LAND COMMISSION (2010) in The Gambia

By Dida Halake, Contributing Writer

Editor M’Bai,

As I said in our Radio Freedom discussion, I think the Land Commission is long overdue but better late than never. It is like the appointment of someone of Ben Jammeh’s calibre as head of NDEA – again better late than never (It is quite extra-ordinary that today’s Daily Observer announces the seizure of another 1.2 tons of cannabis, following hard on the recent seizure of the 2 tons of cocaine. At this rate we would have to re-name the Smiling Coast and call it the “Narcotics Coast”!). But back to the Land Commission.

The Problem Facing the Land Commission

Land is absolutely central to the freedom and existence of most families in a mainly farming country like The Gambia – or Zimbabwe. The long-running “Babylon” case showed the passions that are easily raised over illegal seizures of land. As I said in our radio discussion, dispossession of powerless families from their land is not just a Second Republic phenomenon. A lot of it took place under the First Republic – especially in the Kombos where chiefs and village alkalos sold common land that they were meant to hold in trust for their communities for a next to nothing – to the powerful connected and the Kombos professionals.

Recent developments such as TAF Construction also dispossessed many powerless families from their ancestral land. The injustice of land dispossession in The Gambia since independence is such that a Zimbabwe scenario of social strife is not far-fetched. The “Babylon” case is just the tip of the iceberg – and the government knows this: hence the heavy handed manner in which the “Babylon” accused persons have been dealt with. While I was at the Daily Observer, some of the Bojang families around Brikama took their complaint to the High Court – in part claiming that well connected people like Governor Omar Khan of URR had expropriated their land around Brikama. I think nothing came from their High Court case and they ended up bringing the letter they had written to the President’s Office to the Daily Observer.

I believe the Land Commission have a ticking-bomb in their hands – a bomb that they must diffuse for the sake of future social peace and harmony. Ben Jammeh too has a ticking bomb – but Ben is up to the job. Are the members of the Land Commission up to the job that faces them?

First Tasks for the Land Commission

1.     The Land Commission should first and foremost ensure that all the communities and families dispossessed around the Kombos are compensated. For example, the family kicked off their land in Kololi for a well-connected individual to build his hotel should be compensated (family members were locked up at Kotu police station when they refused to leave their land). Ex-VP Sabally’s wife had her Kotu plot grabbed by a well connected Mafiosi when she refused to sell for 100,000 dalasis. The Mafiosi was even invited to an NIA Director’s office because the President had decreed that Mrs. Sabally should get her land back. But the Mafiosi was connected to the Vice-President and managed to keep the land – and later transferred it to his wife who in turn sold it for a million dalasis!). There are numerous cases of dispossessions like this throughout the Kombos and further afield. The Land Commission must invite all the dispossessed people to come to them – and then make just judgements without fear or favour.

2 The Gambia Government needs to nationalise ALL land and hold it in trust for Gambians. Then:-

a)   Gambians can continue to own the lands they own for renewable 99 year leases as is currently the case in the Kombos;

b)   Non-Gambians can buy land on renewable 25-year leases (to avoid speculation where someone buys land in Brufut or Tanji for 100,000 dalasis and then divides it into six large compounds and develops it for fellow Europeans and sells each of the six compounds for 4 million dalasis (that is 24 million dalasis!). If Non-Gambians want to renew their 25-year lease they should be allowed, and if they wish to sell their land to fellow foreigners, the foreigners could buy it on 25-year leases. On the other hand, if the foreign land-owner wishes to sell the land to a Gambian, the Gambian can buy it on a 99-year lease – hence the foreign seller will have an incentive to sell his land to a Gambian (because the 99-year lease available to a Gambian will get him a higher price than the 25-year lease that is available to a foreign buyer).

3.    Development Projects for NATIONAL interests will be easier to accomplish if the Government owns all land in the country on behalf of Gambians. For example, if it is in the national interest to turn the whole of Janjanbureh into a rice plantation for the interests of the whole nation, that should be possible – provided that individual farmers are adequately compensated.

Of course, nationalisation of ALL land does mean that Pa Mbai’s questions about President Jammeh (or anyone else!) “grabbing” land all over the country will be answered: Gambians own all the land, and President Jammeh and others are simply developers and custodians for future generations of Gambians.

PS: I wrote a similar editorial regarding land ownership in The Gambia for the Daily Observer in 2008.

Editors Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this write up does not necessarily represent the position of the Freedom Newspaper. This paper will not take liability for the author’s opinions.  Thanks for your attention.