By Alagie Manneh
Former presidential aspirant, Marie Sock has been lamenting about the challenges bedevilling the country’s development and progress.
Appearing in a Facebook live video Sunday, she bemoaned amongst others the worsening cost of living, and the poor education system which remains in dire straits.
She said: “I don’t know what is happening in our country right now. The ministry of education, what are you guys doing? What era are you coming from? It’s just pathetic when you look at the results we are producing in this country. [I know that] in a way it shouldn’t surprise us because the system is not working.”
She continued: “The current vice president was a minister of higher education, and everybody said oh he has done some work. But what work is it? Are we just so comfortable with all the mediocrity, with all this tiny work that somebody does and we give an applaud? The Gambia should pass that stage by now. We should have been above that. We cannot just be settling for rhetoric like this guy has worked. You multiply the work by the time they spent there.”
She added that at this point in time, the country ought to have more colleges and universities, just like any developing country.
“[But] it’s like we are going backwards. The public schools are so bad and it shouldn’t be like that. If public schools were well managed and the curriculum great like for example during our time, people will not be going to private schools. If we mandate everyone that is in government, from the president down, to put their kids in these public schools, I am sure the public schools will be developed. But at this point it is ridiculous,” she said.
According to her, the Gambian crisis is far worse than the current crisis engulfing the globe.
She advised Gambians to desist from comparing The Gambia to the United States when talking about global problems. “We are not even close. The organisation in the US I don’t think we are ready for that right now, because if we are, trust me, we will be voting the right way. So, let us be realistic. Things are getting bad in our country,” she said.
Madam Sock said it feels as if none of the government ministries is functioning at the moment.
“Tell me one ministry that is functioning right now. The tourism, health, and education sectors are not working. The security sector is trying, but when it comes to our general security such as the police, they don’t have the capacity. They can’t fight crime when they don’t have gear. How can they fight crime when robbers are more equipped than them?
When you are the president of a country all the blame comes to you, whether you like it or not. It is for the head of state then to turn around and re-visit his cabinet. He must evaluate those in his cabinet and stop rewarding or appointing people with no capacity. That is wrong,” she said.
