There has been a massive increment in moral decadence in our motherland called The Gambia. Many youths are insatiable in the desire to get rich right from birth. They quickly want to get rich in their greed and love for excessive materialism. Bribery, corruption, nepotism, barbarism, and mediocrity are the order of the day. Undoubtedly, the embezzlement of public funds by government officials and functionaries is prevalent in the country nowadays. Consequently, these developments have resulted to a matter of constant discussion on radio, television, media outlets and newspapers. Considerably, its social evils have perilously threatened the very existence of our society, and is now smelling like a bad sore.
However, the causes of these social maladies can be traced to the warped or twisted societal values of our people. It’s undisputable that an average Gambian cherishes not the values of accountability, transparency, probity and selfless individuals. Tragically, those who acquire economic and political aggrandizement by crooked means are being praised, honoured and embraced whereas the hardworking, dedicated, selfless and proactive civil servants such as teachers, nurses, public health officers, police officers etc., are dumped and being ridiculously mocked.
As a result of the realities on the ground, many Gambians particularly youths have progressively wallowed in this theory making them to be hopeless and aimless. Who is to be blamed?
An average Gambian Government Officials is greedy and everybody wants to own and ride exotic and flashy cars and buy luxurious assets at the expense of the citizenry. Who is loyal to the state?
Interestingly, these corruptive and reckless nature have led to many Gambians particularly youths to engaged themselves in various forms of social evils such as armed robbery, gambling, drug abuse, prostitution, murder, just to name a few. All that they want is to acquire material wealth, in most cases, by crooked means since material acquisition speaks louder than such respected virtues and values like hardwork, dignity and honesty. As long as you acquire wealth, nobody wants to know how you acquire it.
Another cause of the social malaise is the low level of discipline and morality in our various homes and families. Most parents are not honest for the fact that they sometimes encourage their children to be selfish instead of encouraging them to be selfless.
The Gambia under the leadership of His Excellency Adama Barrow, at various levels, does not in any way help in salvaging and refurbishing the state economy from selfish business men. As a result, the rate of deflation and inflation of prices for commodities are unbearable. The government functionaries and officials embezzled public funds at will further converting public funds and assets as personal use.
Pathetically, police officers collect bribes from drivers, smugglers, and even armed robbers. Honesty is no longer the best policy instead hypocrisy and thievery is the ideal one.
One could ask: Can the narratives be altered? If not, in what hope is our future lying on? I am with optimum optimism that there are tangible and practicable solutions to remedy these problems of our Gambian society. In other words, where there is a will, there must be a way. Therefore, I bank upon the central government of The Gambia to tap their source with high sense of intellectualism and professionalism to salvaging the country.
Conclusively, the Gambian society should change its values and straddle honesty and hardwork above all. Similarly, the government should put into practice the principle of reward and punishment.
Together, we can build The Gambia.
