The controversy surrounding the latest Gambia Football Federation infrastructure project, the Nyakoi Mini-Stadium, does not seem to be going away.
While the GFF hailed the Saudi-funded project as the first “major provincial football facility”, critics said the D14million said to have been spent on the project is not reflected in the quality and cost of materials used. They accused the GFF of silently organising a quiet inauguration ceremony in a bid to avoid public attendance and scrutiny.
However, the GFF denied this, describing the accusation as unsubstantiated and part of a campaign to discredit the federation’s record achievement in Gambian football.
The GFF president Lamin Kaba Bajo defended the reported D14.6 million cost of the project insisting that the project is worth every penny spent. “I am surprised and disappointed because 99% of those making these allegations did not go to the site,” Bajo said on West Coast radio on Tuesday.
He accused a “certain” media of undermining the work of the GFF and blamed “some local politicians and administrative heads in the URR who are known to be opponents of his executive during past GFF elections who now occupy public offices they are using to get at his administration”.
Addressing calls for an investigation into the project, President Bajo said that can only be done when requested by members of the GFF, and not non-stakeholders.
Mr Bajo said his regime has recoded unprecedented successes in Gambian football and had implemented bigger projects in the past all of which have satisfied its stakeholders and international partners. “In fact as we speak, more football infrastructure projects have been approved for Gambia that will provide more football facilities to many other areas in the country,” Bajo said.
However activist Madi Jobarteh said giving the myriad of controversies around this project, what Lamin Kabo Bajo should do is to establish an independent and impartial ethics panel including non-GFF members to look into the issues as well as convene a press conference on the matter to share full details.
“If GFF cannot hold itself accountable, then the government must intervene in the interest of football. The state of Gambian football in all respects should have been far above this level if there was indeed good governance,”Madi Jobarteh said.
