As the Tourist flight taxied off the runway at the Banjul International, there was a feeling of sadness of living the country I loved, but also a mix feeling of delight- having to return back to my three year old whom I missed a lot during my two weeks vacation to The Gambia.
As the flight took off, I tried to put this two-week vacation to answer some of the questions I have always had about the Presidential elections, and the political reality on the ground as it relates to the future of our country. With the exception of air turbulence which always got me off my trend of thoughts, I spent the six hours of flight time to London and another eight hours of flight time to Atlanta to try to analyze whether this trip has gotten me any closer to the real truth to the socio-economic and political future of The Gambia.

While most of us Gambians living in the Diaspora put a lot of stock to governance, rule of law and the protection of civil liberties, the average Gambians I spoke with cannot see the utmost importance of these issues to their economic survival. Some will admit, and these are usually educated Gambians, that there are obviously excesses in these areas, but the government of the day’s commitment to development overshadows the Achilles’ heel of these shortcomings. They will flatly tell you that Jammeh’s firing of these civil servants are purely political and indefensible, but some of the more extreme supporters will justify it by saying that most of these guys are saboteurs who are hell bent in destroying what the man is trying to build. What is very clear is that, the Jamme’s government commitment to delivering the goods in the area of health, Agriculture, communication, education and road development is the political nectar behind his support. The APRC stalwarts and supporters will not hesitate to condemn us, especially Gambians living in the USA for having it completely wrong in regards to the Jammeh government. Jammeh Gii Lanka, one of the accolades they like to call him, and they would heap praises on how he is committed to road construction, building of first class hospitals, free education for girls, university education and the energy crisis that would soon be the thing of the past. Even his critiques cannot mince on some of these realities, myself included. I know that they are wrong on the relevance and importance of governance, rule of law and some of these non-economic intangibles to the development of our dear country. But I can also understand how such issues can be meaningless to some farmer who is preoccupy with feeding his children, or a poor mother who is more preoccupy with the education of her kids.

Jammeh and the APRC’s strong suite are in the area of Education, Health, communication and the weirdest of all, his generosity. The Majority of Gambians, I have argued with, discussed with, and these included strong Jammeh supporters, educated civil servants, rural folks, city dwellers, and there is absolute unanimity that he is committed to the development of the country, and they are actually seeing it. On a personal note, inasmuch as I believed that Jammeh is wrong for Gambia, his present contribution in the area of infrastructure, education, building of hospitals are realities on the ground that would help the future of our dear Gambia even when Jammeh is long gone. I am still convinced that the country is worst off under Jammeh because of the fundamental issues on the rule of law, protection of civil liberties and in the area of governance, but he also deserved lots of credit in some of the things he is doing. The APRC and Jammeh have their strong supporters, and people who cannot stand them irrespective of whatever good they do. The final conclusion, in the absence of a PDOIS government—which is the real bastion of hope for our dear country, I can settled for a Gambia with the combination of Jawara's era good suite on governance, rule of law and the mirage of democracy with a Jammeh’s government strong suite on infrastructure development, building of hospitals, education and investing in the future of our development initiatives. Yes, the NIA is at work, people civil rights are trample upon on a daily basis, the whole power structure is in the hand of one Man, and whatever he says goes; the main opposition party, UDP is finish as a force to be reckoned with; Jammeh and the APRC are making a difference in the area of education, healthcare, communication and road constructions; and a PDOIS/NRP in the National Assembly is definitely a sigh of relief to the possibility of a one party state.

Thanks

Musa Jeng

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