Get the facts right

My name is Gambia. I am a tiny speck of land nestled in the heartland of Senegal and the mouth of my river emptying its riches on the mighty Atlantic. I am often regarded as the thorn that pricks the ass of my elder brother, Senegal.  December is generally a busy month as it marks the height of the bustling and thriving tourism trade but thanks to the geographic ignorance and unintentional misinformation being orchestrated by the international news outlets regarding Ebola and the wholesale lumping of West Africa as an Ebola zone, my season has been lack luster and dismal to say the least. December also marks the homecoming or ritual pilgrimage of most of my offspring’s. My pilgrims are mostly referred to as “semesters” for they toil hard in the northern hemisphere and enjoy the fruits of their labor in my tropical paradise. I will for ease of reference correct the misinformation lashed out on me which in a way has eroded my goodwill and capacity to earn. For the record, I am a country in West Africa that is currently out of the Eboloa zone. I have been Ebola free ever since and I am also mitigating my risk of contamination and infection by sensitizing my people and conducting vigilant surveillance on my borders and airport. I will appreciate if my story is featured prime time on your networks (‪CNN, BBC, FOX NEWS, NBC ). My daily sustenance has been negatively impacted by your reporting and my fervent prayer is to kindly crave your indulgence in reporting about how a tiny speck of land with limited resources managed to fend off the ravaging menace called Ebola. My situation can be a subject of a case study detailing my resilience and steadfastness to be sanitized from this virus. I will henceforth establish a parallel communication mechanism to speak to the world directly so as to accurately depict my situation. My pristine sandy shores and picturesque sunsets await my British and Scandinavian winter tourists who chose me as their destination of choice over the years. I am not only open for business but I am ready to host my winter guests and share my warm and sophisticated hospitality that earned me a hallmark name in the industry. I am a Teflon and my smile will not be converted to a frown for I have weathered many storms. Many have questioned my existence since my birth, but for my kindred and kin I remain true and I will overcome and maintain my smile in perpetuity. "Jere jef" and I believe in me.

Development Banks - A sine qua non for growth and prosperity

Banks have been in existence for over a century in the Gambia. They have acted as a store of wealth for individuals in the form of deposits and merchant houses mostly importers used them for the facilitation of their trading activities. Letters of credits and guarantees are issued on behalf of traders to comfort their foreign suppliers.

An import based economy has proven not to be a growth driver and the productive sectors of the economy have to take a lead for any meaningful growth to take effect. This premise can only be supported by the emergence of development banks. The current financial dispensation is not ideal for entrepreneurial growth in the sense that there is a mismatch between tenure of funds available and profile of projects being implemented.  Most locally funded development projects tend to run aground because the debt structuring is not only unsustainable but also the cost of capital is exorbitantly high.

Borrowing is linked to the risk free cost of capital which is indexed to the Treasury Bill and the longest available tenure is 365 days (12 month yield). This is a major inhibitor of organic growth within the economy and the way forward is for the Central Bank to restructure their debt profile by introducing other monetary instruments such as bonds and development stock to mitigate the issue of tenure. Debt restructuring starts with the conversion of the bulk of the public debt stock into medium to long term bonds. These bonds will have longer maturity (5-15 years) and also an over the counter discount window that allow holders of these government securities to off load on demand. Once this is achieved, banks can now lend at lower interest rates and longer tenure thereby making local development financing sustainable. The Gambia is in a dire need of a development bank to help accelerate growth and development of the real sectors of the economy without which our development aspirations will not register positive dividends.

Dare to be different -A shift in Paradigm

The provision of electricity has always been thought of as a public good that enjoys a natural monopoly status. The advent of the independent power producer has significantly changed this dynamics well at-least on the generation side of the business. Transmission and distribution remains to be highly monopolistic to avoid the duplication of resources particularly power lines and transformers.  Power generation dynamics has changed significantly in recent years and the introduction of sustainable renewable technologies has made power generation and distribution more effective. NAWEC is a fossil fuel generating company who is finding it hard to keep up with the rapid pace of growth and urbanization of the Gambia. This makes it hard for the electric company to provide uninterrupted power supply to all of its esteemed customers.

NAWEC should look into the possibility of becoming a hybrid (fossil fuel and renewable sources) power provider. Being a hybrid allows NAWEC to reduce its capital investment by reducing the procurement of new generating machines and also produce clean energy that is environmentally friendly. NAWEC can create a win-win solution whereby they will wane off small domestic consumers of electricity from the electric grid and introduce them to solar power.

