By Alieu Famara Sagnia
We recall what was said during the post Eid-Prayer meeting this year at State House attended by members of the government and Muslim Elders.
The minister for religious affairs, Hamat Bah, revealed that the government had initially budgeted D4 million to lobby / for the campaign to get Dr Omar Alieu Touray (appointed/elected?) to the post of President of the ECOWAS Commission.
If I recall rightly, he said “I told President Barrow let’s increase it” and that it was increased to “D10 million”.
So that was what it cost the Gambian tax payer / public purse to have the incumbent as the current occupant of the post in Abuja Nigeria.
Dr Touray was present and seated among the attendees in the hall, when the minister was making this announcement – and was seen making a forced smile as Bah spoke about how they got him the ECOWAS job.
What we learned from this Hamat Bah disclosure shows at least three things:
That the Barrow government spends huge monies on such “campaigns”; that those they help to get these positions will suffer the public humiliation of being reminded how they got there by people like Hamat Bah.
Finally, this incident reveals how the government prioritizes its spending on national issues.
Related to the matter of prioritizing, let me report on what I heard recently when I visited a neighbor at the Kanifing Estate to sympathize, who lost her daughter.
If I recall rightly, three women complained about the poor service received, and of being asked and made to pay D8000 at the Kanifing General Hospital for treatment there.
Meanwhile, they also said they were not given any medicine, but asked to go buy from the pharmacies outside.
One of them said she was made to buy about 20 drips for her patient, who later passed away.
Another narrated how a particular doctor asked her to go get D8000 for treatment. Then the doctor travelled upcountry, and when contacted asked her to give on his behalf D5000 to someone at the hospital and D3000 to another person at the hospital.
Meanwhile, her patient, a male, died after she managed to get the money and distributed it as told by the doctor. This was according to her story while sitting at my neighbour’s house to condole with the family.
Now, these reports of people being asked to bring D8000 sounded like a scam being pulled on patients who go to this Kanifing Hospital, and the relevant authorities may want to look into that possibility.
Another person complained about being asked to do lab tests at a particular place adjacent to the main gate at EFSTH at Independence Drive in Banjul – to which lab, according to her, patients are usually sent for such tests – and wondered why patients were not being sent to the EFSTH lab.
We share these anecdotes, and hope that the national health authorities and police will go undercover to investigate the truth or otherwise of these claims.
Our purpose for giving these anecdotes is to show how at a time when there is endless complaining by the public about the lack of medicines, as well as the poor conditions and services at public hospitals, the Gambia government could afford to spend huge monies on prestige projects, which benefit the elite and neglect the basic needs of the common people in the country.
We recall that there was this rumor on social media about the government not paying WAEC monies owed, which delayed the official release of this year’s GABECE results; although we also saw a report which said the permanent Secretary at MoBSE denied this was the case.
We cite all these as highlighting areas where the Barrow Administration should be spending our taxes on and not prestige projects which only benefit members of the elite.
A cost- benefitted analysis should show us what the D10 million investment has yielded for The Gambia since Dr Touray became ECOWAS Commission president.
And so it got us thinking hard when we hear that “The Gambia’s Commonwealth campaign team, supporting Dr. Mamadou Tangara’s candidacy for Commonwealth Secretary-General, was at State House to brief the Vice President on progress and challenges.”
We note that they were willing to spend D10 million to lobby – the 15 member states of the Regional Economic Community (REC) – so as to get Dr Omar Alieu Touray the ECOWAS Commission presidency.
And so we ask: How much are they spending on this campaign – including on “campaign materials” – to lobby the governments of the 50-plus Commonwealth nations to give Dr Tangara the post?
We hope the government will give us the answer when they report back to us after this investment in another perceived national prestige project is over.
The pertinence of the outcome of the vote at this year’s CHOGM in Samoa within the next 48 hours to elect a new Secretary General for the Commonwealth cannot be overemphasized!
