Flabbergasted

by PK Jarju
Deyda Hydara must be turning in his grave, wondering what the hell has gone wrong with his friend, Swaebou Conateh, publisher of the Gambia News and Report weekly magazine. The whole idea of Mr. Conateh naming Dictator Yahya Jammeh his 2007 Man of the Year is just a joke.

The blood of Deyda Hydara is still dripping from the hands of President Jammeh and Mr. Conateh's decision to bestow the award on Jammeh can only be described as an act of hypocrisy and an insult to the memory of his late friend.

I must admit that I have for many years been an admirer of Mr. Conateh, but am currently dying of shame after seeing him go so low to honor a man, who brought nothing but hardships, untold sufferings, retrogression as well as made many children orphans, mothers widows, and parents childless.

While Swaebou Conateh may be laughing his way to the bank, he needs to know that Jammeh has not met the criteria for the award in the first place. He has not contributed the most to the public welfare nor has he significantly contributed in enhancing in a direct and tangible form, the social, and economic status of Gambians as a whole.

Old age may have tricked my old friend into believing that Jammeh's HIV/Aids cure was real. Jammeh's AIDS treatment is a hoax, period! If the world scientific community with all modern technology cannot find a cure to the disease, how can a man without even a microscope find a cure to the disease?

I am not having a go at Mr. Conateh, but telling him the unpleasant truth, the very truth he taught me to say even if an AK 47 rifle is pointed at me. And I strongly disagree with Swaebou that Yahya Jammeh helped to bring an end to the stigma attached to the HIV/Aid in Gambian society. For the past four years or so, the National Aids Secretariat and UNDP office in Banjul have done a tremendous job in sponsoring workshops across the country and adverts on our radios and television geared towards sensitizing Gambians on the risks and prevention of HIV/Aids. All Jammeh was seen doing in Kanilai is sprinkling a concoction of leaves on some malnourished people. Is that what we call ending stigmatization?

Jammeh's so-called HIV/Aids treatment programme was a political propaganda and money generating venture. I say this because Jammeh insists on all patience to be filmed by Gambia Television while receiving treatment. He now has a bogus Aids organization, which all government departments and some private enterprises have pumped huge sums of money. Jammeh is the richest Gambian today and if he is really sincere, then he would have used his money to fund the programme. After all, all he uses for the Aids treatment are some local herbs, which are in the bushes of Kanilai.

On Swaebou's claims that Jammeh have brought about rapid developments and improvements in education, health, agriculture, sports, culture, information/communication, and infrastructure, that is just laughable. Yes, the AFPRC/APRC government has built schools and hospitals, Conateh got to know that most of these projects can only be described as white elephant projects. Despite the building of hundreds of new schools which don't even have a library not to talk of a lab, the number of students completing senior secondary school without a single credit in eight subjects is increasing at an alarming rate.

In fact, it is only children from poor backgrounds who attend these schools built under Jammeh. All senior civil servants including Jammeh himself take their children to expensive private schools that are well equipped to arm them with the required education.

On the health services, while government has built hospitals and health centers, yet many of these hospitals and health centers like the schools are not well equipped. They are continuously hit by persistent drug shortages, lack of qualified doctors and ambulances. Many Patients die of preventable diseases like malaria and the infant mortality rate gets higher.

In some cases, patients are asked to buy fuel for ambulances to transport them to major hospitals and due to the poor state of our public health services, many Gambians now prefer to seek medical care in private pharmacies and health centers. And if our hospitals and health centers are well equipped as Swaebou wants to make us believe, why should senior civil servants, including Jammeh, be sending their pregnant wives to deliver abroad in expensive private hospitals? Well, let Swaebou answer that question.

The Gambia's agricultural sector is at its worst state. Cultivation of groundnuts which is the country's main export has declined rapidly due to disastrous trade seasons. The continuous failure of government to put in place effective agricultural policies has severely affected the livelihood of farmers.

Many farmers today struggle to put food on their tables and the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities is causing a lot of suffering in the farming communities.

Despite spending millions of Dalasis on the Jahally Pacharr and Kuntaur rice projects, Gambians are far from being food self-sufficient. The price of rice, Gambia's stable food, increases week in week out. The country continues to import almost everything we eat from neighbouring countries.

Based on misguided and over zealous policies, the government has failed to meet many of its targets. Development is politicised and many of the development projects were embarked upon without taking into consideration the needs of the people.

Another laughable thing is Swaebou's statement that Jammeh has husbanded and safeguarded the country’s finances, thereby bringing inflation and currency depreciation under control and, in the 2008 national budget, turning to a surplus the deficit that had existed previously.

The Gambian economy is in a serious mess due to power government policies. The dalasi is continuing to depreciate sharply against foreign currencies and our national and external debts are near choking points.

How did Jammeh safeguard our finance when he has transformed our Central Bank into his personal treasury?

I could waste my time responding to every point Swaebou Conateh stated on his letter to the President. But rather than waste my time and that of my readers, I will conclude that President Jammeh did not come to power to alleviate the suffering of Gambian people. He is a greedy, and power hungry soldiers who is only interested in becoming wealthy and powerful. He is so intoxicated with power and does not hesitate to come down heavily on his opponents and critics. That is why Deyda Hydara was killed, Imam Karamo Touray and Pa Sallah Jagne were detained at the stinking Mile Two Prisons on trumped-up charges, Justice Hassan Jallow and Pa Sallah Jeng were removed from their positions and Lamin Waa Juwara arrested and tortured. And funnily, these people were previous recipients of this very award Swaebou Conateh shameless bestowed on Jammeh.

And you know what? Jammeh does not even respect Swaebou Conateh's profession which he calls a stinking business and once urged religious leaders not to buy newspapers as a way of starving them financially. And as a result of his hatred to the private media, many journalists have been arrested and tortured by the Gestapo (NIA) while many were left with no choice but to flee the country living behind their families. Other media houses like The Independent, Citizen FM, and Sud FM are arbitrarily shut down.

Swaebou Conateh needs to realise that no matter how much he tries, he can never succeed in rebuilding the battered image of his old friend. And if respectable men like him are willing to compromise their professionalism and ethics, then God help The Gambia.

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