Written by Mariama Jammeh  (Gilanka ), Gambia College

You and I are the government and we are The Gambia.

Employment which is a major problem in The Gambia, is been raped and maltreated by the uncaught thieves she put in office.

The youths and of course lubricants of her rusted wheel are been disregarded and seen as nothing but unlearned skilled people that has to try their own ways in realising and actualising their dreams.

The lucky ones in her office steals, mismanage and embezzle the funds that is own by the tax payers which includes the poor, unemployed and every two-legged soul that dwells and breath the air of Gambia’s breeze.

Gambia’s ministers’ transparency is questionable. Every employed man wants to get a higher position; ego for wealth forces them to accept bribes and end up being darkly corrupted in their quest for wealth and a better life.

The money accrued from various organisations during the corona pandemic is said to have been spent on helping the citizens with food (rice and sugar). How do you expect dancers to dance when the drummers feet is on the drum?

The food is given out in a way that segregation was shown. In a community of paupers and rich- sharing was on a scale. Some stomachs began to pouch and others a skeletal, not everyone received the aid.  Moneys of our nation is not ethically used. Employers are not considerate and careful of avoiding the mistake of putting square peg in a round hole.

Therefore, breeding the seed of corruption while the unemployed suffers the ramifications. Looking at various sectors, most especially our electricity company that has monopolistic powers as they are the only company that supplies Water and electricity to the people of The Gambia.

Being the only supplier of electricity, they should have had a sustainable capital in their coffers but it’s disheartening as the coin that makes the coffers strong is been mismanaged by people in a higher position. Position in exchange of conscience sows the seed of egoitism, segregation, corruption and neglection of public properties.

No matter how the tail of a dog rotates, it rests when it sleeps. Gambia needs to have patriots in office. Sons of the land, people that have the nation at heart and would do anything positive to make sure that the services that they’re been paid for, by the taxes of the poor are utilized.

Being a Gambian should be a pride but the opposite marauds the consent of the living soul of her womb. Being a Gambian is not the pride of my fellow Gambians because the system rulling us is not promising.

The transportation system is unfathomable, Electricity supply is heartbreaking and patients and expecting mothers are dying thereby increasing the Maternal morality rate of our dear country. 

Money is not the key to Jannah!  Spend the sweat of the poor taxpayers rightly and stop enriching yourselves. “For the Gambia our homeland.” Do not deceive the nation if it’s not your intention to make her smile. Hands should be on desk in promoting indigenization. Give job to job’s friend not to your friend.

#In God I trust# The Gambia Shall rise from pains of the uncaught and official thieves that signs and mismanage her funds to satisfy their egocentric thirst.

The Gambia We Want

Written By Pabi Njie, Methodist Academy

The Gambia we want is the Gambia we dream,

A Gambia where there will be total eradication of poverty and the full force of prosperity with liberty and equality for all Gambians

The Gambia we want 

Is the Gambia with political maturity security and neutrality in our communities

So as to regain our humanity and societal harmony in an atmosphere of gender equality and rule of law

A Gambia with a different were the perspective will be our country first,

The Gambia we want 

Is the Gambia with peace and stability to be masterminded by our native intellectuality in our environment of sensitivity to drive our nation with visionary mentality

The Gambia we want

Is a nation with vision to run by people with determination to meet our expectations so that we can stand as champion in the midst of nation,

The Gambia we want

The Gambia we want is the Gambia with youths’ empowerment employment opportunity to our dream of development in our our nation. The Gambia we want the Gambia we dream and the Gambia we see as our nation forward ever back way never.

Ends

COVID-19: BUSINESS SECTOR AND SURVIVAL

Written By Abdou Jawara, Muslim’s Sr. Sec. School

As Covid-19 still continues to spread its wings around the globe, and posed global economic slowdown, the impact (COVID-19) is been heftily felt by all businesses around the world — be it large or small. This impact does not exempt The Gambia, thus businesses stand at a very delicate vulnerability as a result of the SOPE Power Regulations.

The Government of The Gambia has a very vital role to play in ensuring the survival of affected businesses, especially Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), given the significant contribution of this sector to our economy. So therefore, the survival of these businesses should be part and parcel of Government’s utmost priorities. Some of the meaningful measures/support Government can take include as follows:

The Government — to begin with — can reduce the taxable income on businesses in these trying moments, i.e. the amount businesses paid as tax should be reduced as their businesses are not doing well at this moment due to Covid – 19.

As these businesses depend largely on their sales (profits) for survival, therefore the Government should either reduce the taxable income or defer tax payment. The Government should help these businesses, especially small businesses because they suffer the most compared to the larger ones as these small businesses are not well financially positioned. The reduction of taxable income on businesses will go a long way in assisting them in this difficult moment.

The Government can also engage the Commercial Banks to provide friendly loans with considerable flexibility in payment terms to both small and large enterprises. This will help these businesses a lot as they will be able to borrow money from the commercial banks to support their businesses in this trying moment and boost their productivity as well.

The Government as well can also help businesses by giving them Relief Packages such as grants to support their businesses. The grants will definitely have a positive impact on businesses.

Additionally, the Government can assist businesses by allowing them to resume full-time operation with the observance of safety measures that will prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their respective operation centers.

In a nutshell therefore, I advice the Government to take up these relevant ways to assist our businesses as they are suffering a lot, for business is the fuel that drives economy.