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Double Celebration

Nov 6, 2008, 4:01 AM

Thisis a joyous moment for us for two reasons. First, we are glad that our projection many months ago that Barack Obama would be the first black president of

America

has been fulfilled. Then we argued that Obama's charisma and innate ability to connect easily with people would earn him the presidency. Second, we are also pleased that the Westfield-Sukuta Road is about to be rehabilitated. We have written on the state of that road many times so much so that it even became monotonous. Just when we were about to despair, the good news came that the Islamic Development Bank and the Government of The Gambia are bankrolling the reconstruction of the road.

We are not about to reiterate the economic importance of that road; we are not about to repeat why it should be reconstructed. Those points are clear enough to everybody.

What we are concerned with now is how soon the road will be done. We are also concerned with how well it will be done. We have seen roads rehabilitated only to go bad in less than a year. This is not good for us as a people. If we have anything to do, we should do it so well for it to last. GAMWORKS should make sure that the Westfield-Sukuta road is built to the highest standard possible.

Evidently, money is not the problem. So much money has been earmarked for the project. There is no reason therefore why an excellent job cannot be done. We will hold GAMWORKS to account if the contractors, COPRI a Kuwati construction firm, fail to give us a first-class road.

Doing things shoddily only to have them done again is a waste of scare resources. We have to imbibe the habit of getting it right once and for all.

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