Conversation With My Dad

Writing has always been therapeutic and uplifting for me. Having people read my post and conceptualize my views inspires me to keep on writing. I've noticed with pride that my father Omar Njie​ not only endorsed my recent post but gave me insights that craves my indulgence to further probe into the issues raised on that particular post. I attempted to address the issue of domestic production and consumption as an "Import Substitution Strategy" in a bid to equiliberate our balance of payment statistics and boost employment figures for our national economy. My position of an import substitution strategy was conceived after a heated deliberation with my buddy and brother Salieu Taal who passionately advocates for the promotion of home grown business talents and this is a credo he lives by judging the business and economic decisions he partakes in his daily commercial interactions. Having said this, I crafted a paragraph identifying the issues relating to national production and the inherent lost opportunities therein in not partaking in import substitution ventures. The paragraph in parenthesis was my status update on FaceBook and it it reflected my concerns for the economy that I so love dearly [We either produce as a nation, or we get consumed in the business of global consumption. In this business, the seller dictates terms, pricing and subsequently the quality of goods delivered. The choice is ours and if we want to be masters of our destiny, then we embark on the path of import substitution for our daily national food intake. Much rhetoric has been advanced regarding food self sustenance and growth of our domestic agribusiness but it starts with a commitment to entice and reward market participants who partake in developing and deepening our local agri markets. Fiscal incentives such as subsidies, tax reduction and import duty exemptions on farming implements should be the inducement for a game changer. Public policy is not dogma and reorienting national planning objectives to meet desirable socioeconomic realities should be the worry of public policy makers. Good morning Gambia lets constructively engage public policy practitioners for the emergence of commercial farming ventures]. 

My dad after perusing through my post decided to give me a short lecture on the issue at hand but with a broader perspective that was beyond my scope and comprehension. The following was his response to my status update and it surely reoriented my world view as my good friend Salieu Taal will always harp on me that Gambians need to augment their knowledge base in order to accelerate our development agenda and trajectory.  He stated the following "Thank you very much Nyang Njie AKA Daddy. l really do appreciate your continuous efforts to raise the social and economic awareness of Gambians by using the Normative Re-dactive Strategy of change. It is a very valuable effective way to make people understand and face up with some of the significant factors and realities that impinges daily on our lives. Education is not all about book learning, it also warrants for us to understand the nature of things within and beyond our environment; and to ask the how and why of things. Furthermore, an education that doesn't equipped the individual to be able to discern, and distinguish right from wrong render that education to be meaningless. In a way, as human beings we are supposed to be problem solvers and should have inquisitive minds and attitudes to make us effective change agents in society. Let us take Kura Njie's notion of growing, harvesting and utilizing calabash for the use of the people in the community. It was part of The Gambian culture and tradition which has significantly eroded to a point whereby calabash is imported from neighboring Guinea Bissau. Doesn't this kind of social and economic situation ring a bell that as a society, we are busy doing the wrong sums and the irony is that even if we have the answers right it will not benefit us as a community /and or society.
Like Nyang said, we either produce or be consumed in the global market economy. Secondly, he stated that the seller dictates the price of his products. I agree with this line of argument up to a point. The reason being that the price of products in the Labor Market is relative to Supply and Demand. The nature of this relativity viz-a viz are further dictated by the scarcity and availability of goods and services . The crux of the matter is that if the materials used for the manufacture of products are harness locally, it will help in the cost reduction of products in the local market. If on the other hand, such materials are imported either for local manufacturing and /or consumption it will drastically inflate consumer products and prizes. 

Another aspect of this argument lies in the policies of our education and training systems to nurture an effective human resource development. First and foremost, as much as I appreciate the introduction of western education in The Gambia and elsewhere in other countries that were colonized, it left us with a dual socio-economic legacy. The former is that it has equipped us with a universal tool of communication i.e. English and to use it effectively through comparative studies and analysis to enhance our development process. Secondly, as much as we harness the benefits of such education on a day to day basis, we have failed to look deeper to understand and acknowledge the severe socio-cultural damaged it has done to our communities /and or societies especially in The Gambia and elsewhere in Africa. We have also failed to understand that education from a moral perspective as stated by a British Philosopher (John Dewey ) that " the use of education to brainwashed and change people is not an educational crime, but sometimes it must be viewed as a necessity in life ". The acquisition of western education has changed both old and young in our societies through Western assimilation which we cherished so much more than some of the traditional and cultural ways /and or norms that we failed to nurture and transfer to our younger generations. Rather, than the Gambia communal way of life that bonded us together irrespective of tribe or religion, we let this noble way of life erode gradually and hasten embrace the concept of the nuclear family which has significantly divided us at the family, community and national levels. The irony of this divide is getting worse and it's trends will haunt us and generations yet unborn. It is this brainwashing in education that made us to look at our cultural and social ways of life as being inferior to Western ways of life. The nature of this inferiority complex is one of the reason for the mass exodus of rural urban drift, youth's not wanting to farm,or engage in vocational and skills training because it will dirty their hands. Another factor is the transfer and retention factor of vital traditional skills in the Gambian Labor Market such as the calabash trade cited by Kura Njie, the local boat builders industry which has dwindled to a very low ebb just to name a few.           

Thanks very much Nyang Njie for your sincere comments regarding my input on this valuable topic on national development. I know that age is often a complimentary factor to wisdom; Nonetheless, age is not sage, neither age is a criteria, for it is the capabilities of men that counts. Furthermore, I acknowledge the idea that you share with brother Sal Taal to nurture a knowledge base society that will propagate "the willful exchange of ideas in furtherance of our national development". One of the reason why I endorsed your views is based on the fact as highlighted by Amadou Matharr Mbow both former Minister of Education in Senegal and Secretary General UNESCO when he stated that " development must come from within and has to be attuned towards the aspirations of the people. In this regard, we as Gambians must aim to contribute towards the machinery of national development for the interest of our people and country and must not allow to be divided by any of the neo - colonial social tools that are used as wedges to divide us such as materialism, tribalism, politics, religious sectarianism which are all part of the brainwashing strategy that encourages the branding of individuals /and or groups in society based on the old colonial adage of divide and rule. Our development efforts must strive to promote a nation of national unity with a common understanding of working and sharing positive ideas that will benefit all Gambians. We have to be sincere and committed to the development of our people and our country and encourage every Gambian to be a productive member of society. The notion of this new social paradigm as a shift must gradually reject those artificial barriers we inherited as a bondage that tends to tint and hinder our visions and efforts for national unity"   

Dad's mini lecture was more than I bargained for and it went further than I envisage in accentuating clarity on my status update. His logically consistent thought inspired this blog post and as our dearly departed muse of yester years Kochi Barma Fall once stated "Mag jar na bayii chi reew". Thanks for giving me a lecture that refocuses and reoriented my view on a pertinent issue that begs for immediate national attention by both policy makers and entrepreneurs. This local consumption initiative should be part of a broader National Initiative dubbed "Proudly Gambian" Consume local and help strengthen the dalasis.