Do Not Commit Political Suicide Before You Launch

After delivering them from the Pharaoh and his tyrannical ways, the Israelites started questioning Moses immediately, even doubting his claims. Both versions of the narrative from the Islamic and Christian perspective, spoke of the defiance and resistance Moses had to contend with from the Israelites. Maybe they were on edge or nervous about surrendering their new found freedom to a new ‘leader’. Whatever the reason, what this points to is the tendency of people to show ingratitude and our impatient nature.

Fast forward to our Gambian situation today; certain segments of Gambians society have taken it upon themselves to not only question the motives of the new administration, but make it a point of duty to cry foul about any and everything emanating from the leadership with hardly any single word of commendation for their show of mature leadership displayed during the most tense political period in Gambian history. They have been accused of being weak, not up to the task, or simply incompetent. Doubt from the get go.

These condemnations starting just within weeks of an election victory that uprooted two decades of tyranny and authoritarian rule. During which period not a single word of condemnation emanated from that segment now claiming the spotlight of vanguards against tyranny; with the exception of a handful. Maybe the guilt of the silence of that period is compelling some to speak up now. Whatever the reason, the claim of holding government accountable or expressing one’s opinion is not a valid one simply because the new administration has not promised anything we did not agree with on the campaign trail. Secondly, they have not started work in earnest for anyone to observe that they are deviating from the promises made; and finally, assuming that they will bring back the old ways, will not reform much, or will seek to entrench themselves in power is all speculation and conjecture with no basis to argue on.

There is nothing wrong with questioning those entrusted with authority, in fact that is encouraged to hold them accountable. Questions get answers as a response. Attacks are responded to with defense mechanisms. On the other hand, if all of one's preoccupation is to condemn, attack, and criticize, over time your voice drowns itself and whatever positive contribution you have to make struggles to find an audience thereby depriving the nation of a perspective perhaps only you can offer.

The desire to transform The Gambia into a democratic country, one governed by the rule of law and equal treatment of all citizens has brought to the political scene energetic young minds determined to realize that dream sooner rather than later, and rightly so. Their agenda to see rapid transformations in the political and governance sphere is understandable and commendable.

Being subject to two decades of tyranny and authoritarian rule (a lifetime for most of the young activists) can only inspire aggressive pursuits with a sense of urgency to restore democratic governance. Now that the battle has been won, what is needed is a cooling down of the tempo and to give the newly entrusted leadership a chance to implement the promises made. This is in no way calling for the guard to be let down in preserving the democratic ideals won.

The Gambia, and indeed Africa is in need of fresh ideas, policy, and new visions to progress into the 21^st century and stand on a somewhat equal footing with nations around the world. That fact is indisputable; the strategy employed may be the bone of contention.

What should not be lost on us is that for far too long, people’s creative minds and political awareness has been confounded by tyranny and authoritarian rule. They are not to blame for their lack of understanding of the strength of their power over that of the state. They will move with caution in their dealings with the state and any representative of state power, which could be an effect of the trauma they had to endure under tyranny.

As informed citizens, with access to information beyond what is sieved out of the state controlled media, we owe it to them and to ourselves that we slow down to their pace and move with them into that enlightened space. After all, it is an African saying that if you want to fast, go alone; but if you want to far, go together. One should not be naïve as to measure the political atmosphere based on the discourse amongst the politically informed or those expressed on social media. The largest constituency of voters does not share the same platform and they do not share the same ideologies; they ultimately decide who gets into public office.

Discounting them as irrelevant or believing that they will go along with whatever the ‘informed urbanites’ throw at them will be a fatal mistake for anyone with political aspirations. The seasoned politicians are aware of this fact and exploit it to the fullest. These are the ones being labelled as old, lacking in new visions, and being asked to step aside and give way to the youth.

Until such time that the entire citizenry is informed enough about politics and political culture, it will be prudent for any young aspiring politician to borrow a leaf or two from their book. Get close to them, watch them closely, learn from them and enhance your political strategy. They may not get everything right, none of us do, but learning from other people’s mistakes and making amends is what makes us human. The people flock to them for a reason. They have political capital.

Securing Gambian Citizenship

As we just emerged out of the election cycle with claims of ‘migrant voters’ ferried in to boost the vote count for the outgoing president, one glaring fact emerges. Aside from the abuse of office and betrayal of trust, Gambian citizenship is open to abuse very easily. Hon. Halifa Sallah addressed the issue numerous times before and it is worth addressing it as a priority. How easy is it to acquire a Gambian legal document?

