By Da One
A young Kwame Nkrumah left the shores of Ghana to pursue higher education in the United States. He knew he was destined to create massive awareness around independence and the issue of self-determination for the African people.
Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop left Senegal to study in France when he was still a young man. And he became a well-renowned anthropologists and scientist. Probably the best in the world in his field of specialization—Egyptology.
What these two men have in common is a love for justice, knowledge and above all, a sense of duty to their people. So many young men and women in our country are like these two great men of Afrikka. The young people of The Gambia are willing and capable of uplifting this country from its third world status, to a nation not anymore bedeviled by poverty and ignorance.
The youth of The Gambia are talented and always beyond ready to be part of building and managing a prosperous nation. But there have been always only one problem: the failure of political leadership.
Failure to create and open spaces of meaningful and profitable engagement. From Dawda Jawara to Yahya Jammeh and now Adama Barrow, they all exploited the youth population through empty promises and blatant lies.
We witnessed history repeating itself again at the Youth Connekt Gambia summit, when Adama begged the young people of The Gambia not to turn against his government. What a calculated move when he in truth and reality, should no longer have more than year in office.
He is practically telling us not to demand good governance, liberty and prosperity from his government — a government running in a circle like a headless chicken. We are no fools to realize that Adama cannot deliver on the promises of the coalition manifesto, much less a worthless National Development Plan (NDP), that’s not worth the paper it’s written on.
My plea to youths is to ask themselves two fundamental questions:
First, what kind of country, in 2050, do they want to live in with their children?
And…..
Second, how is this government laying the foundation blocks for such a country, and for the lifestyles they and their children aspire?
One thing is for sure, the status quo as it presently obtains is a recipe for the same kind of wretched life we are living today, in 2019. It is characterized by corruption and nepotism, water and electricity shortages, institutional decay, a crumbling health system that is barely surviving, youth unemployment, massive migration both external and internal, a choking trade deficit and above all, a few men and women behaving like lords above the majority poor citizenry.
I mentioned Nkrumah and Diop for us to take as examples not be cajoled by a president who is only interested in filling his pockets with pilfered wealth; and by his wife who is much more interested in making fashion statements than furthering the welfare of the masses. Yes, of course, not also forgetting that the millions that illegally got stuffed into her account mysteriously and the many back door deals we might never know about.
I’m talking to you my fellow youths. Do not hesitate to kick Adama and his cronies out of office for they have already proven themselves to be unworthy of the highest office of the land.
By all legal, constitutional and peaceful means, let’s rescue our people from Adama and friends.