Is he ignorant; Incompetent or simply power drunken?
A basic layman in the streets or a 5th grade student understands the basic theory of supply and demand… when something is plenty in the market even if it is free the demand for it goes down; And evidently when it is harder to get the demand for it goes up and so are the prices of the goods or services. Does anybody anywhere try to explain this simple logic to Yahya Jammeh a man who has been President of a nation for 20 years? I mean what else can you teach Yahya Jammeh or can he learn on his own?
At a time when the month of Ramadan (fasting period) and the raining season – time for housing investors and the few season farmers spend heavily on completing their constructions and buy fertilizer and purchase machinery respectively in preparation for these seasons; Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has abruptly ordered the foreign exchange rate for the dollar and subsequently all foreign currencies to be cut significantly against what the market is dictating. Gambians woke up to a mad announcement on Jammeh’s mouth piece the _ Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS) that the dollar must be capped to 35 – 45 dalasis per one US dollar. The fair market rate by the way as dictated by demand and International supply is running between 50-55 dalasis per dollar (black market).
What does this mean to the ordinary Gambian if we may ask? First of all it will cost the already depleting and deteriorating Gambian economy millions of dollars in lost revenue. By interfering with the free flow of currencies both domestic and International, businesses are forced to horde their currencies and create artificial shortage of the dollar thus affecting import and export of goods and service which reduces taxes and revenue coming into the government coffers. Does Yahya Jammeh know this or is there anybody in his economic team to tell him what is at stake rhetorically? Second, if one was sending $200 (D10,000) for family needs that person is now being forced to send $300 which he doesn’t have handily. Thus they will instead send $100 thus reducing the increase flow of foreign currency thereby reducing purchasing power and payment of taxes to whom? Government. One wonders what is in this for Yahya Jammeh. Is he ignorant, incompetent or simply power drunken and he feels he is losing control of his power grip and therefore has the urged overnight only to wake up and order these outrageous but humiliating decision making?
Something is fundamentally wrong with any leader or person you thinks that he can or should control everything that happens in his country or surroundings. The lack of basic common sense and economic theory after 20 years of being at the top is simply in excusable under any circumstances. What does Jammeh really hope to achieve in blatantly interfering with everything that happens in that country? Who among the people who think remotely that Jammeh is well and has a sound mind can explain this irrationality? Psychologically something fundamental that seems incurable is wrong with Yahya Jammeh.
Now barely one month after he was given a questionable $10 Million bailout from the IMF, and after promising never again to interfere with monetary policies, Jammeh is back at it defying any agreement he signed off on. The question many Gambians and economists are asking is whether it was Jammeh or the IMF who were more fiscally irresponsible in granting extravagant leader bailout money only for him to turn around and purchase brand new vehicles for some wrestlers in neighboring Senegal injecting himself into an internal sport that he could not create in his own country. Yahya Jammeh is the epitome of highest fiscal irresponsibility and leadership incompetence Africa has ever seen. He wakes up every morning and enacts policies that defy any logic whatsoever. The question one is left with is whether Jammeh is ignorant of the economic impact of his monetary interfering is having on his economy or he is simply drunk in power and is scared to death about losing control of the market which he literally dominates in every sector. The long term effect at this most critical time of Gambia’s economy will soon be felt in the country.