By Plarke M. Caneckouteh, Banjul, The Gambia

 

It is always easy to scapegoat the youths for their predicaments in the country. This is one of the heated debates I had with my brother and some of his friends at his house, as I am on a very short visit to The Gambia. It was not an acrimonious discussion but one of those frequent intellectual debates we normally have with him and his Vous mates. He is a “highly intelligent and educated person” and one of the top civil servants in Jammeh’s government. He has double Masters and lives “comfortably” with his family at home. In contrast with me he is one the disciples of Yahya Jammeh, although he hates me calling him the monster’s boot licker. He always claims that he has his independent judgement of things and he is convinced that if everybody works hard the country will be okay. Whether he is right or wrong that is his opinion. But in this essay I just want to relate my experience to the problems of young people. In short, I bought a plot of land two years ago at Brufut village. But the land was resold to another person by two youths who collaborated with some elders in their family and may be the Alkali (village headman) to sell my plot. When I pressed hard for my land the family felt very uncomfortable for fear of legal actions. They formed a delegation to apologize and promised to assign me another plot. One of them went further to confess that they sold my plot to send two young men to try their luck through the sea to Europe. I was really annoyed at the beginning but my anger turned to sympathy, as I began to contemplate the fate of those boys voyaging across the Atlantic Ocean. At once, I decided to drop the matter and hopefully, I will get another plot before returning to he UK.

 

But as I narrated my encounters with this family to my brother and his friends in a nearby bar, they all jumped up shouting and telling me “lock them up! Take them to court! Make sure they are dealt with accordingly!!” One of his Vous mates, a lawyer who was present at the scene immediately offered me his legal services to prosecute the family. Shock and surprise with their reactions, I maintained silence for few minutes and I asked them why these practices are so common nowadays all over the country. Then a gentleman at a corner spontaneously replied that people do not want to work. There is no other reason. Our youths do not want work but want money. How can you get money without working, he questioned. Our youths are useless, chorused another gentleman. So the answers to my question were just blaming young people and some “hypocritical and greedy” family elders and village leaders for the present land crisis. To confess, I was stupefied and sickened by the rains of blames on young people by a group of intellectuals who literally run the government.  I felt disappointed at the weird analysis of the very people tasked with setting up and implementing policies to bring development in the nation.

 

I am not saying that they are totally wrong in blaming the youths for wasting precious time in some unproductive pastimes such as brewing and drinking “Ataya” 24 hours, drinking alcohol, smoking weeds, truancy, or being involved in tourist solicitation what Gambians call “bumpsters” and refusal to take part in small jobs that can somehow earn them some money. I really agree that our young people should realize that life is a challenge in itself. It is a sustained struggle and it is those who have the perseverance and patience to go through all the hurdles of life that always come out successful. This is not only in The Gambia; it is everywhere in the world, even in the most developed nations. There is nowhere on this earth that one can find free meal, free bed, free clothing or free drink. Even gifts are paid for in one-way or the other. All these are known facts and common sense dictates that nothing is free; even the air and sunshine we get are paid for by making sure that they are not polluted and remain natural and fresh.

But the acquisition of these goods and services are heavily relied on set of conditions that can help the people to acquire them. In other words, the involvement of young people in the development of the country must be facilitated by sets of factors that can create the atmosphere conducive for young people to be productive. To hit the hammer on the nail The Gambia government must set the right environment for our youths to be engaged in national development. We must have a government that should stop shifting blames on youths and critically look at ways to help the young people out of their present predicaments.

 

Then the next most important question is how do we go about doing this? How can government set the right environment for our young people to get involve in activities that are productive for themselves and the nation? Since I am not here to present a project paper, I will just pinpoint few areas that I feel, could help resolve youths problem and help avert the suicidal ventures they are heavily paying for with both their money and lives. In this case I will confine the discussion on few areas in the agricultural sector although I will touch other sectors as well.

 

In the first place we need to realistically assess what we have in our country. What natural endowment do we really have as a nation? What human capacity do we actually have? What are the quantity and quality of our present infrastructures? Are our policies and present structures appropriate for the development of the country?  To me, these are the sorts of questions and many others those planners, policy makers and all those involved in running our country should be asking. The focus is development for whom and for what and how sustainable is the development? Development is not a vacuum and cannot be achieved in emptiness; it must be premised on the concrete realities of the nation. These realities are in turn dependant on what the nation has or what it can afford in terms of natural resources, human resources and the quantity and quality of its infrastructures. So it was ridiculous for Jammeh to stand before Gambia national television and show us a disc, which contains petroleum without even proper assessment of the viability of the petroleum. Having petroleum is good news to hear. But, is the quantity viable for the nation to commit resources in mining it? Is it economically rational to engage in that venue? I am not disputing that oil may be found in The Gambia because I am not an expert in that field but am concerned about the false hope it has given to the average Gambian. Since Jammeh’s premature announcement some young people think that every Gambian will be a millionaire overnight when petroleum production starts. This false hope by Yahya’s government is dangerous and destructive to our youthful population.

