FOROYAA NEWSPAPER Issue No. 2/ 2004, 5-7 December, 2004 Editorial Free Education for Which Girls? The President and his Cabinet are causing great confusion by insisting that there is universal free education for girls in the Gambia. Some families who have relatives abroad who are sponsoring their daughters are being subjected under great pressure when they demand money for the education of their daughters. The same thing goes for benevolent nationals of other countries who wish to sponsor the education of girls. Let the President know that there are many girls who are finding it very difficult to finance their educational career. Let us take the case of this young girl enrolled at Kotu Senior Secondary School. She is required to pay 2,450 Dalasis; she is currently a Grade 10 student. She is to pay D950 as fees and D1,500 for books. The father is a driver who has been unemployed for sometime. Father and child are desperately roaming about in search of sponsors. If the President is ready to finance the education of such girls let the state department for education issue a press release urging all parents not to pay any money in any school to educate their girl children. Infact, as we go to press a parent who heard the President’s interview with GRTS came to report that he was asked to pay 450 Dalasis by a particular school. When he went to find out why such a sum of money had to be paid for primary education was told that it was meant for the purchase of books and contribution to the development fund. The children however were being pressurized to pay or be sent home. This meant that the payment is compulsory. It is therefore important for the President to stop claiming that there is universal free education. It is true that attempts have been made to reduce the cost of education for girls in government schools. However not all girls can find places in such schools. Suffice it to say that other costs are also being imposed on parents. Foroyaa will do a comprehensive study of all the costs and publish it so that the authorities will know what is on the ground. A leader should not lose touch with the people. To do so is to build castles in the air while the people live in slums and hardship on the ground. Sectoral Review of the Presidents Interview on Gambian Investments The President claimed that if Gambians had been responsible for the building of roads billions would have been kept in the Gambia to facilitate her development. However, his government has been in office for Ten Years. It also claims that the private sector is the engine of growth. The government however has not come up with a policy or programme to back its declarations. To build roads requires capacity, equipment and materials needed for construction. The government has managed to recover over 150 Million in cash or kind under the Asset Management and Recovery Corporation. What prevent the government from purchasing road-making equipment and transform it into a pool that could be hired by national road construction companies. This could have encouraged a team of engineers to come together to form companies even if the government did not want to do the road construction on a public basis. It is wishful thinking to expect Gambians to come up with road construction companies’ overnight and purchase all the equipment desired. Few banks would provide funds for such enterprises. The facts revealed have shown how indebted Boto Construction has been to the defunct Continent Bank. It owed up to 12 Million Dalasis. The government should not blame the Gambian people for its lack of foresight and initiative to be a catalyst for enterprising venture by Gambians. The persons who has money and wants to make more would simply invest where maximum profit could be made. The easiest way to make money was the retail trade. This is why the Youth Development Enterprise invested in the retail trade. The retail trade has been the honeycomb for investors. The banks have also been investing in the distributive trade so that they can get interest with speed. Suffice it to say that it is government, which has been principally responsible for the rise in interest rate for example, the treasury bills discount rates rose to 31 percent. The banks are now changing interest of up to 36%. How can any investor make wealth by borrowing huge sums of money to buy equipment to prepare for contracts that may come later? On Road Construction and Communication Policy A fundamental question was raised as to what government intended to do by way of road construction. The President simply said that it was his intention to build all roads in the country. He also mentioned the plan to introduce trains in the Gambia. This again confirms how the President formulates policy. Clearly, no President in the World who relies on the advice of experts would simply have an aim that is as broad as the President has. For Ten Years the President’s government has been unable to finish a road network that stretches on the South or North bank so that Gambians can move from East to West without any difficulty. Suffice it to say that any government, which aims to open up the country, would aim to build two major trunk roads on the North and South banks stretching from East to West to ensure smooth road transport. Suffice it to say that the second task of any government, which aims to open up the country, is to connect such roads to the major exit points of the country to the sub region. Such as Transgambia routes would open up the country to cross border movement of people and goods. Suffice it to say that any government, which aims to reduce pollution, promote hinterland trade, tourism and ease congestion and accidents, would develop river transport before considering a rail network. The fact of the matter is that the government is still personalized. The President is the center of everything, all material things, which come from the HIPC projects or other sources are presented as gifts from the President. This attitude robs the APRC of an integrated system of planning and programming. This is why the President could not elaborate on a well thought out road policy. On Precious Minerals, From a Recipient to a Donor Country One of the most thought provoking comments made by the President is that within Three Years Gambia will move from being an AID Recipient Country to a DONOR Country. This led the interviewer to further ask what minerals have been discovered in the Gambia. The President only said that he would say that in Three Months time to avoid attracting criminals and other non-Gambians. This again shows President Jammeh’s style of leadership. Natural resources do not belong to President’s; they exist irrespective of who is President. They do not exist because the President is good or bad. Nigeria has one of the best qualities of oil in the World, Angola is an oil producing country, the same goes for Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea is an oil producing country. It is the quality of a leadership, which determines whether minerals will benefit a people or not. There are over 11 producing countries in Africa. However, bad leadership has prevented these countries from escaping the shackles of under development. Look at Sierra Leone and its Diamonds. Announcing that the Gambia has this or that mineral resources will not automatically transform Gambia into a Donor country. In actual fact, no leader should make any finding of mineral resources a secret. Suffice it to say, President Jammeh will not tell any enlightened Gambian anything new. Gambia does have mineral resources. Infact, the failure to develop any of these resources for ten years shows the laxity of the government. History teaches us that Titanium Core Deposits were discovered in the Gambia as far back as 1953. 