Most of the camera presentation of progress in The Gambia is focusing on projects. The government, however, should begin to take a deeper look at the quality of life of the citizenry. Food and fuel inflation is a driving force of hardship and poverty. Inflation of pharmaceutical products is threatening life expectancy. The quality of life of many Gambians is undoubtedly dropping.
While the government portrays increase of salaries in the civil service, it is also not telling Gambian people how many civil servants are employed by the government. It is not necessary for a newspaper to reveal such figures but a duty of a government to be realistic in identifying the number of people who are vulnerable to poverty and hardship.
Many young people are out of school but are either without jobs or have jobs that cannot enable them to maintain a family. Many adults are getting close to pensionable age and will soon retire, and do not expect to earn enough to maintain their families. The number of people that depend on remittances is increasing and the current trend against migration and immigrants in other parts of the world will continue to reduce income from such remittances.
There is no doubt that the Gambian economy is dependent on remittances. Any reduction to such a source of income would worsen the exchange rate of the dalasi, spark inflation spiral, cause more scarcity of goods and fuel more hardship. There is therefore great need for sober reflection of the quality of life of Gambian citizens and what needs to be done to address a worsening prospect.
It is very significant for the government to do an impact assessment of the various rice value chain projects on the quality of life of the people living in the project areas as well as the facilities for vendors in an urban area where most people have moved away from the production chain and are making a living out of the distribution chain. Most people are selling goods and doing services but there are no organized markets for them to carry out their trade. Hence, they continue to occupy and be evicted from the street, creating a hostile environment between the security and those trying to make a living by blocking pathways to hospitals or obstructing speedy movement of fire service vehicles to handle fire disasters. The anarchy due to lack of proper planning and speedy central and local government actions are contributing to growing hardships.
A central planning unit that focuses on monitoring and coordinating the documentation of all the hardships of the people with a view to promoting collaboration of all the organs of government, central and regional, to address them is urgently needed. The chaos in the market is a reflection of poor planning and delivery of public services to those who need to rely on them in pursuit of their daily source of survival.
