‘Aproves 85 Million Dalasis Wasteful Spending for July 22nd Celebrations’
In July 2014 we authored a piece branding Gambia’s House of Parliament as the most embarrassing Institution in the nation. The premise of our argument was that the legislative body has been consistently used by President Jammeh to pass laws that defies common sense and directly contravenes the building of a democratic and free nation. We cited numerous examples; from the draconian media laws, the elimination of Presidential term limits, the insertions of age limit for contesting the Presidency, restoration of the death penalty to amending laws that allowed the President to engage in commercial business other than agriculture among others.
The objective of that piece was to draw the conscience of the Gambian people to the dangerous extremely incompetent legislative body that exist in Gambia perpetuated by the Jammeh regime to launch his political agenda for total domination of Gambia’s political scene for as long as he wants. We challenged the Gambian people to be conscious of inept, corrupt and untrustworthy citizens who are only out to collect a paycheck.
Well, fast forward and four months later the Gambian legislative body has done it again.. and this time they have proven beyond any doubt of their gross incompetence in carrying out the duties of an independent legislative branch. The House of Parliament passed a supplemental budget amounting to One Billion Dalasis (foroyaa 11/18) adding to a national budget of 10.2 Billion Dalasis. The most ridiculous and inconceivable amount about this supplemental budget is the allocation of over D86 Million Dalasis for celebration of July 22nd ., a One man Revolution and other wasteful celebrations designed purely to promote President Jammeh’s personal financial extravagance. How a nation with D 2.7 Billion budget deficit and D 13.5 Billion domestic debt can even imagine spending that amount of money on illegal wasteful projects is beyond any logic and financial responsibility.
At a time when Gambia and other West African nations are faced with unprecedented threat of tropical diseases such as Ebola, failed crop season, inflation, highest unemployment rate and degrading migration of youths through the ‘back way’ to Europe, the Gambian House of Parliament dare pass huge amount of money for lavish parties. Does anybody in that house have any clue or understanding of basic economic policies and how national budgets are supposed to work? Do any of those citizens have a basic sense of what their responsibilities are in not only representing the interest of their constituents but protecting the future financial security of this tiny nation? Have anybody ask where these funds are coming from and how are they going to be paid? Oh are these people too incompetent to know the nuts and bolts of basic economic functions?
The question of financial irresponsibility and mismanagement under Jammeh’s regime is beyond comprehension. Since President Jammeh came to power he has relied on pocket book diplomacy where he diverts foreign grants and loans to build his own economic wellbeing. As he squanders one diplomatic relationship after another he must explore other means of financing his ‘white elephant’ projects designed for his own selfish gains. But Jammeh is not going to be held responsible for these financial misappropriations. He makes sure that he gets the stamp of the most inefficient House of law makers who are a bunch of unemployable school dropouts who are only out to collect their salaries. President Jammeh knows the magnitude of his economic corruption and therefore he has to have the support of his clueless House of law breakers to exonerate him from any future prosecution on corruption. How a nation end up not only with a President with such ambition for personal wealth but a group of citizens without a spine to stand up and defend the future of a nation defies conventional norms.
But many people who have come to study not only what this President and his government are made up but the kinds of citizenry that allows him to openly rob a nation of its future financial and economic opportunity understands exactly how we got here. Gambia got stuck with the likes of President Jammeh because of our citizens’ lack of civic duty and sense of national responsibility for the current and future of this nation. None of our political elites, civil society leaders, religious leaders and ordinary citizens believes that they have a duty to stand up against the daily destruction of Gambia’s economic and social system. Our indifference in mortgaging our national duties to a rogue leader who will stop at nothing in turning everything into his personal property is blame each and every Gambian will have to live with. Until Gambian elites; law makers, ordinary citizens in position of responsibility realize the train wreck the nation’s economy is riding on, these reckless behavior of allocating the nation’s resources to wasteful parties will continue to be a sad national embarrassment.
By Demba Baldeh