20,000 tonnes were mined in 1957 alone; in 1959 the mines were abandoned by the Colonialists without any explanation. Suffice it to say that for years it is known that Gambia possesses Good Quality Geological and Geographical Data on possible petroleum prospects. Before the Coup d’etat the People’s Republic of China, the Canadian government and the Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation had shown interest in providing support in the petroleum sector. Infact, a Commissioner for Petroleum Exploration was appointed. After the coup d’etat, work continued to gather additional Seismic Data on the offshore and onshore areas. In the year 1999 government had an agreement with "West Oil Australia for a period of 6-year programme to engage in Seismic Surveys." It also signed a Reconnaisance License with a Geophysical Company Veritas DGC Ltd, for acquisition of geophysical data through seismic test line survey 2000 to 3000 kilometres were subjected to survey. All this is public information. Infact, since 1997 government should not have entered into any international agreement without ratification by the National Assembly. May be what the President has in his sleeves is that the availability of Petroleum is confirmed. This of course would be good news. However, it does not change the fact that Gambians are more interested in the quality of his leadership than the existence of resources, which belong to all of us. It is the quality of the leadership of the government, which will determined whether the people would enjoy prosperity in liberty or the opposite. The Budget Analysis Part II Agriculture We have looked at the decline in agricultural production in 2002. We emphasized that even though the President did not ban Nawetaan Football matches in 2001 under the pretext that the action would motivate the youths to go to the farms the farmers produced over 151,000 tonnes. The problem was mainly marketing. Suffice it to say, even though there is claim that there is bumper harvest in 2003, no arrangement has been made for proper purchasing of the nuts. Infact, the Private Companies intending to buy the groundnuts cannot gain credits from the Commercial Banks. According to the SoS for Finance, government is contemplating Central Bank financing of the purchasing of 2003 crops. We therefore, consider the President’s back to the land call as misplaced. The fact that the people could produce 151,000 tonnes of groundnuts in particular and 349,000 metric tonnes of crops in general in 2001 confirms that there are enough people on the land. These farmers are plagued with growing soil infertility and inability to purchase fertilizer, replace aging agricultural implements and the lack of buyers for their harvest. These are the problems. Suffice it to that say the mistaken policies of the government have aggravated the problem. One may now ask what are those policies? The Mistaken Policies of the Government When the government took over in 1994, the Cooperative Union was the middle agent for the purchasing of the groundnut crop. They established seccos or buying points in strategic locations to ensure accessibility to farmers. Gambia Produce Marketing Board (GPMB) had already been sold; Gambia Groundnut Company (GGC) was responsible for crop financings. The GPMB was bought for 20 Million and payment was by installment of not more than D7 Million per annum. The task before the government was to set up a task force to look at all the stakeholders in the trade prior to the 1994/95 trade season with a view to determining the best possible relation between the Cooperative Union as Middle Agent, the GGC as Crop Financer and the Farming Community as Producers. An experienced and foresighted government would have the fundamental objective of putting a functioning groundnut purchasing and exportation system in place. Needless to say, all the elements were in place to make that possible. The Cooperative Union had both human and infrastructural capacity to purchase groundnuts. GGC had financial capacity; the Farmers also needed better prices. Once the best possible price was negotiated a system of crop purchasing would have been in place. One could then have studied the shortcomings and work to improve the system either by opening up the market for more competition while the Cooperative Union awaits to serve as middle person to the company that can offer more to the farmers or provides access to the public financing of the Union to purchase and export. In short, the transitional phase was to stabilize a system and study how to replace the system in place with a better one. However, just like all adventurist and populist change over of regimes the immediate action had always been to dismantle systems without any clear perspective of how to replace them with better ones. The AFPRC regime was no exception. A fleeting glance of the final state of the groundnut industry a month before the July 22nd 1994 take over would be necessary. In June 1994 the previous government revealed the following: " Government, in July 1993, sold the Gambia Oilseeds Processing and Marketing Company, GOPMAC for 20 Million. An initial payment of D6 Million was made on the signing of the Sale Agreement, the balance will be paid in two equal installments with the first installment expected to be paid in January 1995." The estimated quantity of groundnut produced increased from 54,280 tonnes in 1992/93 to 76,730 tonnes in 1993/94. The new government indicated that in 1994/95 groundnut production was 81,000 metric tonnes. However, in 1995/96 seasons it reduced to 75,000 metric tonnes. Inadequate seed nuts and limited access to fertilizer and farm inputs were given as part of the reasons for the decline. The government gave the impression that it could use militarist means to twist the arm of GGC to purchase groundnuts at prices determined by it instead of putting a system in place where prices would rise by simply providing an alternative arrangement. Consequently, while the purchasing of groundnuts amounted to 25,000 tonnes in 1995/96 it fell to 15,000 tonnes in 1996/97. Total groundnut production also decline from 75,000 metric tonnes in 1995/96 to 45,000 tonnes in 1996/97. To be continued. _________________________________________________________________ Check out the new MSN 9 Dial-up — fast & reliable Internet access with prime features! http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-us&page=dialup/home&ST=1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~