Arecent
news report indicates that The Gambia government has just secured a $50 million
grant from the Chinese government to build an international conference center.
The question that immediately came to mind was who suggested the nature of the
project for which this money will be spent? Did the Gambia government ask for
$50 million dollars to build a conference center? Or was the project suggested
and funded by the Chinese government? The underlying rationale for my question
is whether this money could not be better used funding the education or
training of Gambian youths in skills that would bring prosperity to themselves,
their families and our country.
Surely,
a conference center is important. But it is certainly not Gambia’s most urgent
need at the moment. It is true that the center will provide employment for some
Gambians and that it could serve as a tourist attraction. However, I think if
the Barrow administration has any say in the matter, they should indicate that
while important, building an international conference center is not one of our
top priorities at the moment and that the grant money could be more usefully
spent on other areas, especially on the education and training of young
Gambians. In the New Gambia we need our governments both present and future to
be more discerning about our national priorities and avoid spending scarce
resources on projects that, while important, will only add to our national
expenses. Once this conference hall is built, it becomes another expensive
structure to maintain and will hardly generate any significant revenue for the
country.
On
the other hand, let us consider how many full five-year scholarships even $10
million can pay for Gambian students in any university, especially the UTG?
Just $10 million can transform the lives of hundreds of Gambian citizens and
their families. Should our government therefore spend all $50 million on a
building rather than use it to build Gambian lives? Can another $10 million not
be spent on improving facilities at the University of The Gambia, buying
adequate furniture, or equipping university classrooms with overhead projectors
and labs and computer rooms with state of the art technology that will
facilitate research and learning of the highest order? How about yet another
$10 million dollars on the procurement of vital medical equipment, beds, and
drugs for our hospitals and health centers? That would still leave $20 million
dollars which is enough to build a decent conference center worthy of The
Gambia. With all due respect, one cannot help but argue that spending $50
million on building an international conference center in The Gambia is
unjustifiably wasteful.
We
do not doubt the Barrow administration’s good intentions. But good intentions
must be backed by good thinking and planning. We suggest that at this crucial
and potential-rich moment of our national history, there is an urgent need for
more discerning consideration of our national priorities. Things have been done
this way since independence and we have not seen much improvement in terms of
general development of and for the Gambian people. There is a need to start
thinking of new and more creative ways of going about achieving our national
development objectives. Old ways of doing things have proven infective and if
the Barrow administration or any future Gambian government does not take the
time to carefully think about our national order of priorities and how to do
things better, they will not be able to leave much of a mark in terms of
developmental achievements.
The
key point we want to make here is that development is about people. While
building expensive infrastructure will give our country some semblance of
modernity, developing the human person through effective education and training
will yield more significant results for our national economy and community.
Investing in people is the key to African development and so far, African
governments have not given this crucially important issue the attention it
deserves. Who knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid
have gone down the drain in our small Gambia alone since independence? And what
do we have to show for it? The reason for this is not hard to find. It is
simply that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the wrong
projects rather than on developing our precious human resources. Development and prosperity have been elusive
for our country because hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in
projects that cannot bring about development and prosperity but take away from
the meager resources we have. It is way past time to rethink our national
developmental priorities which demand that we put the human person at the front
and center of public investment.
It
is safe to assume that a Chinese company will be given the contract to build
the $50 million international conference center from the Chinese grant money.
This means that while we will end up with a beautiful structure, the immediate
fruits of the grant money will benefit the Chinese economy and Chinese
nationals more than it will benefit the Gambian economy and Gambian nationals.
Needless to say, the project will create employment for many Gambians during
the construction phase, and it will continue to provide a few jobs here and
there afterwards. But these benefits are nothing compared to what hundreds of
scholarships for Gambian students will yield. Why not consider sending at least
20 Gambian students to China or a country of China’s choice for training using
at least a million dollars of this grant money? Chinese institutions will still
benefit but the benefits for us will be more tangible and long-lasting. Yes,
the Chinese government is giving some Gambian students scholarships and the
conference project might be a tourist attraction. Still, just one million
dollars set aside for more scholarships for Gambian students will be extremely
useful to our country in the short, medium and long term. Again, suffice it to
say that development is about people and the more we invest in our people, the
closer we will get to whatever developmental goals we seek.
At
this moment in our history, there is an abundance of international goodwill for
the New Gambia. The Barrow administration is in a position to benefit from
hundreds of millions of dollars in loans or grants from well-meaning members of
the international community. However, it will be helpful for the Gambia
government to pause and reconsider how best these monies may be invested for
the direct improvement of the lives of the Gambia people. In particular, the
government should try to make it possible for a part of every single aid
package to be invested directly on the education and training of Gambian
citizens, and on other projects that directly impact the lives of Gambian
citizens. Develop the people and the people will develop their country.
