My fellow Gambians:
This period in our history is indeed a most critical one, not just because
of the misgovernance of our nation by Yahya Jammeh that is leading to its
destruction, but also because of our urgent need to change our attitudes if
we wish to make headway in the future.
Yes, we definitely need to change the current leadership in our beloved
country, but equally, we also need to change attitudes if we really want to
avoid a repetition of the past.
Clearly, the Gambian people have also colluded, albeit unwittingly, in
setting the backdrop and conditions that have meant a despotical tyrant like
Yahya has been able to consolidate his power base. Instead of speaking
directly and truthfully of our concerns, we have spoken sweet words of
flattery to our leaders. Therefore, in a way, we - the people - have made it
easy for someone of Jammeh’s type to become corrupt, autocratic and
dictatorial, because of our attitudes to those in authority.
My fellow Gambians, this has to change! In a Post-Jammeh Gambia, we would
not only need to be promoting, formulating and implementing policies which
will take The Gambia forward, but we also need to modify our attitudes in
terms of honesty, commitment, sincerity and expectation. The rewards which
accrue to us, should come as a result of our hardwork and dedication to
rebuilding the country, rather than of our praise singing of our leaders.
The challenges facing our country and all of us are enormous, and it is
crucial that we work together to meet and overcome them. Our strength and
success will be in direct relation to our unity of purpose.
The Gambia is the property of ALL Gambians. Therefore, its well being as a
nation depends on ALL of us. To start with, we should be looking to appoint
people to serve the country on the basis of their sincerity, their merits,
their qualifications and their experience: the days of appointing one’s
brother to a post of responsibility because he is a brother should now be at
an end.
The Gambian people have a duty to elect a responsible government, and in its
turn, the government also has a duty to be responsible. Additionally, the
people have a further duty: to prevent the re-emergence of a society based
on favours and corruption.
Since the people will be expecting honesty and integrity from its leaders,
then it is also fair that they should give honesty and integrity in return.
Unless we can address these issues, the task of rebuilding a decent society
of which we may all be proud will be far more difficult to achieve. So
clearly, attitudes MUST change!
In a post-Jammeh Gambia, the people and government have to work together as
partners. There would need to be a spirit of mutual criticism, honesty and
integrity bound together by the rule of law and a free and fair electoral
system. We have to set a new scenario for our nation where no one group will
be in a position to seize power illegally again.
Surely, the Gambia can once again become an exemplar for the whole of the
sub-region and the continent, if we set our hearts, minds and attitudes on
this.
In my Eleventh posting, I looked at some of the challenges which will face
the next leader of our country and his/her government. Now, in this posting,
I shall continue with this broad overview of pressing concerns for the
future.
1. Education
Despite the previous levels of investment in this sector, education remains
a major concern. Primary School enrolment figures are still low in
comparison with the continent, and the enrolment of Girls is particularly
low. Secondary School enrolment levels remain significantly low, and the
illiteracy rate across the country is high.
We are fortunate in having a skilled group of people engaged at the highest
levels in the education sector, but their hard work and efforts are often
unnoticed and unrewarded; and the development that has taken place, has
tended to be piecemeal and fragmented.
Indeed, there is an urgent need to re-examine the whole of the education
system and to ask searching and profound questions about what are the needs
of our country, as well as the needs of our young people. We need to be
checking that the curriculum offered in every stage of our education system
is suitable to our requirements and pertinent to our future as a developing
nation.
The expansion of a skilled technocracy is increasingly urgent, and we have
to ensure that we have a system in place that will cater for this (along
with skilled, qualified personnel and adequate, up-to-date equipment and
resources). Vocational training is seriously limited at the moment, and much
of it available only in the private sector.
Now, given the advances in the world in Information and Technology (IT) and
Communications, we shall need to invest heavily in these areas, in order to
ensure that The Gambia can take its rightful place in Africa and on the
world stage. Furthermore, Careers advice for young people is an area which
has been largely overlooked, and which is going to play a vital role in our
future development.
We also need to be investing more vigorously in the training of a skilled
and highly qualified teaching force: currently, around 60% of trained
teachers are non-Gambians. The rewards for teachers, and the burdens we
place on them (in terms of double shift teaching duties) need a thorough
examination. If we want high quality teachers, then we have to invest
heavily to meet our requirements.
Also, no one doubts the need for The Gambia to have a University, but we
have to ensure that it is effectively staffed and properly equipped to do
its job. The courses on offer need to meet the country’s requirements more
fully (e.g. Medicine, Engineering, IT) and they also need to be affordable
to ordinary Gambians. It is important that the degrees conferred by the
University of The Gambia are recognised as meeting world standards.
Education, they say, is the key to the world, and our priority should be to
make it the right of every child in the land, taking them from Nursery to
Tertiary stages. There is no doubt that the funding necessary to achieve
this is going to be massive, but if we are concerned to take The Gambia
forwards, then the investment level needs to be sufficient to do the job,
and do it properly.
