Whether one begins with Ebou Jallows chilling tale of outright theft and
malfeseance of the worst kind perpetrated by the preisdent and his leutenants
or government employees stealing what little  money they have access to , or
using their positions to extort the already tittering population, we have
become a nation that is functionally awash in corruption. Our contemporary
history is replete with failures that has everything to do with how we
conduct our affairs. At the very heart of our engagements is the incessant
likelihood of corruption resulting in a societal conditioning that totally
removes any stigma , shame or even fear of God . Ordinarily you would think a
common thief ought to be ostracized at the very least. In a perverse and very
odd way our society celebrates and is often impressed by people who are
demonstrably corrupt. How else does a God fearing  people tolerate as their
leader who a day before he seized power would be hard pressed to buy an apple
from the market stalls in serrekunda but now displays ostentatious wealth
proven to be ill-gotten? The answer lies in the rather unhealthy national
psyche that is accepting of wrongdoing. The struggling taxi driver has long
accepted extortion from traffic police as the normal cost doing business. The
businessman is all too eager to have the custom officer examining his
imported goods let him avoid paying the required taxes and duties preferring
instead to meet him somewhere later to offer him bribes. On and on it goes so
that every facet of our society has become entangled in this untenable web of
evil.

The kind of remedy that would begin to correct the situation would be a long
and arduous process. First and foremost would be a legislative fix that would
begin by forbiding government employees from accepting any gratuities. The
same legislation would explicitly define corruption of every concievable form
and attach strict penalties  for those who break the law. It would also be
accompanied by a strong enforcement mechanism that would vigilantly ferret
out wrongdoers in a sustained manner. If people start getting decades long
prison terms for corruption and breaching the public trust , a strong message
would be sent to the public as a whole who would begin to appreciate the
virtues of  a society that tries to be honest. The combination of  fear of
severe punishment and open/honest and fair governance would begin to spur an
attitudinal change because the people's faith in authority and those that
occupy positions would be predicated on the notion that doing the right thing
is the only way.

Unless we get ourselves a leadership that itself is free of the morass that
this current  regime is full of ,fighting corruption in Gambia would be a
lost cause. You simply can't have a bunch of crooks begin to do anything
about an issue as profound and deeply ingrained as corruption is  in the
Gambia. Our best bet is to work for the day we can put every corrupt person
on trial and severely punish them. I have always maintained that a worry-free
retirement in Kanalai or Morrocco is not something President Jammeh should
look forward to. The same fate awaits his cronies in government and business.

Karamba

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