By Omar Bah
Human rights activist, Madi Jobarteh, has accused cabinet ministers of taking advantage of government’s ministerial townhall meeting, Mansakunda, to misinform Gambians and bully journalists.
Mr Jobarteh was responding to Information Minister Dr Ismaila Ceesay’s claims that journalists have not been attending the event and even when they do, they don’t ask questions.
But reacting to Dr Ceesay’s comments in a Standard exclusive yesterday, Mr Jobarteh said: “The lamentation by the Minister of Information Ismaila Ceesay that journalists are not asking questions at his press conference should be a lesson for him to ask himself about his job. While I welcome the idea of a ministerial townhall, I have come to be disappointed in the performance of ministers and public officials by the content of the information they give. I have come to find that they basically engage in providing generalizations, false equivalences and false information, hence propaganda.”
He said ministers not only refuse to be honest but also, they dodge answering questions and where they are cornered, they would engage in violent attacks on journalists as “we saw one minister did with Flex Dan of Gainako News”.
“The same minister sought to tarnish the image of DA Jawo just to mislead and disinform citizens. Thus, in essence, the ministerial town hall is a platform where the government refuses to take responsibility for its decisions, actions and failures but rather disinform, mislead and manipulate citizens,” he said.
The respected activist said the evidence of “this misconduct can be found in the way ministers engage in vain rationalisation and false equivalence only to create excuses for the poor performance and incompetence of their offices”.
“For example, the finance said the cost of living is not peculiar to the Gambia alone. That they provide subsidies to the energy sector, agriculture and rice among other sectors otherwise citizens would be paying much more. But the fact is, despite these subsidies the cost of utility continues to rise. In another part of the world there is a country which enjoys 24/7 electricity – subsidies or no subsidies. In another country in the world, their farmers ensure food self-sufficiency and food security thanks to subsidies. In another country, the cost of living and inflation are kept at the bare minimum,” he added.
In The Gambia, Jobarteh added, despite the subsidies that the finance minister brags about, “we still have poor, erratic and expensive electricity tariffs, farmers are beset by lack of implements and who face challenges in selling their produce at competitive prices while the cost of a bag of rice continues to increase”.
“So where have the subsidies gone to? In fact, is there any evidence of these subsidies that they have been put into the right place and in full? These are what the finance minister must provide to citizens. To continue to blame COVID, the Ukraine War and everything else on the globe cannot be the reasons for the increasing poverty, the high cost of living, the poor service delivery and the corruption that are prevalent across the Gambia. If so, then what is the purpose of our government? When shall Gambians enjoy a quality standard of living with efficient delivery of quality public services that are stable, available, accessible and affordable to the majority of citizens?”
He said the Minister of Information must be reminded that the government is created by and for the people.
“The officials who work in the government are public servants who have a duty to be honest and open with the people. Hence the ministerial townhall should be a platform to speak truth to Gambians about how the government and its officials are managing the resources and affairs of the people. This means ministers must have the courage and honesty to give the correct picture which includes exposing mistakes, errors, underperformance and misconduct as they happen. They must not use the platform to only tell us how perfect their decisions are and that they are performing exceedingly well and where there are problems it is not their fault because the whole world is suffering, or some people are trying to sabotage them. That is dishonest,” he added.
He said if journalists are not coming to the press conference or not asking questions, Minister Ceesay must look at the conduct of his fellow officials rather than expressing disappointment in the journalists.
“No self-respecting journalist will waste his or her time going to a government press conference only to be bombarded with propaganda where questions are diverted or dodged by ministers,” he said.