Small households make up the bulk of Nawec’s domestic consumption and I estimate that their consumption is between 10-105 kilo watt hours per month. fazing them off the grid will create excess power that will be redistributed to industries and other high demand consumers. This will increase the total number of uninterrupted hours of power supply thereby making the availability of power more efficient. It is much cheaper for NAWEC to invest in small off grid solar setups for small consumers of electricity than buying new Generators. Alternatively, NAWEC can enter into Public/Private\partnerships that will spur the introduction of solar technology to small users on the grid.  Freeing up 20% capacity from the grid will go a long way and the profit margins accrued on the sale of solar power for the small households far exceeds that of conventional electric generation.  

The River Gambia - A river we once had

Public policy direction and prescription is the discretion of any sitting administration. Generally a nation has set objectives enshrined in its national objectives and public policy is therefore designed for the attainment of these national goals. My vision for Gambia entails a viable river transport that connects the hinter land to the metropolis of greater Banjul. The reason d’etre for Gambia “the nation” is its navigable river and we have since deviated from this.

Several infrastructural projects have been commissioned since independence in 1965 to accelerate the opening up of the country and for seamless connectivity of towns and villages along the river. The river Gambia is a natural national resource that needs to be exploited for the interest and advancement of the Gambia. This resource in my view has been neglected and less emphasis and consideration has been attached to it.  The creation of an extensive river transport network for goods and services would have been one of the best public infrastructural projects for the Gambia because it would have reduced the burden on our congested road networks and it will also spur growth in towns such as Kuntaur, Basse, Kaur, Georgetown etc. Gambia, has been faced with a significant shift in rural-urban migration and opening up the hinterland of Gambia to business opportunities would have stemmed the tide of this phenomenon.

Mass transportation within the greater Banjul area has its limitations because the road network is not intricately linked. Therefore building jetties for mass transit will undoubted serve the population of the greater Banjul better. The city of Banjul can be linked to Jeshwang, Taliding, Lamin, Mandinari, Bonto, Bintang, Tendaba by passenger boats that will shuttle passengers up and down the river.  The enabling policy framework will encourage venture capitalist and entrepreneurs to seize the moment and venture in river   transport. Until we dare to think out of the box, our development agenda will always be limited in scope and thereby limiting our growth prospects. Gambia is on the world map thanks to the river Gambia and we have relegated this endowment to obscurity.

Who are we?

Solitude often triggers reflection and I have been opportune with the luxury of time and experience to ponder at length about our collective national psyche. After reading a brilliant and inspiring commentary by my dear brother and friend counsel Salieu Taal, I was left with no option but to call a spade a spade and scribe a few lines about my perception of who we are collectively.


Progressive societies have a social construct that is merit based were hard work is espoused as the road to success.  As Gambians, we find it hard to have living legends because we cannot see the brilliance in our people nor can we celebrate our finest when they are still alive. I cannot comprehend why our national stadium is not named after Biri Biri for his exploits in football. The late Honorable PS Njie has done so much for this country and his insignia is not scribed on any public edifice in the country. Just cross the river to the land of Terranga and you will be inundated with names such as Lamine Gueye, Demba Diop, Malick Sy, Leopold Senghor, Cheickh Anta Diop, Alboury Ndiaye, Alioune Sutaye Diatta et al. The Senegalese philosophy of gratitude states that "Koufi def lou baah deng koiyee waah" but our mantra is “Suul jeff ju baah” and this is becoming very Gambian. In our short stint of 50 years, we have forgotten about the likes of M.E. Jallow, Paps Touray, Eku Mahoney, Jesbes Ayo Langley, et al. We are quick to hire the services of international consultants to diagnose our social and economic ailments when we have first rated indigenes who can deliver world class exposés. Our current collective mental conscience is a travesty and it is clearly a crab in a barrel syndrome. Moral decadence and the destruction of our social stratification (social order and hierarchy) are pivotal to our current situation. During my granddad’s time, there was ONLY one way to success and its called merit. Fast forward to our generation people make it to the top by boot licking and brown nosing. God bless our generation because our moral yardstick is very flexible and convenient. It is easy to label someone in Gambia as "Dang ñgaam" because they exhibit traits that are not mainstream. Lets dare to be who we are and never allow ourselves to be contained by people who want us to conform. My favorite author Audre Lorde said that "If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive". 

