By Da One
Could you imagine a friend telling you the following words: I will never get married until there is system change in The Gambia. Thinking that was a joke, he turned around and tell you that he is dead serious. And you sure know he is dead serious. What will you do in this situation? Will you condemn him or laugh in his face or ignore him, fume and hum, or be caught in total disbelief?
Well I reached for my pen and started writing. I said to him I will appeal to the powers that be as an ordinary citizen to make sure my friend gets married and start a family. As I begin to write, it crossed my mind that there are probably tens of thousands of Gambian young men and women like him who because of frustration with THE SYSTEM will never get married. That will be the forced sterilization of a whole generation. This prospect brought tears to my eyes as I know, mother Gambia is weeping and weeping for its children. There is only pain and sadness in her bosom for her sons and daughters. My friend just happens to be one of those children she is weeping for. Will someone hear our plea!
Here are the ten points he reiterated to me that will constitute system change for him and many others like him, both men and women:
1. Gambians be recognized as owners of the state, the powers of the state and the wealth of the state;
2. That all powers of the state should be utilized for the general welfare and wellbeing of the Gambian citizen;
3. That Gambia should finally be self-reliant in providing for the needs of her children and their children’s children;
4. That universal basic education and universal basic health care should both be free and accessible to all Gambians irrespective of social and economic status;
5. That agriculture, as the backbone of the economy should directly be linked to manufacturing, to create jobs and bring in foreign currency;
6. Institutions should not serve as milk cows for a corrupt and thieving educated class who only care about themselves and their immediate families;
7. To encourage innovation and ingenuity, higher education in all its forms be encouraged by spending more money on the University of The Gambia than is currently being spent on the Office of the President;
8. The powers of the president be limited by constitutional mechanism to curb the growing trend of the abuse of power by a clueless and inept executive bent on self-perpetuation than reforming institutions that should have been functioning for all and sundry instead of a few privileged elites;
9. That the criminal National Intelligence Agency (NIA) be closed down to honor the memories of the fallen heroes of the liberation struggle to free The Gambia from the clutches of tyranny and brutality; and
10. That the present government of Adama Barrow step down after the three years agreement to avoid plunging the country into chaos and civil strife which has the potential to erode all the gains made in 2016/2017 electoral cycles.
In conclusion, let me remind those in the habit of glorifying failed systems to take a look retrospectively at the regime of Dawda Jawara and Yahya Jammeh. And then compare those two to that of Adama Barrow and tell the people what difference, if any, they can point at between those regimes and the current administration.
Meanwhile, Mother Gambia still continues to weep.