Monologue With Farmers Tour: The politics of rice

"If anyone is selling a bag of rice at D900, take him to the police because it is unlawful.  I recently agreed with major importers of rice into the country on the maximum price of a bag of rice to be at D800, which will start by June/July 2008. Therefore, anyone selling a bag of rice at D1,000 should go to jail.  In fact, from now against September 2008, government will make sure that the price of rice is stabilized."

These were the words of Yaya Jammeh on Monday May 5th, 2008 during his Dialogue with the People's Tour.  The warning was directed at district Chiefs, village heads, Governors (Commissioners) and cabinet ministers who were threatened with dismissal of those "who fail to stand firmly in support of poor farmers against exploitation by rice dealers and retailers.

It was at that same meeting in Kerewan, North Bank Division when Jammeh declared, unilaterally and without consultation, that henceforth government was no longer going to provide 'free' fertilizer to farmers which, according to a furious dictator, which were then sold at weekly markets or 'lumos'.

Farm input subsidies were either withdrawn outright or phased out over time in 1986 with the advent of the Economic Recovery Program (ERP).  There was always an element of subsidy as regards fertilizer but by playing politics with agriculture, Jammeh declared that henceforth fertilizer was going to be free.  His actions in 2008 were simply reverting to what obtained prior to his unilateral actions.

He did not only withdrew the fertilizer subsidy, he also informed the farmers of Kerewan that he was also going to withdraw subsidies on tractor services because farmers were misusing them.  Henceforth, the 500 tractors he has in stock will be sold without telling farmers that these tractors were procured on loan from Ex-Im Bank of India which the farmers will have to pay for within a 20-year period.  The tractors belongs to the farmers and not Yaya Jammeh.  

Back to the astronomical price of a bag of rice, six years after the Kerewan meeting, a bag of rice has more than doubled in price to D2,000, and out of reach of ordinary Gambians who earn, on average, less than D1,800 per month.  The Gambian staple food has reached price levels that can only cause problems for a regime whose political fortunes have dropped so precipitously, it has left Jammeh worried.  The price of bread of D8 per loaf only makes matter worse.  However, it is the price of rice that is definitely driving this year's Tour agenda.

Of the 30-odd stops on the tour, 25 stops on the Tour are to rice fields, from Jurungku in the North Bank to Kafuta in the Western Division.  There's a visit to a poultry farm and a lunch and visit stop-over at the International Trypanotolerant Center at Kiang Keneba, and about three stops to visit Jammeh's private farms that are farmed using, what can only be described as involuntary labor because those who refuse to 'volunteer' their labor are subject to harassment and risk the label of 'saboteur' of the regime.

Jammeh has promised Gambians self-sufficiency in rice since he seized power in 1994 but all his actions have been anything but encouraging dependence on imported rice, and no amount of visits to rice farms that have received little support from the regime will change the current imbalance.

Dialogue With the People Tour - Day One did not go well for Jammeh

Day One of the Meet the Dialogue with People didn't go well for Yaya Jammeh.  First, he took the navy speed boat to cross with his ministers to Barra while the rest of his entourage ventured into those deadly, unseaworthy death traps better known as 'floating coffins.' It took those less unfortunate souls hours to reach the Barra shores.  They should consider themselves lucky they didn't find themselves drifting along the Bakau coast.

At Barra, the crowds were small because Gambians have had enough of Jammeh who has been promising them the moon, only to end up fleecing them instead.  Farmers all over the country are mad and frustrated, all at once.  They are mad because Jammeh has denied them of their right, as members of a supposedly free society in a free market system, to sell their groundnuts to private buyers as they were able to do last year. Chinese buyers participated in the second half of last years groundnut buying season, and were able to offer prices 25% - 30% higher than was previously on offer from the Gambia Groundnut Corporation.  The same opportunity was denied them by none other than Yaya Jammeh

The only visible crowd presence was demonstrated by the so-called Green Boys who were seen in front of the entourage.  However, by the time they reached Farafenni, the Green Boys, the only seemingly enthusiastic group in the entourage had grown tired, unappreciated and unfed.  The Green Boys grew hungry.  When they were shown their living quarters in Farafenni, they grew angry.  Their anger was justified because they were expected to sleep on the concrete floors of Farafenni Secondary School.

Farafenni teachers and school children who came out to greet Yaya dispersed even before the presidential entourage reached the outskirts of town because he was late, as usual.  The small crowd irked him and some unfortunate soul in the local organizing committee will lose his job tonight, and should consider himself lucky if he is not spending the night in a Farafenni jail.    

