BY PA NDERRY M'BAI
Gambia's president Yahya Jammeh had time and time championed himself as the
country's leading and must enterprising farmer in living memory. Yearly
harvest derived from his Kanilai farm are usually given extensive media
coverage by the state owned media GRTS.
JAMMEH POINTING AT THE NEW
TAIWANESE FARMING TOOLS,
AS FORMER ENVOY AND SACKED
BLAISE JAGNE WATCH BY!!!!!
Jammeh's engagement in farming is being seen as something extraordinary by
his supporters. TV camera men closely monitored the dictator's movements
when he toured his farm. He uses such forums to vilify Gambian farmers for
being "lazy" and not committed to work.
Jammeh believes that he is the best farmer in The Gambia. To some extent
he might be right, since he is using our parents for cheep labour. None of
the people working at his farm are compensated for their labour. These
hard working Gambians are made to work for long hours without any payment.
Some Ruling party big wigs including Jammeh will argue that as far these
individuals, are not forced to work there is nothing wrong with such a
gesture. They will also tell you that every Department of state should
extend helping hands to the head of state to realise his dream to make The
Gambia food sufficient.
What's evident is that, most of these people working at the president's farm
are not doing it at their own free will. Civil servants are taking part
because they don't want to be fired. Talking to them in private they will
tell you"It's only Jammeh who can subject me to such farming exercise."
Soldiers are also taking part in the exercise. Contingent upon contingent
are sent to the president's farm to work. They dance and chant Jammeh
slogans though out the time they spent at his Kanilai farm. The military is
expected to be neutral and stay away from active politics. But this is not
the case in The Gambia.
We are not opposed to Jammeh's farming activities. Our contention is the
nature he used Gambians for cheap labour. Call it forced labour you make no
mistake. Call it civilised slavery, you make no mistake.
Proceeds derived from his farm are usually sold back to the same people who
extended helping hand to Jammeh. We are living witnesses to Jammeh's
business activities. We have seen his Kanilai harvest being sold out at
the Albert Market in Banjul, in the name of trying to cub inflation? Jammeh
himself will use such occasions to accuse certain businessmen of economic
sabotage. He brags time and time that his intention is to stabilise the
ailing economy. But the situation is still getting from bad to worst.
Opposition leader Ousainou Darboe was very right, when he branded Jammeh as
a businessman in one of his press briefings. What we have in The Gambia
today is a commercial president. He wants to engage in all business
ventures to realise his dream of being a world billionaire. Already his is
ranked as Africa's richest president. Now his dream is to top the world
list of billionaires.
Jammeh's engagement in active farming came into being when the Taiwanes
government donated fleets of tractors to poverty stricken Gambian farmers.
These tractors were meant for the Gambia's farming community. Guess what?
As soon as he received the gift, he took it as his personal property. In
fact, he went on air announcing that the tractors were brought in the
country by his government. As usual, GRTS reported that "the president had
donated tractors to farmers in a bid make The Gambia food sufficient."
Interestingly, the tractors that were meant to help farmers, were used by
Jammeh for commercial purposes. Farmers who could not afford to rent these
tractors were denied access to the farming tools. Perceived opposition
sympathisers were also not allowed to use the tractors. Is our president
really committed in his dream of making The Gambia, food sufficient or a
food exporting nation.? With these politics of exclusion, discrimination and
exploitation, there is no way that The Gambia will be food sufficient under
Jammeh's rule.
Thanks to the opposition, Gambians were informed about the source of the
much talked about tractors gift. Following a pressure from the opposition
MPS, former majority leader Tamsir Jallow, unveiled that the tractors were
donated to The Gambian government by the Taiwanese government.
At the time, a delegation of Taiwanese government officials had a meeting
with our members of parliament. This perceived "embarrassing revelation by
Tamsir Jallow" prompted the NIA to pick Jallow for questioning.
There is hopelessness among the farming community. For the past four years,
Jammeh's government could not market our farmers produce. Farmers sell
their produce on credit. They sat for months without being paid for their
hard earned money.
As a result of this low morale affecting the farming community, some have
totally abandoned active farming. This is adversely affecting our nation's
GDP. The country ceased to export groundnut, cooking oil and other farming
needs for sometime now. All these could be attributed to Jammeh's reckless
agricultural policies.
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