The Government’s recent dishing out of D4O Millions of taxpayer’s money to certain media houses marks another case of gross misuse of taxpayers’ funds, reflecting a complete insensitivity to the prevailing socioeconomic difficulties the Gambian people are facing daily. The claim by the Barrow government that D40 million was paid to some media houses to promote public projects is just a rouse. Government projects have communication specialists who develop and implement communication strategies to inform the public about their activities using different media outlets. The issue is therefore not about lack of public information access to public projects.
Most Gambians already know that the actual reality of most of these public projects is rampant nonpriority spending in buying the latest flashy models of Pajero vehicles, overseas study tours for project implementing agencies and, supply contracts for NPP members and sympathisers, transport refunds for the local participants at national workshops that have nowadays increased exponentially. Such wasteful mismanagement of project funds does not benefit ordinary Gambian lives.
Public projects should be carefully thought through and managed. In the absence of inbuilt and applied sustainability strategies for after-project life, we will return to the same situations we endured before the projects were started in the first place. That is, a perpetual state of starting projects to address the same problems that previous projects attempted to solve with new fanciful project names. Is this what we should call progress or development? Obviously not!
The Gambian public by and large, has seen these projects for what they are and, have concluded that many of the projects have failed to meaningfully address their basic needs of food security, reliable electricity supply, access to better healthcare etc.
There is an urgent need to set this country on a genuine development path that reflects national priorities underpinned by transparency and a commitment to meritocracy in the appointment of public servants. In the prevailing atmosphere of corruption, nepotism, and scandals emanating from audit reports, including the revelations that are coming out of the current Local Government Commission of Enquiry have undermined any remaining trust in what the Barrow Government has to say.
The challenges our country faces are inefficiency and poor governance by the Barrow administration and, no amount of public relations by the private media will change this situation without a radical departure in attitude and approach to development priorities of this country.
President Barrow and his NPP party are fully aware of this fact and are desperate to change the present unfavourable trajectory they face before the 2026 elections. The regime changes in Senegal, and the departure of the godfather, Ex-President Macky Sall, have meant an urgent rethink of their strategy in anticipation of the 2026 Presidential elections. What is happening today is the first phase of the Communication strategy of President Barrow and his NPP party for the forthcoming 2026 Presidential Campaign. A public relations exercise carried out by select media houses is to positively influence the mindset of Gambians in favour of Mr. Barrow and his NPP party. Taxpayer’s money should NOT be used for such activities; candidate Barrow and his NPP should shoulder that bill for their campaign propaganda. Once again, the Gambian public is a witness to how their meagre resources are being misused for activities that have no bearing with their deplorable living conditions. Instead of providing drugs in our hospitals and health centres or assisting the evicted stall owners along the highways and streets, we have the NPP Government preoccupied with image whitewashing and giving taxpayers money to media houses for their pre-election campaign propaganda. Where is the conscience and soul of this government that was elected with so much hope in 2016?
The media houses that have swallowed this bait should be aware that becoming the mouthpiece of the NPP Government would mark a major setback in the democratic discourse in this country that will cause irreparable damage to their reputation.
The media has a fundamental role in building and sustaining democracy, especially in the case of a country emerging from a dictatorship and that is why so much hope and respect is given to this role. However, those media houses that chose to abdicate this responsibility in favour of “bribes” dressed as contracts using taxpayers’ money have become guilty of abandoning the Gambian people in their hour of need. This should be a heavy burden for any media house to carry!
The sad state of the socioeconomic condition of this country cannot be overemphasized. In 2022, the Gambia was 174th in the United Nations Human Development Index out of 192 countries and almost all the countries The Gambia leads in this study, have either recently emerged from civil war or are currently engaged in one. What explains our position in this cohort of countries when we have never known civil war? The answer is simple misallocation of the country’s meagre resources to nonpriority and unproductive investments such as the D40M contract with media houses.
Congratulations to those media houses that have refused to be part of this “scam”, as that is the true name of this contract.
COMCELL
GFA
MAJONKA HOUSE, KANIFING
