Once again, President Adama Barrow has embarked on his ritualistic “Meet the People’s Tour”, which will no doubt cost the Gambian tax payers millions of Dalasis; even far much more than the amount budgeted for it. This is considering the numerous other hidden costs such as the loss of several hours of work for those in the extra-ordinarily large entourage accompanying the delegation, the people of the various communities that would host them, as well as the fuel cost and wear and tear of the hundreds of government vehicles used on the tour.
Of course, the tour is a constitutional provision, but is it really still necessary in this day and age or is it a mere waste of public resources, as some people describe it?
It can be recalled that the “Meet the Farmers Tour” was started by former President Sir Dawda Jawara in the 1970s, giving him the opportunity to interact with the farming community upcountry and discuss their problems and constraints as well as apprise them of the development agenda of his government. Considering the poor state of the country’s road network as well as the media and telecommunication system at the time, there was some justification in undertaking the tour. There were inadequate means of reaching the people upcountry without meeting them in their localities. For instance, apart from Radio Gambia and Radio Syd, none of which was available up country at the time, there were hardly any other means of interacting with the farmers other than undertaking a country-wide tour.
However, with such great improvement in both the road network and the media and telecommunication system, with more than 30 radio stations available all over the country and six television stations, as well as the GSM network available all over the country, there is no longer any justification to carry on with the tour in its present format. Both President Barrow and members of his government have several options frequently of interacting with the people, including visiting any part of the country within a few hours or using the numerous radio and television stations to reach them, instead of wasting millions of Dalasis every year to undertake such extravagant tours.
However, while some supporters of the tour point out that a personal meeting with the people gives them the opportunity to discuss their problems with the President, but the fact is that they are hardly given the opportunity to do so. Instead, speakers are usually carefully chosen and they are often given guidelines of what to say, which is usually to heap praises on President Barrow and his government rather than talk about issues directly affecting them.
It is a well-known fact that instead of the national characteristic that the tour was supposed to take, it has now virtually been transformed into a political jamboree during which the people are encouraged or even coerced into renewing their allegiance to President Barrow and his National People’s Party (NPP). Year in year out, it is virtually the same issues that are being discussed during the tour, hardly justifying any amount being spent on it.
Unlike what used to happen during the Jawara era when permanent secretaries and other senior government officials were given centre stage to explain government policies and programmes affecting the famers, the discussions are now mainly based on political issues that have very little relevance to the lives and livelihoods of the rural folk. Instead of discussing issues of concern to the people, we have seen President Barrow and members of his government concentrate more on politics, making all sorts of derogatory statements against the opposition leadership. We have also seen how several NPP militants and supporters are usually mobilized to join the large entourage, costing the Gambian tax payers millions of Dalasis which could have been put into more productive areas of the economy.
In addition to the unnecessary wastage of public funds, we have also seen the negative ripple effects that the tour usually has on many public institutions, with many of their road-worthy vehicles being impounded to join the tour with most of those institutions being left paralyzed during the period. What is also obvious is that most of those vehicles are allocated to NPP militants who have virtually no role in a state-sponsored tour, apart from just taking advantage of the free money and resources available to mobilize for their party.
As a state-sponsored tour, one would have expected that it would have been quite inclusive of everyone, regardless of political affiliation. However, it is quite obvious that only those identified with the NPP are welcome and all attempts by others not seen to be associated with the party to participate in the tour, have been rebuffed. We have all seen examples of how those members of the opposition, such as National Assembly Members and area councilors who attempted to get involved ended up being humiliated. A good case in point was when, in 2021, the former National Assembly Member for Niamina East Constituency, Omar Ceesay, attended one such meeting in Kudang as representative of the area, and how he was subjected to quite harsh treatment, making it quite clear to him that he was not welcome there, even though it was supposed to be a state-sponsored occasion. As a result of such humiliation, most opposition officials have now avoided attending functions associated with the tour.
It certainly does not make much sense for the president to visit an area and yet the representative of the people of that area is not given the opportunity to participate in any function taking place there. This is yet another clear manifestation that there is no genuine attempt by President Barrow and his government to address the problems of the rural people during the tour, but instead, they are just unfairly using state resources to consolidate their political grip on the country.
Another trend being observed in the tour is the resurgence of different communities competing to ‘donate’ their livestock and other hard-earned resources to the president, which we all denounced during the Sir Dawda and Yahya Jammeh eras.
By DA Jawo
