On second thought, I have decided to comment on Famara Jatta's verbiage,
piecemeal. I will first of all talk about what he opened with: POVERTY. At
least Jatta was decent enough to admit that under their watch, Gambians have
grown poorer. In paragraph 4 of his document, Jatta stated that:

"From 60% overall, in the ILO study of 1989 the proportion of Gambians
subsisting below the poverty line has increased to 69% in 1998 (1998
National Household Poverty Survey). This reveals the disturbing trend of
increasing poverty in our midst in spite of efforts to alleviate this
phenomenon."

To say that the trend is "disturbing", is an understatement. What these
figures did not also mention is that, 37% of the population is classified as
"extremely poor". In Gambian terms, we are talking about people that cannot
be guaranteed one square meal a day, clean drinking water and decent shelter
and medical services. In other words, the government has nothing to offer
these people So, the bottom-line is, during the tenure of Yaya and his
corrupt and inept government, Gambians have gone from bad to worse. If
Gambians needed a reason to change our government, here is the reason. We do
not need a government that can only make us grow poorer. If it were not for
the remittances our families got from us, lucky enough to be working outside
The Gambia, all our families will be out in the streets begging for food.

I could have ended my comments here because there is undeniable evidence
(Famara Jatta's speech) showing that this government has failed to perform
the basic duty of a government. Gambians are worse off under Yaya. And here,
I am only talking in economic terms. We will not touch on the human rights
abuses (murder, rape, abductions, arsons, etc.). But I will go further and
examine just how Yaya and Famara Jatta proposes to help us get out of this
sorry state of affairs.

According to Jatta, "the attainment of sustained poverty reduction requires
the existence of a good governance environment, which is found to be a
prerequisite for successful participatory poverty alleviation programme.
Good governance facilitates poverty reduction through promoting
opportunities, facilitating empowerment, and enhancing security with the
cumulative effect of increasing confidence in The Gambian economy".

Here is a very good illustration of the adage that talk is cheap. Jatta
lifted this language from a UNDP report on 'pro-poor' policies. His reason
for using such high sounding jargon is quite clear to me. Jatta knows that
the same report he plagiarized also mentioned that Gambia's poverty
alleviation program "depends on donors for 90% of its financing".

Herein lies the reason why Jatta will talk about good governance knowing
full well that his words will not be honored by the illegal regime we have
back home. Jatta thinks that UNDP and the donor community will just look at
the words in his document and disburse funds to Gambia. Funds Yaya and his
cohorts are going to waste buying fancy vehicles and traveling the globe.
Jatta's calculations are not too far off. Most of these donors care less
about the poor Gambian farmers. If we in the opposition do not take these
donors to task, they will act on Jatta's blatant lies and give the money to
Yaya and his cohorts. What Jatta did not bank on is that people will
scrutinize his proposals and debunk his lies.

The fact that Jatta will lie about Local Government decentralization also
reveals another point. Irrespective of what Yaya says, relatively
intelligent people surrounding Yaya (Jatta, Sedat Jobe et al) know that
without the donor community, the government will not be able to deliver the
little it gives to the Gambian poor. Remember, Gambia contributes only 10%
towards the financing of its poverty alleviation program. The bulk of that
10% comes from loans from within and outside the Gambia. This clearly
demonstrates that we need a government with a stellar reputation and an
economy managed by highly intelligent and dedicated people. Unfortunately,
the Gambians that can run that economy are either at the AfDB, UNDP, World
Bank or the IMF. What we have back home are nonentities that are scared to
death. Jatta's actions also demonstrate that the donor community can help
the poor by setting stringent benchmarks for Yaya and his cohorts and
monitoring compliance with those targets.

Famara Jatta, Cheyassin Secka, Sedat Jobe, etc. know what is right. They are
scared to take good ideas to Yaya. When these people want to make proposals,
they do not think about what is good for The Gambia and Gambians, their
paramount consideration is about what is good for Yaya. These people are
only concerned about their jobs and the petty luxuries that job comes with.
To illustrate my point about these people knowing what is right, let us
examine another quotation from Jatta. In paragraph 9 of his document, he
stated thus: " Mr. Speaker, facilitating empowerment involves the reform of
the public administrative system (which is firmly entrenched in our Local
Government Reform and Decentralization Program). This will make the delivery
of public goods more responsive, accountable and efficient through the
active and direct participation of the citizenry. It would also involve the
strengthening of an independent legal system as well as the removal of all
barriers that borders on gender, ethnicity, regional or social status

Again, talk is cheap. Let them walk the walk. Is this not the same
government that is proposing constitutional amendments aimed at taking power
away from the people and centralizing it in Yaya's hands. Is this government
talking about judicial independence not the same government that fired
judges that rendered judgments unfavorable to the government? How can Jatta
reconcile his position with that of Cheyassin Secka? I submit that Jatta's
statements are for the consumption of the donor community. The same or
similar words Jatta used in that paragraph can be found on the UNDP report I
alluded to earlier on. The same report that described Gambia as "one of the
poorest countries in the world and even poorer in recent years".

So can we say that the Local Government reforms talked about in Jatta's
speech and the proposed constitutional amendments being pushed by Yaya and
Secka merely illustrate a case of the left hand not knowing what the right
hand is doing? I will emphatically say that both Secka and Jatta know what
the other person is doing. A mental midget like Yaya might be in the dark,
but Secka and Jatta are each dubiously playing to their respective
audiences. If we in the opposition do not stand up to them, they might
succeed in their respective agendas. Donors will act on Jatta's mere words
and Secka will hoodwink the APRC dummies in our parliament to pass laws that
will empower Yaya and rob power from the people.

Jatta claims that decentralization of Local Government will make the
authorities more accountable to the poor. This is what the donors want to
hear. Jatta should be asked to explain just how a chief appointed by Yaya
(and not elected by the citizens) is going to be "more accountable" to the
poor citizens of the village. When pro-poor activists talk about efficiency
of Local Governments and accountability and direct participation of the
citizenry, they mean Democracy. They mean that the leaders that are given
the task of distributing our scarce resources should be accountable to the
citizens through elections.

If Jatta had any intellectual honesty, he will not incorporate in his report
reforms he knows his government cannot deliver to be people. If Jatta was
honest, he will tell the donors that his government is doing the exact
opposite of what is recommended by UNDP. Instead of decentralizing, we are
centralizing power. The saddest thing is that we are centralizing power into
the most incompetent Gambian. A Gambian that has failed the Gambian people
and continues to fail. If Yaya can hire and fire local authorities, those
people he appoint will be accountable to Yaya alone. Those chiefs will not
take care of local wells because they want to give their constituents clean
drinking water in order to get re-elected. Their major concern will be how
to be in Yaya's good books. They will be spying for Yaya and reporting
people as opposition members. That is all they do. As illustrated by the
likes of Jatta and Cheyassin Secka, working for Yaya's interests is very
different from working for the interests of the poor Gambian citizens.

Finally for now, I will recap by saying that under Yaya's watch, Gambians
have grown poorer. My authority for this statement is the words of Yaya's
own Finance Minister. In order to get out of this malaise, we need a serious
government led by intelligent and dedicated people. The last thing we need,
is a government that even alienates the very people it relies on for help
(remember that 90% of their financing comes grants). We need people that
have the wherewithal and good heart to implement reforms needed to lift our
people. We do not need people that lie to the donors and then turn around
and take away power from the citizens. We do not need leaders that steal
from the meager resources we have. I will look some more into Jatta's report
and make some comments if need be.
KB

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