The Gambia and the state of dwindling development crisis:-How social justice becomes another political illusion?
By: - Abdoukarim Sanneh, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
The Human Development Index of United Nation Development Programme 2006 has indicated that Gambia and many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are the worst place to live on this planet. What another disheartening report of hopelessness, despair, hunger, poverty and development crisis. For many people who are clouded with what is happening in the Gambia, this report is not a surprise. UNDP measures the global trend of development using indicators such as life expectancy, access to health and sanitation, literacy, safe drinking water, access to food and nutrition, environment, democracy and human rights. It is a fact that human development cannot prevail in an environment where there is continuing attacks on individual liberty and democracy and this are the realities prevailing in the Gambia.
Gambia, under 12 year’s rule of Yaya Jammeh is degenerating into social disintegration together with an economy which is collapsing into Mafioso-style chaos. All the development arms of the government such Department of Agriculture, health, water resources, community development, education, forestry, social welfare etc which can diffuse and replicate development innovations to communities and grassroots organizations has collapse into bankruptcy due deficits in budgetary allocation to re-finance development programmes in the public sector.
According to sources, the restructuring going on in Department of Agricultural Services will lead redundancy of many employees.
Today the majority of our people are hallowing in absolute poverty while the disparity between the rich and poor is much wider as ever before. The recent report as a follow-up to the 1992 International Labour Organization poverty survey indicated a massive increase in rural and urban poverty from 52 and 50 percent level in 1982 to 80 and 75 percent respectively. The report also figured an increase in both income and food poverty. This shows that the daily life of average Gambians is characterized with despair and hopelessness while there is no realistic political will in place to address the issues of their living on the edge.
Looking into human development indicators such as safe drinking, it is a fact that no life as we know is possible without water. Access to safe drinking water is a determinant of human development. Hailing from Brufut, I cannot imagine how blind is this regime building hotels, estate development, African Union village and their self aggrandizement property accumulation in that area yet no efforts is done to provide the inhabitants of that village with do access to pipe-borne water. Is infrastructural development better than basic need of the people? This criminal government will never be aware that access to drinking water as a social service is an un-indisputable rights for her citizens. Spending money on Pajeros and Mercedes while blindly forgetting priorities is increasing human suffering from disease and premature death- a scourge which takes a heavy toll among our people whom you claim to emancipate 12 years ago.
APRC Government with its short sighted plagiarize vision 2020 think that development is a quick fixed solution and they have answers to all the development issues confronting our nation. Failing to realize that PPP government with all its shortcomings have gone along way addressing the need of Gambia’s farming community both in terms of input delivery, micro finance and agricultural marketing. The deterioration of quality of life in rural Gambia is beyond my imagination. I was privilege to work as a rural development agent after completing a Higher Diploma from Gambia College, which gave me the opportunity to either work or trek all the divisions in that country. I know how much farming means for the communities from Kartong to Koina.
My interaction with many farmer communities, help to know how innovative and determine many of these people are ready to adopted all types of technologies and taking all types of risks in order to increase their productivity year in year out. Gone are those days of glorious life in Rural Gambia when you can see smile in the face of farmers during the trade season. Dissolving institution such as the Gambia Cooperative Union which is the nerve centre for farming is one of the narrow minded policies of the criminal regime. For example here in the United Kingdom, the Cooperative movement with all its problems have gone a long way to overcome the challenge of the uncertain business environment.
Today, United Kingdom Cooperative movement is been transform with business outlets in every towns and cities promoting ethical trading and banking which could have been replicated in our situation. The Gambia Cooperative Union and its member cooperative societies were not only the marketing outlet for agricultural produces but the main source for the provision agricultural inputs, implements and also consumer Cooperative shops to the farming communities.
The 12 years of APRC Government have destroy efforts set to sight for food self-sufficiency. Many communities in Central River Division which used to have some degree of food security with the coming of Jahally-Pacharr rice project after the 1970 drought and also small-scale rice development project in Niamina are now confronting with food insecurity. Today, they face with lack of high yielding improved variety of seeds, degrading tidal irrigation system and lack of pump and fuel to access fresh water from the river Gambia to irrigate their fields. One cannot imagine whether the government will further to look in the pledge these farmers both in to put in place viable sustainable development policies and programmes policy and programmes to address their marginalization and exclusion.
Gambia’s communication system both telephone and roads are further deteriorating. Calling home from overseas is now a nightmare which many of us in the Diaspora are facing. It takes more than 12 hours to travel from Banjul to Basse which is a distance of about 360 kilometres. The economy is anemic and with rising unemployment and failing agricultural sector the tide of rural/urban migration is beyond the records of Gambian statistic.
There are enormous challenges facing development crisis in our country and all which cannot be address without looking into good governance, rule of law, democracy and human rights for external financing of development programmes. Gambia’s development programme is partly finance by bilateral and multinational aids. In this age of embracing democracy as universal value development aid, debt cancellation is always link to conditionality such as rule of law, human rights and social justice.
In order to meet our development challenges such as environmental degradation, high population growth, hunger, malnutrition etc the only solution is putting in place a political system or government with human face but not a government which is always involved in murky murder, illegal arrest and detention of its people as a strategy to suppress their liberty and democratic rights.