When
I started the series with the above title (on my blog, Sabally Public
Square) a fortnight ago; I thought I
would just be dwelling on the past sins of the Barrow Administration and
linking them to current realities. But, lo, and behold, this government that
never fails to amaze us with their perennial malfeasance, availed me with more
points to validate my thesis last night.
I
had been offline for the whole day only to log on by dinner time to see that
Facebook was afloat with some eerie images of our current Vice President Dr.
Isatou Touray. Clad with a poorly worn face mask, our VP was spewing some
condescending vitriolic remarks on Gambian youths as she presided over a
ceremony unveiling donated rice intended to alleviate food constraints in this
COVID-19 era.
A
visibly angry Isatou Touray had no kind words for the disillusioned and
disappointed youths that strove to elect her, and her colleagues of the current
government, into power. The Vice President stated her anger at the fact that
they were to unable to get enough hands to unload the rice and offload it from
the trucks moving them and she therefore pilloried Gambian youths who complain
about unemployment when there is enough avenues for our youths to become
labourers.
The
reaction from the public was not kind at all. One comment on the post I made on
my public figure page on Facebook was quite poignant and worth sharing:
“Madam
VP, what happened to the members of the President Barrow Youths for National
Development (BYM)? Why didn’t you engage them as labourers to carry your
Coronavirus rice???”
The
foregoing comment was occasioned by my own reaction to the Vice President’s
condescending remarks, and here is my take:
So
the Barrow Administration has lowered the bar again today by trash-talking the
very people who voted them into power.
Therefore
we must congratulate the Vice President, Isatou Touray (her PhD has a question
mark attached to it henceforth)...
This
woman and her boss, Adama Barrow, want our youths to become labourers and that
is all they can offer as they hand over a few bags of rice to the suffering
masses...
Chei
Aduna!
When
a Banjul Politician, Dodou Taal, made similar remarks in the 80s by telling the
city people that their children should become firewood sellers, the city
residents taught him a bitter lesson and booted him out of his seat in the
National Assembly...
Barrow
and his #sleeping government are sure to suffer a similar fate in 2021 inshaa
Allah...
#GameOver
#KanaSong
Dear
reader, is this the New Gambia that our young people hoped and voted for? While
you ponder about this question, let me reproduce hereunder my initial thoughts
about this series that I never thought would be further ignited by the Barrow
Administration’s with such malfeasance:
I
had a candid chat with my nephew in the early days of the change of government.
He was once exiled under the Jammeh regime and after all the trouble to boot
Jammeh out of power, the young people were hopeful that things would be better
under the new Barrow administration.
I
cautioned him against excessive optimism because I had a fair idea about some
of the characters that made up the leadership of the new dispensation.He would
not need my sermon because he was very cosy with the top brass of the new
government including a particular cabinet minister they used to hang out with
in Dakar and cook up protest and other subterfuges to scare the then shaky
Jammeh administration.
I
guess my nephew got a glimpse of my admonition when he joined a group that
wanted to stage a peaceful protest for the government’s evident failures in
such mundane matters like maintaining regular electricity supply. The very
government they helped to assume the reigns of power with the intention of
replacing Yahya Jammeh’s draconian regime with a democratic dispensation where
freedom of assembly and expression are guaranteed, turned down their request
for a permit to protest. Things
continued to go downhill until my nephew’s own friend ended up in Yahya
Jammeh’s dreaded Mile 2 prison for no just cause.
I
have not discussed politics with my nephew for many months but I can feel his
sense of disappointed and disdain for the status quo. I am sure he would say in
his heart that my uncle was right.
But
it did not have to take 3 years for my nephew to see the signs because the
writing was on the wall on the very day of the inauguration of their new
President, Adama Barrow...
A
friend of mine who claimed to have raised millions in support of the coalition
government’s campaign to get rid of Jammeh told me that when she met the
current Vice President at the
inauguration ground at the Independence Stadium in 2017, she greeted her with
excitement only to be given the cold shoulder. She thought the new Minister
(then) of Trade, did not recognise her. She reintroduced herself only for the
lady to tell her “yes, I recognise you...”
Fast
forward to April 2020 and the same woman who is now our Vice President has
forgotten that she rose to power on the bruised backs of our young people whose
socio-economic conditions have worsened under her watch.
With
these realities on the ground, our Vice President should get ready for more
complaints about unemployment or else she needs to order some earplugs to avert
the noise because Gambian youths have every right to complain about
unemployment.
If
only the current VP had used her good offices as Trade Minister to properly
craft the 11 million Euro Youth Empower Project (YEP), to make sure Gambian
youths are actually empowered, then she
would have been hearing less noise about unemployment today. But after 3 years
of implementation of this heist of a project, there is no tangible result to
show for it but branded multi-million Dalasis Nissan SUV cars and endless
workshops.
Meanwhile,
the struggle for a better Gambia
continues, a Gambia that provides her youths with real opportunities and treats
them with the honour and dignity they deserve.
Momodou
Sabally
The
Gambia’s Pen