The way things are going, something tells me by the time Jammeh returns to Banjul, he would have probably lost the support of a few of these Green Boys who are both hungry and angry.  Talk about the misfortune of Yaya Jammeh.  Everybody seems to be giving up on him.  Gambians have finally come to realize that all Yaya Jammeh cares about is Yaya Jammeh, and no one else, and they appear to be in the mood for a new leader and a new type of leadership.

Good luck on Day Two, Yaya.

GPTC: The sad story of an iconic bus company - PART I

The mere mention of the now defunct Gambia Public Transport Corporation, popularly referred by its acronym GPTC, generates nostalgic references to an iconic symbol of the First Republic.

The initial name was The Gambia - Libya Jamahiriya Public Transport Corporation.  When diplomatic relations between the countries soared over what Sir Dawda Jawara saw as Gaddafi's attempts to subvert Gambia's sovereignty by training Gambian dissidents, the partnership was dissolved and the Gambia took sole ownership and renamed it Gambia Public Transport Corporation.

GPTC in spite of managerial deficiencies of its own, symbolized a relatively efficient management, as African public transport companies go.  It hauled in decent profits year in year out since its inception in 1975, up until July 22nd 1994.

The company's first Managing Director brought to the job the managerial and technical prerequisites expected of managers of public corporations which helped put the new corporation on a trajectory that his successors built on to make it a success story. Gambians were able to travel to Basse and back the same day if they so chose.  The services covered both the North and South Banks of the River Gambia, express and local services.  Banjul-Dakar and Dakar-Banjul daily services were also available.  All of these services started to deteriorate and finally came to a grinding halt with the advent of the A(F)PRC regimes where competence was less important than your tribal or party affiliation - never mind that you may be a certified illiterate.

Fast forward to November 20, 2012, at the direction of Yaya Jammeh, the Speaker of the National Assembly called an emergency session to table a Bill to repeal the GPTC Act of 1976 that will dissolve the GPTC as a corporate entity.  The convening of the session came as a surprise to many parliamentarians, and the Bill before them politically sensitive enough to warrant the Speaker to start off the 'debate' with the following opening statement: "I do hope members of both sides of the House will understand the reason for the short notice given, especially since it is also within Standing Order 26(q).  I hope that the Bill, not being controversial, will be dealt with as soon as possible, but of course, without compromising, in any way, the public interest this Bill deserves."  It is obvious from the Speaker's words that the National Assembly is being blind-sided by Jammeh for springing a surprise that appears to betray the public trust.

In laying the Bill, the then Minister of Works, Construction and Infrastructure, Francis Liti Mboge, recounted the story of how, "in the 1990s, the GPTC slid into serious financial and operational difficulties when management was faced with aging fleet, declining revenues and investments aggravated the situation."  The exasperated sounding Minister continued : "A business entity must either maximize revenue or cut costs to remain solvent, with GPTC, neither option was possible.  The decision was therefore made to disband the Corporation."  Conveniently ignored by the Minister was the fact that in November 2003, Yaya Jammeh admitted rescinding GPTC's management decisions to cut cost by retrenching excess staff with the excuse that "why should the staff suffer", because they were mostly relatives or supporters of his ruling APRC.

So when Jammeh acquired 31 buses six months after he had asked his rubber stamp parliament to repeal the law that gave birth to GPTC, revenue enhancement was furthest from his mind.  He was paving the way for his own bus company using the remaining assets of a publicly-owned company, to supplement the resources of yet another public company in Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC). During the official inauguration of the buses, Gambians were told that Jammeh acquired the buses through a "joint Gambia government and Transport Metropolitan de Barcelona" with the fingerprints of one Kassim Njie Dampha who was described at the same ceremony by Jammeh as "Gambia's Liaison Officer in Barcelona." Whether he is still acting in that capacity on behalf of the regime is unclear.  What is clear, however, is the fact that Jammeh had used public investments and Social Security funds to form the Gambia Transport Service Company (GTSC).

It is  important to note that during the June 8th 2013 re-launch with the unveiling of 50 Ashok-Leyland buses from India, Isatou-Njie Saidy, standing in for Yaya Jammeh, read a statement prepared for him which she said because "the government is ever committed to the welfare and well being of Gambians requested the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation to work with my office (meaning the office of Yaya Jammeh) to establish a public transport company that is efficient, reliable and offers affordable services." This is further confirmation that the Office of the President under Yaya Jammeh has become an omnipresent, one-stop-shop office for private-public partnership where the private is Yaya Jammeh and the public is government and parastatal agencies.  Where the public treasury ends and where Jammeh's pockets begins is a tough call.  To destroy a public corporation only to set up another one in its place with Jammeh holding equity is mind-bending.

