My Vision For The New Gambia

My conspicuous absence on social media especially Facebook in recent days have been a deliberate effort to reassure well meaning family members and friends about my safety. Nonetheless, our country is at a crossroads albeit that we have dismantled the clutches of tyranny and we now manifest our national destiny in a manner consistent with our collective national aspirations. It is therefore in this regard that I want to contribute in the ongoing discourse by counseling the transition team as per the way forward.

The outcome of the recently concluded elections can be interpreted differently and I am of the view that President Elect Barrow is the winner but his mandate is not cross cutting and would therefore  have to not only extend an olive branch but work with well meaning people from the loosing end to build a broad consensus governance apparatus that will usher in a new Gambia that is socially and economically inclusive.

The first order of business for the president elect is to appoint a chief of staff who wiĺl be the designate interlocutor between him, the transition team and the out going administration. This chief of staff will handle the transition process as a project with set goals, objectives and milestones that are time bound with quantifiable monitoring and evaluation capabilities. Once this is in place, a seamless transfer of power can be assured. The first order of business is the maintenance of peace and security which is the bedrock upon which the new Gambia will be built on. Next order of business is the taming and rationalisation of the beast I refer to as our "FISCAL DISPENSATION" essentially our budget. For the longest time, the Gambia has been operating a fiscally dominant system that over shadowed monetary policy hence the structural anomalies inherent in our macroeconomic environment (inflation, forex prices, Balance of Payment and Domestic debt sustainability etc). The taming of this beast can ONLY happen if the exchequer  (Ministry of Finance) apply severe austerity policies to bailout the economy. The tools available at the disposal of the finance minister ranges from debt restructuring, cash budget management system, freeze on domestic debt, streamline payroll, retrenchment etc. Gambians have to be realistic and the realignment of our economy will undoubtedly not be an easy task and therefore would require us all to swallow the bitter pill of structural adjustment IMMEDIATELY. Finally, the transition team MUST meet immediately with the Minister of Finance to ascertain all major payables to suppliers and contractors now against 31st December 2016 to ascertain if these payments were within the budget and provisioned for. Furthermore they must NOT be paid through deficit financing.

Once the afore mentioned prescriptions are hitherto looked into, then the incoming government can shift into a medium term mode to prepare the nation for the slow reversal of our fortunes by working on sectoral reforms especially the productive sectors (fisheries, tourism, agriculture, financial services etc). In addition to this, we can organise a serious DONOR ROUND TABLE INITIATIVE to mobilise the much needed resources to build the a new Gambia and also have a programme with the IMF. Streamlining the existing government payroll especially the bloated security sector is of paramount interest. Generally our security manpower requirements are a function of the ratio between the general population and human resource needed to execute a function. For example for every 1000 inhabitants of the Gambia, we require 50 police officers, 10 paramilitary and 5 army officers. This rationale should be the basis of numbers of our  security personel. I will in subsequent posts delve further in the issue. We all love our country and for once we have a unique opportunity to redeem our nation and help build a better nation considering the arrested development we suffered. Any Gambian who was above the age of 18 in 1994 have been short changed especially my generation. Lastly, we need a packed legislative agenda for judicial reforms and key amongst these reforms are a Freedom of Information Act where government must inform the citizenry of the contents of contracts signed on our behalf especially that of our natural resources petroleum included. We cannot and MUST NOT do business with the former economic cronies. The emergence and tolerance of a strong civil society must be fostered to curb the excesses of government and also act in safe guarding the public interest by being the publics watch dog.