"It is Better to Take One Step With the People Than Ten Without Them" -
Captain Thomas Sankara the July Revolution - a Decade of Misplaced
Priorities

The Independent (Banjul)
OPINION
July 26, 2004
Posted to the web July 26, 2004

By D.A. Jawo
Banjul

The whole country is still reeling from the pomp and gaiety that had
accompanied the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the July
22nd "Revolution". However, there have been different reactions to the
celebrations, with President Jammeh and his supporters no doubt hailing
them as well deserved, while many others see the whole thing as a misplaced
priority.

There is however, no doubt that the AFPRC/APRC regime has registered some
positive achievements since assuming office in July 1994. They have for
instance provided this country with several new schools, two referral
hospitals, a television station, a university, and a more spacious airport
terminal building, amongst several other visible infrastructural
developments. Therefore, it would be unfair for anyone to out rightly
dismiss claims by the regime that they have registered some achievements.

However, the question everyone should ask is whether the achievements of
the regime warrant all those elaborate and expensive festivities that
accompanied the weeklong celebrations. There is also the question of
whether it is ethical to celebrate an unconstitutional change of
government, because no matter what name they have given it, what happened
on 22nd July 1994 was nothing more than an illegal resurrection against a
legally constituted government. Therefore, glorifying such an event would
tantamount to endorsing a coup d-etat. Indeed most people were quite
surprised as well as disappointed that a pan-Africanist and a democrat like
President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal with all his credentials in the African
Union and NEPAD and Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the African Union
Commission would be seen to give endorsement to such an occasion by gracing
it with their presence in Banjul.

Apart from the morality issue, it is also necessary for us to compare and
contrast the achievements and failures of the regime as well as the
negative and positive impact of whatever developments the regime has
claimed to have registered on the lives of ordinary Gambians.

While there is no question that the numerous educational institutions,
including the university as well as all the other infrasrtuctural
developments have had some positive impact on the lives of the people, but
there has been a question mark on the relevance and even the choice of
location for some of them. For example, most people seem to question the
wisdom of spending millions of Dalasis to construct referral hospitals in
Farafenni and Bwiam when emphasis should have been placed on primary health
care. "What is the point of constructing such expensive edifices when there
are hardly any essential drugs available in them?" asked a critic of the
regime.

Another common criticism of the development projects is the lack of
transparency in the awarding of the contracts to construct them as well as
the almost total absence of competitive bidding. This has no doubt impacted
quite negatively on the quality of the work in most of them. A good example
has been the much bragged-about airport terminal building, which started
leaking almost immediately it was handed over. There have been similar
complaints with regards to most of the other infrastructure put up both
during the transition period and after. One would also wonder what was the
wisdom of spending more than 10 million Dalasis on constructing the Arch 22
at the entrance to Banjul only to close the main thoroughfare to the city
from vehicular traffic for ordinary Banjulians. I have no doubt that if the
people of Banjul were given the choice of either having the Arch or
maintaining their liberty to go in and out of Banjul without any
restrictions, they would have chosen the latter.

"What is the use of providing us with developments projects that would
restrict our movements?" one of them asked.

The problems created by the Arch are no doubt a clear indication of the
apparent lack of consultation with the people to determine what their
wishes and aspirations were before those projects were constructed. We have
for instance recently heard President Jammeh going around the country-side
during his recent 'Dialogue with the People' tour promising the people that
he was going to transform the whole country into a 'capital' by proving
them with electricity and water as well as promising to encircle the whole
country with a railway line. There is absolutely no doubt that if the
people were given the choice, they would have asked instead for motorable
roads to enable them to move about as well as cheaper prices for their farm
inputs. It is quite wrong for President Jammeh and members of his regime to
assume that they know what the people want without consulting with the
people. It is very obvious that what they were doing during the so-called
dialogue with the people was to just tell the people what the regime was
going to do for them but certainly not asking them what they want. Indeed
when one sees the condition of the road network as well as the other public
amenities in the provinces, one would not help it but ask whether those
people have anything to celebrate during the decade of AFPRC/APRC rule.
Sunday of last week for instance, I travelled from Soma to the Kombos in a
truck, which took about seven hours to reach Serekunda. It was certainly
not my choice to travel in that manner but that was the only means of
transport available at that time, This is because the road is so bad that
the owners of the other types of vehicles are always reluctant to risk
driving on it.

I can fully well remember that just two days before the coup in 1994, I
travelled on the same stretch of road but then it was several times better.
I can remember that the journey then was on a more comfortable vehicle and
it took less than three hours to cover the same distance.

That in a nutshell shows how the situation in certain parts of the country
has deteriorated so badly that it would be hard to imagine how anyone would
ask those people to celebrate "ten years of development".

It is indeed a similar situation with almost all the other amenities that
they used to take for granted before the "Revolution". If indeed giving the
people regular electricity and water supply is what would transform their
areas into a 'capital', as he had been promising them, then President
Jammeh's village of Kanilai is the only capital in this country as it is
the only place having a guaranteed supply of those utilities, which
facilities have eluded even Banjul, the official capital throughout the ten
years. Therefore, those amenities, which had been taken for granted in this
country and in many civilized societies before the "Revolution" are now
seen as a luxury for many people. To most of those people therefore, it has
been a decade of poverty and decadence.

While at the very beginning of the "Revolution", the watchwords of
the "revolutionaries" were transparency and accountability. However, after
ten years in power, those two words have completely lost their literal
meanings. For example, the regime has vehemently refused to give an idea as
to how much they have budgeted for the celebrations, thus leaving the
people to guess the figures.

Also, while the main justification for the "Revolution" was to fight
against rampant corruption, there is no doubt that corruption is more
rampant today than it had ever been in the history of this country.

Indeed the very fact that President Jammeh has seen it fit to set up a
commission of inquiry to probe public officials is an indication of the
level of corruption. Good examples of how corruption has permeated the very
fabric of the administration have been the cases involving the Youth
Development Enterprise and the Central Bank, where high ranking officials
of both the APRC and the regime have been implicated in widespread official
corruption.

In the area of human rights, things have indeed not been cozy, particularly
for the opposition and journalists of the independent media, who have been
constantly harassed and intimidated.

We have witnessed the frequent arson attacks on media houses such as Radio
One FM and The Independent newspaper, and yet no visible efforts have been
made by the police to apprehend the culprits.


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