By Madi Jobarteh
Sixty years after independence, public institutions in The Gambia still cannot guarantee viable, efficient, reliable, or sustainable delivery of quality public goods and services. Whether in healthcare, education, sports, or agriculture, energy, environmental protection and others, poor service delivery remains the norm.
Ministries, departments, agencies, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) repeatedly fail in their core functions, yet they are always quick to manufacture excuses and refuse to accept responsibility. The blame is invariably shifted to external factors, nature, lack of resources, global events, or regional challenges.
Take environmental management. Across the country, forest parks and public spaces have become indiscriminate dumping grounds. The ministries responsible for environment and forestry, alongside local councils, witness this degradation every single day. Yet little is done to enforce the law or protect the environment. When confronted, they blame citizens for littering, but never admit their own failure to regulate, supervise, and enforce.
The same pattern repeats in agriculture. After countless donor-funded projects, The Gambia remains far from food self-sufficiency or security. In healthcare and education, increasing budgets and donor support have not translated into universally accessible, affordable, or high-quality services. In sports, sixty years after independence, the country still lacks adequate infrastructure. The only national stadium is currently unusable, despite huge funding and missed opportunities.
Nawec is therefore not an isolated case. It is merely another symptom of a broader governance failure. It is easy for the managing director to blame the opposition, technical faults, regional problems, or even the Iran war. But after sixty years of independence, Gambians have every right to ask a more fundamental question: why is this country still not energy sovereign?
If Singapore, a nation with no significant natural resources, can provide excellent, uninterrupted, affordable, 24/7 electricity to its entire population, why can’t the Gambia? We possess abundant sunlight and wind. We have trained engineers, planners, and managers. Billions of dalasi have been invested in the energy sector over the years, enough to build a self-reliant power supply. Yet today, we remain dangerously dependent on foreign suppliers. First came Karpower, then Senelec. Tens of billions have been spent, still blackouts remain a permanent feature of Gambian life.
The time has come for Gambians to demand real answers. Is the problem really a lack of funding, technical capacity, or regional constraints? Or is it, corruption, nepotism, politicisation, and chronic mismanagement?
A cursory examination of appointments to boards and senior management positions in SOEs reveals a troubling pattern. Many appointments appear driven more by political loyalty, favouritism, tribal connections, or patronage than by competence and merit. In some instances, individuals with direct commercial interests in a sector are appointed to lead public enterprises operating in the same sector thereby creating glaring conflicts of interest.
We have seen public enterprises awarding contracts to companies whose founders or managing directors now head the state-owned firm. In other cases, board members and MDs possess little relevant expertise beyond their political affiliations or proximity to power. Some have secured their jobs solely through tribalism and nepotism.
These realities are not unique to the current administration. They characterised the era of the tinpot dictator and continue under President Adama Barrow. The result has been same: public enterprises that fail to perform, accumulate debt, require repeated bailouts, deliver poor services, or become completely kaput.
How else to explain Gamtel’s fall from one of Africa’s best telecoms in the 1990s to a hapless entity today? Why is Gamcel struggling while QCell and Africell rake in super profits? Why does Nawec enjoy total monopoly but survive on loans and subsidies despite massive government and donor investment? Why is GNPC not the most visible petroleum company like Jah Oil or Oryx? Why does Gambia Ferry Services, despite its total monopoly, still fail to provide efficient, reliable 24/7 services? The examples are endless.
The deeper problem is that public sector failure is sustained by a governance ecosystem that lacks accountability. Every SOE has a supervising ministry responsible for oversight and policy direction. If these enterprises are failing, what have their line ministries been doing to prevent mismanagement, inefficiency, and corruption?
Meanwhile, the SOE Commission has not effectively ensured accountability, financial sustainability, or strong governance across SOEs. Several SOEs continue to suffer from poor performance, high debt, weak transparency, outdated audits, and recurring government bailouts.
The Commission’s role appears more focused on monitoring and reporting than enforcing reforms, performance standards, and consequences for failure. Furthermore, public transparency remains limited, with insufficient disclosure on the implementation of recommendations, recovery of mismanaged funds, and accountability for poor management decisions.
Beyond the executive, the National Assembly has a dedicated Public Enterprises Committee (PEC) tasked with overseeing SOEs. If SOEs continue to perform poorly, accumulate debt, and deliver substandard services, where is the effective oversight?
Ultimately, responsibility rests with the president. He appoints the boards and managing directors. He should demand performance and accountability. So why does he appoint the wrong people and then fail to hold them accountable? Why are ineffective leaders retained? Why do poor results rarely carry consequences?
What is evident is that while SOEs survive on bailouts and suffer from mismanagement and poor service delivery, board members and senior executives continue to enjoy generous salaries, fat allowances, huge privileges, and outlandish perks. Meanwhile, citizens continue to endure untold suffering while those responsible are pampered.
The evidence suggests our crisis is not technical, regional, or international. It is fundamentally political.
Consider the experiences of Alpha Robinson at Nawec and Muhammed Manjang at SSHFC. When both men were appointed by President Barrow, they sought to introduce reforms and strengthen performance in their respective institutions. Instead of support, they encountered resistance and were sacked and then redeployed to diplomatic positions, which they declined.
These two cases alone prove the point: genuine reform is not welcomed. The problem is not a shortage of resources, funding, or talent. The problems are politicisation, corruption, favouritism, and mismanagement. So, why did President Barrow appoint good people and then sack them?
If President Barrow has genuinely prioritised efficiency, delivery, and accountability, he has the authority to drive meaningful change. If the National Assembly rigorously exercised its oversight mandate, public enterprises could improve. If boards and management teams were selected based on competence rather than patronage, performance could improve dramatically. The lack of these things is the issue.
For sixty years, Gambians have endured a public sector that prioritises and rewards loyalty, patronage and excuses but shuns away from competence, merit, and results. The time has come to stop the blame games. The time has come to confront the elephant in the room. No more excuses. No more diversion.
The time has come for Gambians to occupy Banjul and demand the public sector we deserve. We deserve efficient, accountable, and competent SOEs delivering uninterrupted, accessible, and affordable quality goods and services. We demand effective National Assembly and presidency. Demand strong ministries, departments and agencies that uphold the rule of law, professional and ethical standards and perform well.
We cannot allow government and public enterprises to become a fraud where officials continue mismanaging funds, failing to perform, and plunging citizens into suffering while they continue to enjoy. Sixty years of this mess is enough. It must stop.
