Following the explosive report on The Republic about what went on during the sale and disposal of the assets of former president Yahya AJJ Jammeh by the Janneh Commission, citizens have ranted and are getting increasingly disillusioned about the way and manner in which the sitting government is handling the economic affairs of the nation.
Many observers have watched as people decipher the suspicious manner in which many government officials rushed to buy off assets at a very cheap rate so that they can partake of the banquet, as it were. It seems as if they wanted to feast on the carcass left behind by the disgraced dictator.
Some of the people who were entrusted with selling of those assets for, and on behalf of the Gambian people in order to recover a portion of it for the public coffers saw this as an opportunity to enrich themselves. They went about sharing and buying these items at rates far below their market prices.
The report uncovered some very disturbing details and calls into question the integrity of many people who hitherto had the complete trust of the Gambian public. Some of the names mentioned in the report in unflattering terms caused many jaws to drop.
Sickened by this rot, a group of citizens wrote to the Inspector General of Police seeking a permit to go out and protest to register their unhappiness about the issue. Protesting and bringing these issues to the attention of the media is one way to deal with this type of problem.
More often than not, the hype following this type of revelations lasts for only a few days before it dies down and it will be business as usual. Something else, perhaps a more scandalous thing will happen, and the focus will move to that. With a protest and media reports maybe, just maybe, this will remain in the public eye for longer.
The media should work out ways of ensuring that these types of revelations remain in the public eye for as long as it takes for the government to do something concrete about it.
