By Musa Bah
There is a lot of inefficiency in both our private and civil services. We take almost everything for granted and in the process compromise our work and business ethics. This in turn breeds inefficiency, laziness and huge losses to our society. All this is because of the ‘Maslaha’. You often hear people say ‘Gambians are civil’, ‘Gambians are friendly’ and so on and so forth. We overlook very critical details because of this so-called and unsolicited civility.
Mr President, the world is moving at a very rapid rate and we cannot allow ourselves to lag behind because we want to ‘Maslaha’ with some people. Isn’t that what was wrong with Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara’s government, too much Maslaha? The man was soft and kind to a fault. Unscrupulous civil servants saw this in him and they capitalized on it. Some embezzled funds, others destroyed whole projects and many other forms of evil practices were committed because ‘Baba Jawara dinama baalal’. This promoted corruption, nepotism, malfeasance and all sorts of backward behaviour.
It was not even unheard of for Jawara to simply transfer someone accused of some wrong to another department. That is obviously not punishment.
Another non-progressive attitude of Gambians is the misguided belief in what they call ‘Ndogali Yallah’. Many people do not have an idea what it means when it is said that something is predestined by God and as such, even if someone is culpable, no action will be taken. But Mr President, if someone breaks the law, then it should be such that some form of justice takes place. Otherwise we would be promoting impunity.
Take for instance, the case of the young lady who was involved in an accident and taken to the hospital yesterday. But because there was no police report and that the police were not present, the doctors and/or nurses refused to attend to her until police arrive. Unfortunately for her, she gave up the ghost before a police officer could arrive. What a tragedy!
One can understand the need for the police and the hospitals to work together in cases like this because it is at least one way to help in curbing the growing trend of crime. But can’t there be a way to do that while still saving lives in the process?
There were suggestions that the people responsible should be taken to court to face justice. Then there came counter suggestions that the family of the victim does not want the matter to be a police case because ‘the driver who hit the girl is actually a relative’. But it is said that the young man was drunk. So you see, their belief that ‘lanyinoo lemu’ is compelling them to drop everything and move on.
Commendable on their part if only it does not contribute to promoting impunity in the young man and others in the country!
Mr President, it is time that Gambians start owning up to their actions. Take responsibility and do not blame it on God. After all, Gambia is a secular state and people should stop blaming God for their failures. God is not to blame!
Have a good day Mr President.
