The tour will also allow President Barrow to stage rallies and visit numerous project sites to assess progress and challenges. The tour, which is sanctioned in the constitution, mandates the president to tour the country and learn firsthand the challenges confronting Gambians.
However, this year’s tour comes at a time when ordinary Gambians are grappling with numerous challenges from daily skyrocketing commodity prices, surge in crime rate to corruption. Going round the country, one would realise that some families are going through hard times.
For instance, the price for a bag of rice has hit the roof, while the price of oil, onion and other essential commodities are just alarming.
We therefore call on President Barrow to take a cue from the Senegalese President Macky Sall by taking drastic measures and bringing sanity by controlling the price of food commodities in his country. Even though the world is going through a challenging period from the coronavirus pandemic, exacerbated by the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the way and manner in which some of our businessmen are escalating the prices for essential food communities, is just alarming.
Meanwhile, we must commend the government for showing commitment to buy a ton of groundnut for D32, 000 this year in contrast to last year’s D28, 000 per ton. This would go a long way in helping our poor farmers face the hard times many go through.
We must remember that many of these poor farmers underwent numerous challenges and an increase per ton would only motivate and address their shortcomings.
Accessible and affordable food prices strengthen peace and stability in any country. The daily realities of life in the country call for urgent redress. Government should take stringent measures against some unscrupulous businessmen, who are bent on skyrocketing food prices in the country.
Going forward, the Gambia’s poverty rate has climbed to 53.4 per cent. This was contained in The Gambia Poverty and Gender Assessment 2022 report.
The report states that before the COVID-19-induced crisis, the national poverty rate declined from 48.6 per cent in 2015 to 45.8 per cent in 2019.
The report further stated that poverty rates in the country today remain more of a rural phenomenon as 7 out of every 10 rural dwellers are poor, compared to 3 out of every 10 urban dwellers. Going by these realities, a lot more is needed to uplift the economic status of Gambians.