Information is the key to democracy and democracy the key to choose a government. Democratic institutions may exist but if there is no informed citizenry, democracy would only be a formality.
Hence it is inadequate to say that Africa in general and Gambia in particular need strong institutions and then stop there. Strong institutions must be accompanied by an informed citizenry before transparent and accountable government could be put in place to build, administer and manage those institutions to address the needs and aspirations of the people.
A major challenge before the country is how to awaken our citizenry so that they participate as social watch-persons and auditors to monitor and give findings on the performance of those put in the place of public trust.
Once the people develop, the maturity to scrutinise and criticize wrong doing they would have either the capacity to restrain a government or remove it if it cannot be restrained. This is the principle of democratic governance which should be respected and upheld by all those who want the will of the people to always prevail in a country.