 

Coming back to the main topic of blaming the young men and women for their perilous and wretched conditions, I think we need to ask the question why are our youth so discouraged and dejected to the point of wanting to leave The Gambia by all means, no matter the risks? What has gone wrong with our system?

 

First of all we expect our young educated population to engage in agriculture, which is the backbone of the economy and biggest employer in the country. About 70 – 80 percent of Gambians are farmers. So it is an important area that a good government in the Gambia should focus on to develop. Is our agricultural sector developed? Well, while I do not have all the useful indicators to back my arguments, from my own experience as a son of a farmer and also my recent interactions with farmers in different parts of the country, I can comfortably and confidently argue that the agricultural sector is in its worst situation since I know myself in The Gambia. The evidence?  We are all witnesses to farmers not paid for their products for years. All what they toiled for and produced to feed their families, pay school fees for their children, pay medical bills and purchase life sustaining goods and services have not been paid for, for years. The Jammeh government only issues them vouchers in the form of promissory notes that were never honoured. Will any of us accept a situation of the kind in question? I don’t think anyone will wish that to his worst enemy. So do we expect our young people to go back to the land and farm in that situation? The next alternative could have been gardening and horticulture, which can be done all year round. It is a very lucrative business that the young population could have turned to as an alternative to growing groundnuts. But the failure of government to encourage viable and a confident banking system that would give out loans without “throat breaking interest” left our young population without the means to get into this sector. To speak the truth, horticulture needs heavy investment that the youth do not have. Poor as they are, our young population cannot afford the required capital to set these ventures. The conditions set by private banks are so stringent and difficult for young people to fulfil. When the Jammeh government set The National Youth Scheme, I thought it was a genuine scheme out to help the young people realize their potentials. But to my utter disappointment the scheme is more or less a military camp with no viable programmes. After training in all fields, young people graduate with nothing to start their lives with. So why do we have to maintain such a scheme? It is another white elephant project of the Kanilai Junk. The graduates of the scheme are languishing in poverty in our streets. Today those who involve in massive gardening and horticultures are the very big people in the government, retired soldiers, foreigners and hustlers in Diaspora. They are the people who have the financial muscles to engage in this lucrative venture.  So how can you convince the youths to stay at home when their colleagues, age-mates and friends who luckily crossed the death zones are putting up solid buildings in The Gambia? The pride of any family in The Gambia is to have at least one person in Europe, America or Canada. Why? Those outsiders become the only hope to provide survival for families at home, especially given the maddening daily increase in the prices of basic commodities. Therefore, our government should rethink and look at its policies and how they are affecting our young generation. They are not actually lazy or useless as they are always branded. The present government is not doing its homework properly.

 

Apart from acquiring the financial means, our horticultural products are also unsold and given the perishable nature of some of the products, the farmers end up throwing them or selling them at very low prices which may not even be enough to replace the money and energy spent on producing these goods. A good government should be looking at ways of creating markets for some of these goods and providing storage facilities to help farmers maintain the qualities of their perishable goods for some time. People pay taxes and other charges to the government for it to able to provide some of these services. Where are all the daily collections by our Area Councils? What is the money used for?  Well, run around the big cities and main towns, the richest people in The Gambia are tax collectors yet, these are the people who even earn the least. What does that suggest to you? So we are not blaming those depriving the youths of the means to excel instead, we heap all the blames on the poor struggling young men and women. Let’s set the conditions right for them to grow. If we do that and they failed to take the opportunities then we can raise our voices.

