After the young army officers joined the party uninvited, many ran away
while others stayed. The army officers announced a 4year rectification
program that was immediately rejected by the masses. A 2year compromise was
reached after sufficient consultation with the masses. During this period,
these officers took an inventory of the leftovers and found out that there
was hardly anything left. They took remedial action against some of those
found to have been culpable while others hastily ran for cover in foreign
lands. It has to be remembered here that when the sovereignty of this nation
was mortgaged after the failed coupe attempt of 1981 we were never
consulted.

THE REALITY?

It was discovered that self-enrichment was the order of the day. Several
dubious deals were done undercover without the knowledge of Gambians, the
nation’s economy was in shambles, most of our infrastructure had collapsed,
access to education or health facilities extremely difficult, there was no
effective auditing system to track down how our meager resources were being
plundered, our “national” radio” (the mouth piece of the government) was
hardly "divisional", as it could hardly be heard outside Kombo, our schools
lacked basic furniture etc, etc, etc. To have a better idea of how this
oligarchy nearly sank our state, lets look at some the things they did.

The Gambia inherited a very effective river transport system from the
colonialists when we had independence. We had a steamer that used to sail to
our neighboring countries and the UK, our main trading partner then. We had
a fleet of tugboats that transported goods very cheaply to the interior of
the country and brought back rice, groundnuts, livestock and other things
towards Banjul. Agriculture was generally ok and our rural folks had
something to look forward to, come the dry season. The GPMB (formerly GOMB)
was marketing our best nuts directly from Kuntaur and later Kaur and Denton
Bridge to the outside world. The lower quality ones were decorticated and
turned into cooking oil and soap whilst some chip wood for furniture and
brickets for heating fuel were obtained from the shells. We had ferries
throughout the country and the cost of living was very affordable throughout
the country. There was a groundnut mill at Kaur that employed many people, a
rice mill at Kuntaur that also employed many people and there was very
little difference between the cost of goods in Banjul, Kuntaur or Basse.
When The Gambia introduced the Dalasi and Butut, CFAO sold their warehouses,
shops, residence including a historic storey building with a bunker and a
tropicalized green house in Kuntaur, to The Gambia for a token price of ONE
DALASI (D1.00). In the name of decentralization the area councils were
created. Around this time, in the 70s, the tourism industry has started
contributing more to the economy. Things were relatively OK and our propects
looked good then.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

As the revenue from tourism increased, neglect of our rural poor began.
River transport went out of the window; rural administration neglected
allowing very unscrupulous civil servants to plunder, with impunity,
co-operative and GPMB revenues. Government infrastructures were neglected
and allowed to fall into disrepair, very little or no attempt was made to
improve access to education or health. Being a senior officer in an area
council, customs, GPMB, Cooperative union, ferries, police or a headmaster,
particularly in the provinces, gave one a ticket to self-enrichment. While
the tug boats that used to pull the barges along the river to transport
goods were being taken to Denton bridge and allowed to sink one by one, we
were busy constructing concrete wharfs (15 of them) along the river knowing
full well that there were no plans to use them. Meanwhile we were busy
buying the Mansa Killas.

The result; people in the rural areas were becoming poorer by the day.
Rural/urban migration began to accelerate. The agricultural sector was
neglected except for those that attracted financing from abroad to allow
another breed of Derrimos to plunder our resources. The economy began to
shrink and the Dalasi depreciated. Yes the Dalasi depreciated. Against the
CFA, it depreciated from about D35.00 for CFA5,000 in the 70s to more than
D200.00 for the same CFA5,000 in the early nineties. Against the Pound
Sterling it depreciated from about D5.00 to the Pound in the late 70s to
more than D12.00 about a decade later. The government completely failed to
put in place structures or policies to create jobs or wealth for the nation.
The energy sector that is so vital for the development of light industries,
was never given the attention it deserved because they had their private
generators.

Lack of access to schools despite our rising population led to record number
of school dropouts. These school dropouts knowing that if only they had
access to schools would not have found themselves in the state they were,
could bring themselves to going back to the land. These young people began
moving towards Banjul hoping to get a job. As these young ablebodied young
left the rural areas and their now aging parents to fend for themselves.
Rural girls were, in most cases, not allowed to attend school because they
needed to help with the domestic chores. Some were forced into early
marriages just for the dowry.

Because our tradition encourages us to have many children as a form of
insurance during old age, our baby producing factories went into full gear.
This desperation was exploited to the full by senior civil servants and
politicians alike. School children were being impregnated left, right and
center and squandering our limited resources on naming ceremonies. In fact
some even used to boast of how many illegitimate children they had and by
whom. Meanwhile, the government became dumb, deaf and blind to all these
things happening. These were some of the things that created the atmosphere
that necessitated and facilitated the demise of the previous regime.

To be continued.

A friend of mine in the Diaspora wants me to remind you of:

1. The TWELVE FEET DEEP MASS GRAVES from the 1981 uprising.

2. The Gambian Field Force.

3. The Gambian urban intellectual HOLOCUST.

4. The foreign army brought in here by Jawara to butcher his own people in
1981, the CHILDREN AND THE YOUTHS IN THESE MASS GRAVES, the lootings, the
tortures, the intimidations and the RAPES OF OUR HELPLESS WOMEN by the
occupation ARMY.

5. That BANJUL, our CAPITAL CITY THAT IS SINKING; and that by the time your
so called democratic ship makes it to port you will be welcome by the
Atlantic sharks and escorted by our mighty tropical MOSQITOES.

Dampha,

If you or anybody else believes that I am pretending to be a victim of the
previous regime to gain favor from this regime that person better do some
background checking or have his head examined. For the record I have never
been a victim of the previous government nor this one. I have never gained
any special favors from this government or the previous one. Whether you
believe it not, that’s up to. One thing I can tell you, without any fear of
contradicting myself, is that I don’t consider myself among the best
engineers in this country, but among THE VERY BEST. I am very fit both
mentally and physically and I have the confidence and competence to go it
alone or seek employment in the private sector!

Have a good day, Gassa.



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