Hamjatta, going back to the subject of the dismal economy the Alliance is
going to inherit from the AFPRC/APRC, let me today talk about the horrendous
GROUNDNUT SECTOR. Hamjatta, the mental midgets dealt a devastating blow to
this industry; in the process rendering DESTITUTE the overwhelming majority
of the Gambians. No citizen has to work all year round and have NOTHING to
show for it except PRIMISSORY NOTES (‘toilet paper’). As Darboe said, the
Alliance Government will ensure that every Gambian that works hard and plays
by the rules, has something to show for their sweat. Yaya’s government is
one that shies away from its responsibilities. They rendered our farmers
DESTITUTE and then turn around and say that it is NOT their responsibility
to ensure that our farmers’ groundnuts are bought.

Darn right it is their responsibility. This issue alone should convince
Gambians to boot these criminals out of office. Months ago, we predicted on
G_L that the ALIMENTA DEBACLE was going to cost our people heavily. When
this criminal government was falsely accusing Alimenta of
‘money-laundering’, we warned Pap Cheyassin Secka that he was playing with
fire. We told the moron to back-off such false allegations or his rhetoric
will cost the Gambians a lot of money and would result to nothing but misery
for our people. Needless to say, the vermin NEVER listened. Instead, they
pursued their ‘self-destruct’ path, preparing to mortgage the lives of
Gambian farmers in order to cover up yet another criminal enterprise of
Baabaa Jobe.

Yes! the nototious Baabaa Jobe. When the vermin saw an opening to bring into
the country a Libyan outfit to run our groundnut (most important) industry,
he seized the opportunity and orchestrated the expulsion of Alimenta. Yaya
personally (without the advise of the civil servants) took certain policy
decisions the net effect of which was to make the Gambian taxpayers owe
Alimenta 22 million dalasis. Alimenta financed two groundnut trading seasons
while the government was still incurring this debt. In the third
(consecutive) year, government still sought to borrow more money from
Alimenta and when Alimenta refused, Baabaa Jobe and his para-troopers
stormed the Denton Bridge facility (owned by Alimenta) and took over the
premises and expel Alimenta from the country. Thereafter the fishing
expedition began in order to proffer bogus money-laundering charges against
Alimenta.

Being the ignorant people they are, the vermin did NOT understand how the
world groundnut markets worked and how important Alimenta was in that arena.
I warned Pap Cheyassin Secka that it was NOT in their interest to alienate
Alimenta. Just like it is NOT in the interest of The Gambia to alienate the
British and the EU. But the morons NEVER listen. They would even alienate an
important world body like the UN in order to please Baabaa Jobe. They did
NOT realize that small outfits like Hilo CANNOT make it to the world markets
with the Gambian groundnuts if they did NOT have Alimenta’s blessing. At the
time we told them and they did NOT listen.

By the time they woke up and smelled the coffee, our farmers had failed to
sell their groundnuts at competitive rates for the third consecutive year
and the Gambian taxpayers were looking at an arbitration proceeding that was
later going to cost the country $12 million. And the bleeding did NOT stop
there. Because government guaranteed the loans given by the Commercial Banks
to ‘groundnut buyers’, government was saddled with a huge bill (millions of
dalasis) from the local Commercial Banks to take care of the loans the
‘operators’ defaulted on. So the government that was initially talking about
getting away from the groundnut sector, is now using taxpayers’ money to
subsidize unscrupulous businessmen that used government guaranteed loans in
order to finance their groundnut operations.

Our inept government expelled Alimenta that used to bring in their own
dollars to finance their operations and even lend money to the government,
and replace Alimenta with bogus outfits that had no money but depended on
government backing in order to get loans from Gambian Commercial Banks.
Yaya’s policies in this industry (like in all other industries important to
our people) is a complete failure.

Hamjatta, as indicated in the IMF Report, our illegal government realized
their mistake in expelling Alimenta and begged the latter to settle the
matter out of the arbitration forum. The matter was settled and the EU
promised our government $12 million to pay Alimenta off. Hamjatta, this
grant could have been put to better use if it were not for the
heavy-handedness of thugs like Baabaa Jobe. As a matter of fact, the IMF
Report specifically said that the initial disbursement of 5 million pounds
sterling from the EU to our government in order to pay off Alimenta, was
meant for “reducing domestic debt”. As you rightly pointed out the other
day, this is a major problem area for our illegal government. Everyone knows
that the only way the criminals are ‘sustaining’ that government is by
borrowing money through treasury bills from Standard Chartered Bank and
Social Security. If Standard Chartered were to decide tomorrow that they
will NOT renew their treasury bills, the government will collapse; civil
servant will NOT be paid. And you can take this to the bank. EU and our
‘Development Partners’ recognize this predicament. They wanted to do
something about it. But Yaya and Baabaa Jobe will NOT let them. Instead, the
morons have to saddle our people with a $12 million legal bill and cost us
another EU grant. The sooner we get rid of these people, the better.

Hamjatta, in keeping with your brilliant ‘prescriptions’ for our SICK
economy, I humbly suggest that the Alliance leaders communicate to the
farmers that the next government will ensure that the groundnuts are bought
at competitive prices. The new administration will work from day one to
ensure that we create a conducive environment (through research, quality
control, etc.) to attract a heavyweight (in the league of Alimenta) to
market our groundnut in the international markets. Dealing with such
companies cuts out the middle-men (such as Hilo) which goes to reducing the
margins that would otherwise go into the pockets of the farmers. The
Alliance government should tell the farmers that voting for the Alliance
means more money in their pockets. When they work and play by the rules,
they will be able to feed their families.

Hamjatta, thanks again for your tremendous contributions.
KB


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