New York Letter From Alagi Yorro Jallow: Time To Walk The Talk

Fatoumatta: IF President Adama Barrow is really serious about tackling looting in his government; IF the National Development Plan blueprint is really what he is serious about and not about an older persons’ task force ‘running around’ the country; IF President Barrow really values competence over sycophancy, he should, YESTERDAY, appoint, economist-of-conscience, in the persons of either Dr. Karamo Sonko, Dr.Tijan Sallah or Mr.Yusupha Crookes as Gambia’s Finance and Planning Cabinet  secretary; with unfettered authority to:- i) reign in on mega-thieves, ii) seal loopholes that allocate escalated budget estimates to tender-preneurs & iii) arrest reckless borrowing.

IF – and only IF President Barrow was really, serious fighting corruption: Fatoumatta: Inaction, prevarication by design. We shall fight! corruption. A contrived distraction. Dissatisfaction, all over. The Fatoumatta contraption? A benediction; to the Mullahs of concocted transactions.

“Corruption, corruption. It is a profession. It is spreading like an infection”. (Shraddha, Shraddha). Where is of the cure and the medication?! Tackling corruption will take more than public statements and warnings from the Head of State. People want more concrete action.

If there was a time when our leaders must get up and boldly walk the talk, that time is now, particularly in the wake of the gaslighting donor pledges. The fascination citizens have with politicians arises from poverty and the poor living standards that compel constituents to seek handouts from politicians who in turn use the chance to loot public coffers.

Fatoumatta: The politics of, forgiveness. Intended to free us from the past. ‘A chance to make a new beginning’ (Desmond Tutu). An act of rare courage – ‘an attribute of the strong’ (Mahatma Ghandi).

An acknowledgement of “some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us” (Luther King). Flip side? Exclusion of the underserved. Politically expedient. A retreat, in order to repeat the past? From President Adama Barrow to President Yahya Jammeh, the museum of forgiveness is littered with bitter versions – counterfeits, genetically-modified ‘forgivenesses’. Fakes?

From: Jollof News