EDITORIAL: Only Coup Can Salvage The Gambia

Country’s Budget Depicts About A Scary And Unstable Future

How Jammeh And His Mafia Group Destroyed The Gambia

Gambians should start bracing up for a difficult year. The 2010 budget recently presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Abdou Kolley, hinted about a major economic hardship, characterized by political uncertainties. Taxes would go up, while there is no hope for job opportunities, investment,  and decent wages for Government workers. Our country’s future is indeed bleak. We are likely to witness a major political and economic unrest in months to come. There is no way that our poverty stricken citizens would withstand the looming hunger about to hit our country. 

In the absence of jobs, decent living,  food, and Medicare there is bound to be instability.  Gambia’s budget for 2010, does not guarantee its citizens the above mentioned necessities. The budget depicts about a “bankrupt” regime, which is seemingly running out of human and financial resources to manage the affairs of the nation. The 2010 budget also signals about worst days ahead for Gambian tax payers. 

Under the newly estimated budget, the poor will remain poorer, while Jammeh and his co “mafia” business partners would continue to milk the coffers of the state. The unprecedented hike in taxes were calculated to offset the economic loss suffered in the past year.

The reasons advanced for the unprecedented hike in taxes is untenable. You do not increase taxes for the sake of encouraging Gambians to eat the locally produced main staple food rice. This is the joke of the century. It makes no sense.

Gambians have been eating Western rice well before knucklehead Jammeh was born. The regime should be honest enough and tell Gambians the truth. The bottom-line is that this administration is bankrupt. Period!!!

While battling with international isolation, the Jammeh administration has been snubbed by foreign investors. Serious investors are turning their back to the country, in view of the “hostile” political climate in the country. The Gambia is being viewed as an “ unstable” country, where tyranny and fear ruled. 

If Jammeh was toppled today, be rest assured that investors would target this smiling coast of The Gambia. There are business opportunities in this country, but the current administration lacks credibility.  No sane person with his right mind would invest in a country, where the President can jump one morning seized investors properties. He has done it in the past and he is still doing it.

Corruption is institutionalized in this country. The President who is expected to set good examples for others to follow,  has been engulfed into corrupt business practices. Jammeh owns the majority of the local companies in the country.  He also openly bragged about his riches.  

Our ailing economy  will never recover as long as we have “economic witches” such as Yahya Jammeh, Amadou Samba, Muhammed Jah, Muhammed Bazzi, and the other Lebanese hustlers in town. These folks destroyed Gambia’s economy. That’s the reality. 

Muhammed Jah is Jammeh’s new business partner. From what we have gathered, Jammeh owns 70 percent of the shares of Q Cell Company.  Jah is running around town posing as the Majority shareholder of this newly setup company, but the reality is that Jammeh  owns the company. He is using Jah as a “front” in a bid  to deceive Gambians.  The truth about the actual ownership of Q Cell would come to light when this regime ceases to exist.

There cannot be economic prosperity when the President is busy socializing with “economic mafias” whose sole aim is to ravage our country.  Jammeh will no doubt reap what he has sown. 

Greed, official corruption and injustices were blamed for Sierra Leone and Liberia’s decade civil wars.  The same trend is likely to happen in The Gambia if concerted efforts are not taken to arrest the situation. What is happening in the country is unacceptable. We have reached a stage in which the country  has been auctioned to “economic parasites” posing as Jammeh’s business partners. They loot and secretly launder money outside the frontiers of this country.  

Muhammed Jah, in particular has business interest in Africell, Quantum Net, Q Cell and other business outlets in the country. Jah was nobody prior to the July 22^nd coup, but today he is competing with his co economic partner in crime Yahya Jammeh. His ill gotten wealth was earned from dubious business practices.

Muhammed Jah, we have been told, hired his workers for “cheap labor” and does not participate in social security contributions, which he is denying the state and his employees. Jah also grossly underpaid his staff, without whom there wouldn't be such a so called “ success” story registered by the emerging young entrepreneur. 

Jah treats his workers as slaves. That is why there is mass exodus of  Quantum Net staff overseas. The majority of the old guards of Quantum have either resigned or left the country.  Jah is obsessed with securing wealth and he would do whatever it takes to exploit the state and his staffers.

That said, we sometimes wonder if there is rule of law in this country. How can few folks hold the country into ransom by openly milking our coffers. That is why there is absolute need for the military to step in and rescue our dear motherland. Yahya Jammeh has proven to be a “sellout.” He has betrayed The Gambian people big time. It is time to topple this administration.

ENDS: 12/25/09