I am not being xenophobic but the convergence of cultures diluted our cultural identity and lowered the bar for our generally accepted social norms. Secondly, materialism and “buga tekki” at all cost has created a layer of Gambians that are highly opportunistic and selfish. Any progressive society should have a social stratification that promulgates merit. One has to earn his or her status in society by toiling for it and there should not be a short cut to the pinnacle of success. People aspiring to climb the social ladder should have personalities within the community that they emulate and look up to but if we demonize our "crème de la crème" then what do we look up to? I am an unapologetic elitist and rightly so because one has to work to achieve and once accomplished, we need to enjoy the perks associated with our hard work. Our new collective attitude is worrisome to say the least and envy is the nucleus of this menacing phenomenon "Pull Him Down" syndrome. I am a keen follower of debates and issues of concern on social media regarding Gambians and the emerging trend I noticed is worrisome to say the least. Any meaningful debate should be issue oriented. The imposition of self in the nucleus of any intellectual discourse discounts the weight and substance of the dialogue. Gambians are generally smart but often find it hard to disassociate issues from personalities. Let’s keep on talking and avoid talking at each other.  John Stuart Mill advocated for the market place of ideas and in that arena, we agree to disagree about issues and the fundamental fact that value judgments are highly proprietary and varies with one's moral convictions, social and intellectual orientation and finally human beings are rationally self interested animals whose world view can be skewed and convoluted based on their expected dividends be it financial or otherwise.


We should celebrate success and advocate for excellence. We need to strive and work hard for the common good of the Gambia our homeland. Love for our home land should not only be manifested with the possession of national paraphernalia but a change in attitude towards the interest of the greater good. My Jamaican brethrens have a national slogan called “likkle but we talawaa” but I guess in our beloved Gambia the opposite applies “likkle but we destructive”.

Immigration Reform

Barack Hussein Obama three words that are a rarity in the American lexicon and yet still he is the head of the pack in the Beltway. Bravo Mr. President! You have out classed the Neo Cons and the Tea Party pundits with your intellect, wit and charisma. Politics of arrogance is becoming a thing of the past in the United States. Politics is not always about the accumulation of political capital and mileage. It is also conscionable moral conviction which posterity will be the final arbiter. For once, I will veer off my normal course of writing and delve into the public discourse that is generating significant reviews both positive and negative in the United States. A good friend and a brother Mr. Ryan Patrick Parker Posted a stautus update on Facebook that prompted me to add my view to the ensuing discourse on immigration. My blog focuses on issues that are African in general and Gambian in particular and the raging debate on immigration reform and the recent address made by Barack Obama is pertinent to the African and by extension the Gambian expatriates in the United States and their dependents in the homeland. On that note, I Salute the Commander in Chief for his gutsy and moral move to sanitize the immigration issue once and for all.

Immigrant bashing is ignorance and arrogance being championed by Washington beltway bandits called "neo-cons". Immigration reform is racism hiding behind public policy. Pause for moments ask yourself who is an immigrant? Last time I checked my fact book, the Kennedy’s, Bush's, Reagan’s and others came through Ellis Island albeit they came earlier than others. By the way, I often ponder with a lot of sarcasm what an American is. Lest we forget, we are a nation of immigrants who came much earlier than the present immigrants we are chastising today. America is and will forever be a melting pot due to the diversity of its current inhabitants. The sooner we accept this notion the better for all. America is a country that has given refuge to the Anglo Saxons that were at one point undesirable elements in their native Europe, The Africans were also shipped to North America unwillingly and have to call America home. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the indigenous (Native Americans) that have welcomed us to the new world. Therefore to whom much is given, much is also expected. We have to be tolerant and not xenophobic. If the natives were like the Governor and Sheriff of Arizona, we would not have heard names such as Kennedy, Clinton, Rockefeller, Bush etc. etc. The likes of Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs don’t have a place in modern America. What is happening to the great open society called America? Immigration was never an issue when Africans were shipped in droves to toil in the cotton and tobacco fields of Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi and other southern states.  Politicians for a longest of time have been taking a side swipe on the issue of immigration because of its controversial nature.

This pronouncement is welcome news to many Africans because it will not only reunite families but legitimize the status of some hard working people who are the bedrock of the American Economy. These people have been legally criminalized for just wanting to make a living. A lot of lives are lost crossing the Rio Grande just to make it across to the USA. The best way to fight global immigration issues is to liberalize the global trading systems and introduce fairer trade regimes. People will always look for greener pastures to graze on just like the "pilgrims" that landed on Plymouth Rock. All the immigrants that landed in the shores of the USA were economic refugees albeit voluntary or involuntary. God bless the ideals of the USA and help us get rid of the Neo-Cons who have taken captive of public opinion.