward Singhatey is more
honest than him. If other Jammeh cabinet Ministers were like Edu, the
Gambia would been a different Gambia today. No wonder that is why Edu
couldn't acquire any wealth during the period in question. All the
state coffers had been looted by Jammeh and his Kanilai mafia. This is
the truth and nothing but the truth.

On transportation, the document says" The up-grading and expansion of
the airport is a major component of the Gateway Strategy. The
multi-modal transport initiative subsumed in this initiative is the
Gambia's spearhead strategy to play a crucial role in international
trade. In this regard, facilities at the airport will be upgraded and
modernised, security improved to international standards to handle an
increased passenger and cargo traffic with an eye to serving as a
transit point from Europe and America into and out of Africa."

Our sea, land  and airport industry had been reduced to ghost
institutions. Most of the  airlines agencies in the Gambia, operate
through transit. There is no direct flight between the Gambian and the
United States and elsewhere across the globe. Ghana Airways and the
American Airlines have ceased covering the Gambia. These airlines
cannot afford to operate in countries, where there are  no serious
economic activities taking place. The Gambia happened to be one those
countries where economic prosperity has been hindered due to corrupt
leadership.

The Gambia Civil Aviation Authority, which relied on planes landing
fees and other airport taxes, most have been hard hit by the lack of
flights these days in the Gambia. Most of the airlines are targeting
Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and other stable democracies on the
continent.

Guinea Bissau, which used to be faced by such flight isolation, is
today competing with Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana. Investors are
storming Guinea Bissau on a daily basis. Perhaps, Jammeh needs to
confer with his Guinean counterpart on how he managed to woe serious
investors into Bissau.

Our Gambia Ports Authority used to be a major economic base for West
Africa. Most goods bound for Senegal and other parts of the continent
used to transit through the GPA. But today, the famous GPA has been
reduced to a ghost ports with hardly any vessel docking there.

Faced by lack of equipment to run the ports, the institution has also
been politicized. Revenues generated from the GPA runs Jammeh's
private errands. He hired his immediate tribe men to head the GPA and
other key institutions in the country. The GPA has lost all its
values. There is no serious leadership today at the GPA. No
accountability, no transparency or probity, to borrow Jammeh's slogan
during the transition period.

Still on the subject of transportation, this reminds us about the dead
Gambia Public Transportation  Corporation (GPTC). The GPTC today
lacked buses to cover the country. Low staff morale continues to
ravage the institution. A good number of the GPTC staff had been laid
off due to lack of income to meet the needs of the company. The
institution is living under budget. Most of the funds had been used to
service the old buses, which are currently grounded.

During the leadership of Ismaila Ceesay, it takes between four and
five hours to travel to Basse. Today, travelers spent  24 hours before
they could make it to Basse. Some spent even two days on the way due
to the deplorable road conditions. Almost, all major roads across the
country are in shambles. Jammeh has failed as a leader. It's about
time for the APRC and its supporters to concede to such reality. In
our next edition, we shall dwell more on the failed Vision 20-20 Stay
tuned!!!

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Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 (Archive on Monday, June 25, 2007)
Posted by PNMBAI  Contributed by PNMBAI
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