By Nyang Njie
A country that is in need of all its brain and muscle power to kick start the march to economic freedom and prosperity has reduced the task handed down to us by our forefathers to an insidious battle of hatred for country and her diverse peoples.
The hatred that is spewed on Gambian social media circles on her sons and daughters by her sons and daughters has led me to critically revisit our path to redemption. This excercise has surely convinced me that The Gambia still has an untenable social contract hence the undue hate manifested amongst each other. Gambia needs her sons and daughters despite their diverse origins to come together to march towards man’s brotherhood as espoused by our national anthem. Without a cohesive Gambia, national development will not only be elusive but a far fetch dream. One cannot identify as a Gambian and harbour hate towards a fellow Gambian. Our Gambian-ness supersedes any other affiliation we may have. Let’s begin to love who we are because Gambia is here to stay so the sooner we embrace each other the better and this starts with self love. A deficit of self love is whats pulling us apart. We still lack a national identity hence our misplaced sense of hatred towards each other. I do hope to see in my lifetime a new Gambia that embraces our diversity and cultivate love for the rejuvenation of the Gambian. Yes each to his own but equally let us endeavour to be our brothers and sisters’ keepers. For The Gambia our homeland and for her sake, I do hope we remain ever true for our fathers tried building a home whose foundation was anchored in diversity and common purpose. Let’s stop the hate, the ENVY and the destruction of character. I love you all for we are all children of the long and elongated speck of land we call The Gambia. One Gambia, one nation, one people under God. Hate is a sign of weakness and the classical Disideratta taught us not to compare for it makes us vain and bitter. Life is to be lived and I see no qualms when one manifests his or her love for living. I am of the view that the Gambian mindset is highly convoluted and in need of direction, global exposure and vision. Better issues to be tabled and discussed if we want a prosperous nation.
Our business should be the business of nation building not the mundane issues of character assasination and vilification of people. All that in a nutshell translates to hate or mental oppression by the very people we hate. Let’s battle for ideas to foster a thriving Gambia. Then again, people who are intellectually challenged resort to character assasination as a compensation for their ideological deficit. A great philosopher of old once said that ” people of great intellect discuss ideas, people of good intellect discuss events and people of average intellect discuss people”. Unfortunately, our beloved Gambia is endowed with a lot that discuss people. I want to be ideologically challenged therefore my position will forever be in the battle of ideas. My positions may not be mainstream but my convictions allow me to amplify them to the highest decibels. Audrey 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”. Let’s dare to be different in thought and in action for our greatness will ONLY come out if we dare to serve our convictions respectfully and with due regard to humanity and conscience. Gambia needs us all so let’s stop the crab in a barrel syndrome reminiscent of feudalism. We are great people with exponential potentials to showcase our might to the sub region.
Destruction of value
The destruction of value in business leads to poor service delivery. The recent price war between Africell and Qcell is not good for the industry, the companies involved and by extension the subscribers of wireless telephony services. The old adage of two giants fighting and the grass suffering is apt to describe the recent price war between Qcell and Africell and the grass being their esteemed subscribers. There is a correlation between price and quality of Service. The more these two companies lower their tariffs, the more they erode their revenues hence reducing their operational revenues and consequently their ability to cover fully their opex and planned capex that will allow them to serve their subscribers judiciously. Comium Gambia triggered the war but due to its size, it will not participate further in this mayhem as they are currently loosing subscribers to both Qcell and Africell. Equally, they lack a cushion to absorb further margin cuts. Comium started being predatory in its pricing but such an approach if sustained will be the beginning of the end for Comium.
The current price war favours Africell more than Qcell because the volume effect kicks in and Africell has a bigger subscriber base and they will inturn respond to the price stimuli triggered by the operator. The price reductions in turn will trigger the employment of additional technical resources to cater for the surge in demand which the companies may not adequately address.
There is a marked difference between competition and outright market positioning strategy that may be detrimental to the interest of the greater good. Yes to competition and NO TO PRICE WARS. Gambian subscribers must not jubillate too soon as if this war prolongs, the quality of service will degrade. It is now evident that subscribers of GSM services in The Gambia are more interested in price than the quality of service delivered. Well the jury is out side Gambia so let the war continue but I am not in of it as it has consequential effect on service delivery. This war favours Africell more and if I were Qcell at a commercial level I will not engage in a price war because Africell has enough buffer (subscribers) to handle the reduction relative to the subscriber base of Qcell. If this was a bait, I will say that Qcell took it. So let’s see who blows out first.
PURA has a legal responsibility to protect subscribers of telephony services with regards to quality of service. With the ongoing price war, the resources of the operators are stretched beyond acceptable levels of good service delivery. I hope PURA lives up to its mandate by bringing back sanity in the market. The unassuming Gambian subscriber is of the view that they are the net benefactors. Sadly, such a proposition is false and unsustainable.