 

That said, it must be clear that to have good markets abroad for our products depends largely on our image. And how does the international community view us? And how are we relating with our neighbouring countries, which we deal with almost on a daily basis? Thus, this suggests that we need to have a sound foreign policy, which portrays the country in a positive manner. We must face the realities of the new century if we want to go forward. The Gambia is not an island and will not be an island in this globalized world. Whether we like it or not our activities will affect other countries that will always react to those actions. In the same way, the activities of other countries will have impact on us. Therefore we need a leader who is disciplined and respectful. Can you imagine a first citizen of a country to behave rudely and stupidly before foreign dignitaries? It is not a sign of bravery but a proof of ignorance and stupidity. It is such behaviour that is tarnishing our image in The Gambia. Today, if you walk in the streets of London, Washington and other major cities in the developed world, you see a lot of products from Ghana being sold in these places. If Ghana can export their products to these countries, why not The Gambia, which is also an Anglophone like Ghana in the same West Africa region? In fact, it may take longer hours to reach Ghana from Europe and America than it is to The Gambia. But the main obstacle is harbouring and nursing a reckless leader called Yahya Jammeh who does not know the ABC of good relationship with the rest of the world. But should you blame a donkey for bellowing its “hi-hoe, hi-hoe cry” in the middle of a conference? Blame those who tie it in that conference room.

 

Trust me, The Gambia’s problem lies in its leadership that is messing a lot of things. He cannot see connections of his actions to the plights and suffering of the people. This is why Senegal is more trusted and respected than us in the international community. I challenge anybody to conduct a survey to find out the number of Senegalese holding international appointments and how they are doing to encourage foreign investments in their country. It is not because of their size and population. Comparatively, Senegal is much more democratic and observes the rule of law than The Gambia. Like Senegal, Ghana cannot be compared to us at all. This is because they have respectable, accountable, transparent systems guided by true democracy and the rule of law. The level of harassments, poor human right records, the twisting of our judiciary system and opaque structures have scared investments, which could help create employment in Jammeh’s Gambia. Then do we need to scratch the ground to know why our young people could not get jobs?

 

We have one of the cheapest and best seaports, which could have been used, by neighbouring countries. With proper management and good relationship with Senegal our seaport could fetch us healthy revenue. Through the re-export trade The Gambia could eventually realize its Singaporean dream by becoming commercial centre for the sub-region. This dream can only be possible if the country has a very strong and harmonious relationship with Senegal, a neighbour who surrounds us on all sides except on the Atlantic. But how many times did we have border conflicts with Senegal? It is this acrimonious relationship that paralyses the re-export trade. Many businessmen were frustrated by the frequent blockades and closures of the borders.  What should be cleared to political leaders of these two countries is that Senegal and The Gambia are the same people who share everything except colonial masters. So it is difficult to separate these two countries. On the Gambian side Yahya Jammeh should stop supporting the Cassamance rebels. The Cassamance rebels are not only taking refuge in The Gambia but they are using the Foni area as a base to launch their attacks in the night. This is what is frustrating the Wade regime in Dakar and making him furious about Yahya’s foreign policy. As a result, Maitre Wade always retaliates by blocking the borders from businesspersons who want to export their goods to other countries like Guinea- Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Mali and other countries in the sub-region. It is such stupid foreign policy that is suffocating the Gambian economy, which in turn affects the ability of the economy to generate employment for the people.

 

Take for instance the most recent stupid statements President Jammeh rudely made when the UK Sky TV reporter interviewed him. Anyone who sees that interview will immediately build a negative picture about The Gambia and its people. Such negative portrait of the country can scare the tourists and foreign businesses; leading to the collapse of the tourism sector which is an important sector in the economy both in generating revenue and employment. So why are we fooling ourselves all the time? Why can’t we face the reality and boot the idiot out? Why do we want to keep a stinking pig like Yahya Jammeh as the President of that civilized nation? The man is a wrestler and we should send him to the wrestling arenas to contest his fellow wrestlers.

 

In fact, I better stop here because I am becoming more agitated as I continue to ponder over the youth’s problems and how the state has failed them. This is just a tip of iceberg. If I am to really analyse the causes of our problems and the manner the monster’s government is manipulating the youths, I would write volumes. Imagine how Yahya and his cohorts usurp our farmlands. They condition these poor farmers to sell their lands or freely give them to Yahya. So if all the farmlands are bought by the few rich people in the country where will the farmers farm? Where will they get their survival after the few Dalasis they obtained from the sale of their common heritage is exhausted? What type of land policy do we have in the country? Land grabbing has hit the rural areas and almost 90% of cases in the police stations and courts are land related.  Tensions are all over the Kombos where landlords sell one plot to more than four people. Where is the law? Where is the land policy? What is the function and use of the Land Office? Is it another white elephant structure in the country? It is one of Gambia’s unending ironies that while Jammeh the dictator promotes a “back to land philosophy” he and his bandits are busy grabbing the land. I cannot understand the meaning of that philosophy!!