Very easy indeed, this is not an attempt to build walls between us and our African brothers and sisters, of course they are welcome to live and work in The Gambia if they so choose to. But in a volatile world like the one we live in, abusing one’s national documents can have disastrous consequences; that’s on the global stage, it gets worse at the local level. Who gets what benefits from tax payers? Who claims what privileges from being a citizen? Who decides the country’s future? Etc. are all questions that need looking into as citizenship grants many privileges. We are witness to how immigration policy affects national policy decisions and makes or breaks politicians around the world.

The current case of all illegally acquired documents can be reviewed and determinations made as to the fates of the holders of such documents, it will be expensive and time consuming, but it can wait. At least until such time that a renewal is needed and then a thorough vetting can be done. What will be cost effective (almost cost free) will be to put up a system forthwith that will address this issue henceforth.

The traditional institutions of local governance can be utilized to this effect.  In every community in The Gambia, when there is a birth or death, the local Imam or Pastor is made aware as well as the Alkalo of that community or their representatives, a system of records could be set up whereby these authority figures will keep track of every life birth or death in their community. This record would be collected at regular intervals by the census bureau and the immigration department as well as all relevant government institutions and entered into the national database. All vital information relevant to every case should be entered at the time of the record and a provision be made requiring the issuance of a birth certificate within the first few weeks of delivery of any child, and a certificate of death in the case of a bereavement, linking that data to a numbering system assigning every citizen a Social Security or TIN number.

The Alkalo, the Imam/Priest, the local Councilor, and a medical service appointee (attending midwife/nurse) will all sign this record to verify its authenticity. Information such as the name of the child, the date on which he or she was born, the name of the parents and their citizenship status (develop a citizenship code for the various forms of legal citizenship; birth, naturalization, marriage, descent etc.) All other relevant medical information can be collected at the health center/medical facility where a second set of records will be kept.

Having put in place the requirement for various signatories as attestions, no names will make the list unless absolutely verified. Once all these layers of security are put in place before the issuance of a birth certificate, it should then be made a required document to present for the acquisition of any other national document. Any citizen that presents a birth certificate to request any other national document should be granted that request automatically. This will be because the birth certificate will be rendered the most authentic national document; the acquisition of which will dispel any doubts as to citizenship status. The immigration department will be responsible for all other forms of regulating and granting citizenship of any other form.

All Alkalolu should be trained and certified as notaries for the state.  This will ensure that in the event of a lost document, the Alkalo can bring forth his copy of that document, make a duplicate and certify it as authentic.

The Alkalo, the local mosque or church as well as the local/nearest health center or hospital will all have a copy of this certificate with the same corresponding serial numbers (assigned by region) in case verification is needed in the future or a replacement.This information could gradually be loaded into a digitized database at such a time that it is feasible, affordable, and can be hack-proof. So many issues could easily be resolved with such a database such as:

• Ease of census; with raw data collected on the spot as it occurs, the census bureau will have a much easier job collecting relevant census data by comparing the book recording births and that recording deaths within a specified period of time.

• Voter registration; The IEC can make use of that data to know the number of eligible voters at any given election cycle and even make projections as to the number of citizens who will attain voting age eighteen years ahead. The need for voter registration and issuance of voters’ cards will be done away with once the system is rendered fraud proof. All that will be needed will be some form of nationally issued identification document to cast a token at an election. A mailing system can be introduced to collect voter information that may be election specific which means a functioning postal system.

• Expected school enrolments every academic year; this number can be easily tabulated to determine the resource capacity of each school for proper planning. The student/teacher ratio, classroom capacity and other logistics can be planned ahead when this raw data is available. So much information can be easily accessed for effective public policy decisions and social service delivery.

• A citizen’s profile; where a file could be easily made available to the local police unit and records inserted as they occur. This will help the person, as well as all agencies that require police reports as background checks…these are currently cooked up.

NB: the mosques and churches as well as the Alkalo should all house offices for record keeping. What sermon was delivered on what day, what occasion, by which Imam/Pastor (biography needed), who was married in that mosque/church to whom and on what date etc. these institutions should go beyond their traditional limitations and adjust to modern realities. A lot of our history is obscure because of poor record keeping, we can start now and a century or millennia from now, our progeny will be able to trace history back to us and build an accurate family tree. These historical records can be preserved in the best ways experts deem suitable. And the good news is that once this system is instituted, it will be entirely cost free as all these institutions already exist, they just need to be functioning.