Former
Secretary General and presidential affairs minister, Momodou Sabally said
Gambia’s youth sector is the most vulnerable when it comes to budget
allocation.
Mr
Sabally said young people are active contributors to national development.
He
cautioned the government to focus on development programmes and projects that
could create jobs, particularly for the youth folk.
“If
we do not address youth issues, we will continue to witness expulsions like the
recent boat tragedy of which over 60 Gambian youth died,” he said.
Sabally
said the government is not taking youth issues seriously, saying that the
sector received the least allocation in the 2020 budget.
He
believes that the government of the day is confronted with financial challenges
and as a result it looks into its priority programmes and give allocation based
on that, saying that was why some ministries get their budgets cut.
“This
is a signal for us to know that the government is crippling to pay debts,
salaries and other expenditures,” he added.
He
said this is why the government need to focus more on development programmes.
‘‘To
avoid fatalities like the recent boat tragedy, government should allocate good
budget and provide opportunities for youth to prevent them from using the
back-way,’’Sabally said.
He
revealed that if government allocate inadequate budget to youth; they will
continue to use back-way to reach Europe to better their living conditions.
He
said if government allocate adequate budget to youth it would prevent them from
using the back-way to Europe in search of greener pasture.
