The best way for any government, a company, or any service provider to gauge how well citizens or customers are satisfied with your service, is to hear from users themselves. This is what Afrobarometer is all about. In 2018, Ismaila Ceesay, then a lecturer at UTG co-led the Round 8 Afrobarometer perception survey in The Gambia. In presenting the findings of the survey at the UTG Law Faculty Hall, Ismaila celebrated the importance of the exercise noting that the findings were important for a government.
He said these findings tell what citizens think, feel and believe. He said this helps the Government to be responsive to the needs of the people. In essence, Ismaila said the survey was free information given to the Government which they could use to guide them in setting their policy agenda. Afrobarometer’s slogan is, ‘Let the people have a say’.
Fast forward to December 2024, when the same Afrobarometer survey, conducted in the Gambia by CPRD came out with findings that 77% of the citizenry held that the country is going in the wrong direction, Ismaila, who is now a Minister in the Government jumped to rattle these findings with the intention to discredit them just to protect the Government. This means Ismaila is practically arguing with citizens that what they think, feel and believe about their lives and the country is wrong. In other words, Ismaila wants to silence the people.
In 2018, twenty nine percent (29%) of citizens held that the country was going in the wrong direction. But Ismaila had no issues with that result because he was not a Minister at the time, and he conducted that survey. Is Ismaila telling Gambians today that his 2018 survey was also false like how he views the 2024 survey? Otherwise, if the 2018 survey was true, why is the 2024 survey false then?
Ismaila may attempt to mislead the people but the facts about the dire state of the governance and economic situation of this country cannot be disputed. This is because the Barrow Government itself has spoken about it which is in line with the public perception.
For example, in the NDP 2023 – 2027, the Government said limited access to health facilities has been identified as a national weakness. It went further to state that youth unemployment stands at 38.6%, with national unemployment at 31.6%. The national poverty rate stands at 53.4%. In fact, by the end of 2023, the Government said NDP implementation was a failure.
The Gambia Bureau of Statistics has reported in its Gambia Statistical Abstract 2023 that, “the largest proportion of households experiencing food insecurity across regions and are food-poor are found in Kuntaur (79.1%), Kerewan (73.7%), Basse (68.7%), Mansa Konko (62.6%), Brikama (61.8 %), and Janjanbureh (60.8%).” Who would live in these regions and still claim that the Gambia is going in the right direction?
When it comes to the implementation of the TRRC Recommendations as per the Government White Paper 2022, the implementation rate has been abysmally low for all categories. In fact, most of the categories score less than 15% of success.
In the area of corruption, the Gambia scores only 37 over 100 thereby taking it to rank 98 out of 180 countries, according to Transparency International in 2024. Similarly, the Gambia has also dropped in the press freedom index for 2024, both at the level of the world (dropped by 12 positions) and on the continent (dropped by 5 positions). In reaction, the Gambia Press Union said the drop was due to, “attacks on journalists, bad media laws, economic challenges, a lack of political will to ensure safety of journalists, and a lack of implementation of the Access to Information law.”
When it comes to governance, the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance said the Gambia scored 55 out of 100, thereby ranking it at number 20 out of 54 countries. But the Index made a significant note that, “While Gambia’s Overall Governance score has improved over the last decade (2014-2023), deterioration over the most recent five years (2019-2023) is worrisome.” This is to say since 2019, the governance situation is falling which automatically means the economy is also falling hence life is getting harder.
The incidence of corruption, inefficiency and incompetence within the Government is glaring which every day Gambians continue to lament without end. For example, until now there is only one ferry plying between Banjul and Barra thereby causing severe suffering on the people. One need not even mention the issue of water and electricity supply which continues to be erratic yet expensive. The fact that the only international airport would run out of power causing planes to avoid it speaks of the suffering of Gambians.
The issue of illegal de-gazetting of forests to the illegal land allocations and encroachments are all too clear which has caused huge distress to communities and the environment. The generally poor service delivery coupled with incidents of corruption such as unethical and illegal deals like Securiport, Semlex, road construction contracts and several other government contracts have all indicated the grossly wrong direction of this country. Who can deny the uncountable reports by the Auditor General, the National Assembly and investigative journalists exposing massive and perennial corruption and poor performance within public institutions of all categories and levels?
The increasing abuses of power and the violations of the Constitution and laws of the land by public institutions and officials including the President all point to the wrong direction of this country. Over the years, we are seeing an increasing weaponisation of laws and institutions to clampdown on journalists, politicians, activists, and any citizen who disagrees or criticizes the Government and the President. If citizens are not denied permits to protest, rest assured they are imposed with unfavourable conditions just to stifle their right to freedom of assembly.
Above all, after 8 years, this Government has caused the country to not have a proper constitution. After wasting over one hundred million dalasi in the making of the 2020 draft constitution which they killed in broad daylight, we are now seeing the same Government butcher the 2020 draft into another document intended to impose a constitutional dictatorship and legalised corruption on the country. This being the case, is it false that citizens say that the country is going in the wrong direction?
For The Gambia, Our Homeland
