Perception, it is said, is very important. Every government should be mindful of the perception of the people. That is why surveys and studies are conducted to know what the people think about a particular issue. This is necessary so as to avoid being seen in a bad light.
In fact, this is why governments employ PR professionals in order for them to sell the good image of the state. Millions are spent on this every year just to ensure that the image of the government is good in the eyes of the people. No government can – or should- allow its image to be tarnished.
The importance of the above was highlighted recently when a letter was leaked purporting to say that the Office of the President had written to the Ministry of Finance requesting a huge amount of money in order to pay per diems to officials who had traveled with the president’s mother for medical checkup.
As expected, this generated a lot of debate and discussion on the media especially social media. Everyone seemed to be talking about it. The concerns raised were that as the president’s mother is not a government official, her travels are personal and therefore there is no need to pay per diems for her escorts from the taxpayers’ money. It was a good thing therefore that the Chief of Protocol came out in many media platforms to give the official reaction that indeed the president’s mum is among his family. His clarification also that the sum in the leaked document was for many other activities other than the supposed trip by the old woman also helped to clear doubts. We therefore encourage public officials to be readily available to take issues by proving real time explanations to avoid perceptions that will put the government in bad light. However the government would still have to work hard to convince the populace that the president’s family does include his parents.
The government must work harder to build trust among the people and show Gambians that they are concerned about the wellbeing of every citizen and that it is prudent n its management of public finance in the interest of all and not just a few.