2. Health
Like Education, this sector is going to bring enormous challenges to the new
leadership and will require heavy levels of funding to bring it up to even a
minimal standard of national operation. The saying that "a prosperous nation
is a healthy nation" holds true, and we are all concerned that The Gambia
takes its place on the world stage as a prosperous and prospering (therefore
healthy) country.
The current situation is dire, notwithstanding the Herculean efforts of the
Health Service workers to keep a failing system going. Infant and child
mortality is very high indeed, and life expectancy levels are low for all
sectors of society.
We have to set in place a Health Service which is affordable to ordinary
Gambians (and free for those who genuinely cannot afford it), which meets
basic Primary Health Care needs, particularly in the rural areas, and which
provides the essentials of care (diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, prevention
and health education).
People are dying because they do not have access to a decent health service,
to necessary medicines or to reliable medical equipment. X Rays and Scans
can only take place in Banjul, which again puts people in the provinces at a
great disadvantage. Ambulance services are restricted (and again, almost
unavailable in the provinces).
The new hospitals at Farafenni and Bwiam remain incomplete, and nationwide
there is a great shortage of skilled and qualified personnel to man existing
hospitals and health centres.
Our longer-term aim has to be the complete overhaul of the Health sector,
including the training of Gambian personnel to staff it. In the short term,
we should be looking to establish an effective Basic Primary Health Care
system that serves the needs of every community in the country.
3. Population Issues
The population growth rate (4.2% last year) is alarming, as are average
fertility rates (currently set at 6 children per woman). Our next leader
will need to tackle these issues head-on, and set in process the changing of
attitudes, as well as the socio-economic development of our country.
There is also a significant volume of migration into The Gambia from other
countries in the sub-region that is adding to the problems of
over-population. In 1993, 13% of the population were non-Gambians, and over
the last seven years, this percentage has increased dramatically.
Economic development and population growth are inextricably linked, and our
next government will have a lot to do to ensure that the cycle of rising
unemployment and increasing poverty levels do not spiral out of control. The
rural-urban drift also needs addressing as a matter of urgency, to reduce
all the pressures currently being borne by the country’s main population
centres. We have to look for ways in which we can reinvigorate the
provincial areas, and make it a viable option for people to stay there
rather than moving to the coastal area.
4. Women's Issues
Jammeh has paid lip service to raising the stature of women in Gambian
society, but this has been limited to the elevation of a few women to
political office. The situation for the majority of women in the country is
still deplorable, and the Gender Policy recommendations of the Beijing
Conference of 1995 remain unfulfilled.
Our women form 50% of the labour force of the nation, contributing 40% of
total agricultural production, and yet the majority remain on the poverty
line, working up to a sixteen-hour day.
Our government has a bounden duty to serve the interests of women, and first
on the agenda will be the changing of social attitudes. The post-Jammeh
Gambia should reflect a society of equal opportunity, and not the
patriarchal views of those like Imam Fatty which serve to keep women in
subjugation. It will be no easy matter to change social norms and practices,
and there will have to be positive discrimination for women.
It will be a question of education for all, to serve the long-term interests
of women and to raise their stature in our society.
5. Culture
Our country’s cultural heritage is diverse and rich, and the next government
will need to be spearheading a campaign both to preserve it and to nurture
it. We have to look towards a restoration of pride in our Gambian and West
African culture, and the obvious starting place will be in our schools and
colleges.
The government will need to give active encouragement to artists, musicians,
dancers, craftspeople, historians and to promote all aspects of our
traditions and culture.
We have good reason to be proud of our heritage, and to advertise it on the
world stage.
6. Sport
This is an area obviously dear to my own heart, and I have even become a
cricket fan since being in the UK!
The departure of Yankuba Touray from the Ministry of Youth and Sport was an
excellent piece of news, but the problems facing the development of Sport in
all its aspects and at all levels remain enormous.
We need to be encouraging young people to take up sports, and giving them
the opportunities and the facilities to develop their skills. We should be
setting up sporting academies in both the urban and rural areas, where the
potential of sporting youth would be tapped.
As a means of putting The Gambia onto the world map, success in the sporting
field will serve our country’s best interests. Sport is an important area of
life, and government will need to do a lot to ensure that The Gambia takes
part in all the sporting disciplines in the sub-region and throughout the
world, and that we do well as a nation.
7. Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
Government alone cannot address all the development concerns of the whole
country: a vital role is also played by NGOs, particularly in the developing
world.
The criteria for setting up NGOs in The Gambia should be favourable, and at
the same time, we also have to ensure that the NGOs themselves are genuine
and serving our nation’s best interests.
The government will need to promote an environment for NGO operation which
is good, and obstacle-free. By doing this, we can also encourage Gambians to
set up their own and thus play an active role in the development of the
nation.
My fellow Gambians, with determination and hard work, we can move The Gambia
forward after Jammeh: there is nothing that is not possible with the right
attitudes and a sense of national commitment. Across the world, countries
which have been brought to the edge by corrupt leaders or warfare have risen
like a Phoenix and The Gambia will be no exception to this. It is a country
blessed with industrious, kind, staunch and steadfast people who remain its
chief strength for the future.
Ebrima Ceesay
Birmingham, UK.
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