The moment of truth has arrived with the bold and decisive pronouncement by the Minister of Local government and Lands, that the government is poised to decongest KMC.
This measure is overdue and the Honorable Minister must be commended for visionary leadership in bringing sanity to urban planning and development. The KMC over the years has become a dump yard for all sorts of fitter garages, welding shops, street car wash businesses, makeshift corrugated stalls and second hand vehicle dealerships, all posing threat to the environmental sanitation and tarnishing the image of Greater Banjul. This is in addition to the rampant dumping of waste anywhere and everywhere and second hand vehicle tyres repair outlets. We see food vendors scattered all over KMC. It is difficult to ply the streets due to Batch cars, donkey carts and dilapidated trucks. One wonders whether KMC is an extension of rural Gambia. It is incomprehensible that ‘Operation Clear the Roads’ failed to effectively keep Greater Banjul clean and safe to boost the image of the country to modernity.
Honorable Hamat Bah is a decisive state minister and politically profound aide de camp to good governance. The interventions of the Minister in Hajj operations have brought ameliorating comfort to Gambian pilgrims this year for which the Nation applauded him. The Minister understands National responsibility and does not shy away from taking decisive actions where necessary to implement government policies in so far as his sector is concerned. In today’s meeting with the Banjul elders, if His Excellency had spoken about the Municipality, tomorrow will be a field day for opposition attacks. It is hoped that Greater Banjul will soon see massive decongesting exercises that will move the environmental hazards to a designated land area in the Kombos. Such functioning Ministries like Local government and Lands and Higher
Education should be supported in the fulfillment of their mandates. This is the ‘YEAR OF RESULTS’ and as such, the people expect efficient and effective service delivery to move the country forward. In this decongestion of KMC, stakeholder institutions like NEA, The Police, NRA, MOIW, should consider it necessary to render collaborative push the Local government and Lands drive to bring about a healthy, clean and safe environment in Urban Gambia.
KMC is the face of the country and therefore, its development calls for coequal responsibility between the government and the Municipality. On another note, in the said meeting with Banjul Muslim Elders, His Excellency reaffirmed his commitment to the peace and stability of the Nation. This is what the public expects from a leader whose record earned him the African Peace Award.
However, it has been said by observers that the meeting had both religious and political undertones. But EID is a day of celebration and if the political wind blows over us, it raises the consciousness of the people about the state of the Nation. It clears the air of the politics of fabrications and establishes the truth about Nation building.
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