Development is People
By Baba Galleh Jallow
A recent news report indicates that The Gambia government
has just secured a $50 million grant from the Chinese government to build an
international conference center. The question that immediately came to mind was
who suggested the nature of the project for which this money will be spent? Did
the Gambia government ask for $50 million dollars to build a conference center?
Or was the project suggested and funded by the Chinese government? The
underlying rationale for my question is whether this money could not be better
used funding the education or training of Gambian youths in skills that would
bring prosperity to themselves, their families and our country.
Surely, a conference center is important. But it is
certainly not Gambia’s most urgent need at the moment. It is true that the
center will provide employment for some Gambians and that it could serve as a tourist
attraction. However, I think if the Barrow administration has any say in the
matter, they should indicate that while important, building an international
conference center is not one of our top priorities at the moment and that the
grant money could be more usefully spent on other areas, especially on the
education and training of young Gambians. In the New Gambia we need our
governments both present and future to be more discerning about our national
priorities and avoid spending scarce resources on projects that, while important,
will only add to our national expenses. Once this conference hall is built, it
becomes another expensive structure to maintain and will hardly generate any significant
revenue for the country.
On the other hand, let us consider how many full five-year
scholarships even $10 million can pay for Gambian students in any university,
especially the UTG? Just $10 million can transform the lives of hundreds of
Gambian citizens and their families. Should our government therefore spend all
$50 million on a building rather than use it to build Gambian lives? Can
another $10 million not be spent on improving facilities at the University of
The Gambia, buying adequate furniture, or equipping university classrooms with
overhead projectors and labs and computer rooms with state of the art technology
that will facilitate research and learning of the highest order? How about yet
another $10 million dollars on the procurement of vital medical equipment,
beds, and drugs for our hospitals and health centers? That would still leave
$20 million dollars which is enough to build a decent conference center worthy
of The Gambia. With all due respect, one cannot help but argue that spending $50
million on building an international conference center in The Gambia is unjustifiably
wasteful.
We do not doubt the Barrow administration’s good intentions.
But good intentions must be backed by good thinking and planning. We suggest
that at this crucial and potential-rich moment of our national history, there
is an urgent need for more discerning consideration of our national priorities.
Things have been done this way since independence and we have not seen much
improvement in terms of general development of and for the Gambian people.
There is a need to start thinking of new and more creative ways of going about
achieving our national development objectives. Old ways of doing things have
proven infective and if the Barrow administration or any future Gambian
government does not take the time to carefully think about our national order
of priorities and how to do things better, they will not be able to leave much
of a mark in terms of developmental achievements.
The key point we want to make here is that development is about
people. While building expensive infrastructure will give our country some semblance
of modernity, developing the human person through effective education and
training will yield more significant results for our national economy and community.
Investing in people is the key to African development and so far, African
governments have not given this crucially important issue the attention it
deserves. Who knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid
have gone down the drain in our small Gambia alone since independence? And what
do we have to show for it? The reason for this is not hard to find. It is
simply that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the wrong projects
rather than on developing our precious human resources. Development and prosperity have been elusive
for our country because hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in
projects that cannot bring about development and prosperity but take away from
the meager resources we have. It is way past time to rethink our national
developmental priorities which demand that we put the human person at the front
and center of public investment.
It is safe to assume that a Chinese company will be given
the contract to build the $50 million international conference center from the
Chinese grant money. This means that while we will end up with a beautiful
structure, the immediate fruits of the grant money will benefit the Chinese
economy and Chinese nationals more than it will benefit the Gambian economy and
Gambian nationals. Needless to say, the project will create employment for many
Gambians during the construction phase, and it will continue to provide a few
jobs here and there afterwards. But these benefits are nothing compared to what
hundreds of scholarships for Gambian students will yield. Why not consider
sending at least 20 Gambian students to China or a country of China’s choice
for training using at least a million dollars of this grant money? Chinese
institutions will still benefit but the benefits for us will be more tangible
and long-lasting. Yes, the Chinese government is giving some Gambian students
scholarships and the conference project might be a tourist attraction. Still,
just one million dollars set aside for more scholarships for Gambian students
will be extremely useful to our country in the short, medium and long term.
Again, suffice it to say that development is about people and the more we
invest in our people, the closer we will get to whatever developmental goals we
seek.
At this moment in our history, there is an abundance of
international goodwill for the New Gambia. The Barrow administration is in a
position to benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in loans or grants
from well-meaning members of the international community. However, it will be
helpful for the Gambia government to pause and reconsider how best these monies
may be invested for the direct improvement of the lives of the Gambia people.
In particular, the government should try to make it possible for a part of every
single aid package to be invested directly on the education and training of
Gambian citizens, and on other projects that directly impact the lives of
Gambian citizens. Develop the people and the people will develop their country.
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