The GTSC has failed in its mission, as stated by Jammeh, of providing "efficient, reliable and affordable series."  The services provided by the GTSC are poor compared to the services that were provided by the now defunct GPTC that was killed by Jammeh and his rubber stamp National Assembly to make way for his private bus company using public funds.  School children are major casualties of this new transport company which does not provide services for school children in contrast to GPTC that received subvention from government to run an efficient school bus service.

End of Part I

Part II will look at the human cost of repealing the GPTC Act establishing the transport corporation causing sufferings of former staff of GPTC, most of whom were left stranded without compensation, pensions and even outstanding wages and social security contributions, in spite of government promises that former GPTC employees will be paid their outstanding dues.

Budget-busting 'festivals'

Despite more government promises to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), excessive domestic spending seems to go unabated.

Why would a government in dire straights, financially, continue to entertain reckless spending.  It was before the start of the rainy season that Jammeh conducted the constitutionally-required Meet the Farmers Tour.

Such a tour requires the mobilization of both human and financial resources that is a heavy burden on the budget in normal times, much more when the fiscal position of the regime is in such a precarious state.  We raised similar concern in our Facebook page yesterday.  We asked what will Jammeh say to the farmers who have been abandoned in the 2013/14 groundnut buying season by a regime that claim to put agriculture at the top of is priority list.

The financial crisis facing the regime and the corresponding hardship facing the rural population in particular and ordinary citizens in general warrants cancellation of this years' tour.  The constitutional requirement can and should be invoked in period of national emergencies.  We are in an emergency when the entire economy is at the brink of total collapse.

As if the challenges facing the regime is not enough, Yaya Jammeh is insisting on going ahead with this year's Roots Festival which requires a financial outlay in the millions of dalasi.  Staff time that will be tied to this week-long festival is immeasurable which will be further drag to an already struggling economy.  A week spent in Kanilai with the mandatory requirement that all senior-level civil servants must attend, tantamount to government shut-down.  The impact on productivity is likely to be negative.  The argument that Festival tourists receipts will offset expenditure is not evident because most of those attending have, in the past, being sponsored by the government.  The Festival should be postponed indefinitely or until the economy has sufficiently recover to afford such a lavish occasion.

Finally, we have suggested that the planned celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the so-called Revolution, together with the associated fund-raising should be scrapped .  It is tasteless to ask Gambians to contribute towards it when the burden of the current economic crisis has fallen disproportionately o the shoulders of the very people who are being asked to contribute.  Besides, there is nothing Gambians should celebrate for. The 20-year rule of AFPRC and APRC regimes have been nothing but a nightmare, leaving Gambians traumatized, abused, killed, maimed and forced to go on exile.

The cancellations of all of these unproductive 'celebrations' will go a ling way in helping the Minister of Finance need its domestic debt target that he promised the IMF.      

IOC to Yaya Jammeh: Return 'Olympic House' to owners, reinstate officials or face sanctions

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) came down like a ton of bricks on Yaya Jammeh's Minister of Youth and Sports, Alieu K. Jammeh.

In a strongly-worded letter to the dictatorial regime of Yaya Jammeh, the IOC made the following requests of the Minister:

1.  The Office and all properties of the GNOC must be returned to the IOC-recognized GNOC currently headed by Mr. Momodou Dibba with immediate effect.
2.  Any potential restrictions imposed by the IOC-recognized GNOC and its officers must be lifted with immediate effect and;
3.  The Government of the Gambia shall cease any action aimed at destabilizing the IOC-recognized GNOC.

Protective measures or sanctions will be applied against the representation of The Gambia, including barring it from participation in future Olympics, if the above conditions remain unmet, as provided under Rule 27.9 of the Olympic Charter.

IOC did not mince words. The so-called "Interim Committee" installed last week by the regime is not recognized by the Olympic Movement.  As explained on numerous occasions to Gambian officials, including the Minister of Youth and Sports, the National Olympics Committees world-wide ( including the GNOC) "are not government bodies installed or dismissed, and their members are not appointed by governments."

GNOC is an autonomous body "established to develop, promote and protect the Olympic Movement.  The word "Olympic" is a registered trade mark for the exclusive use of IOC-recognized entities, thus, its use by a government-selected and appointed is illegal as well.  Officials should know better and not allow themselves to be used by this despicable and discredited regime, unless, of course, they are in it for their own personal and selfish interests.

IOC reminded the Minister that their illegal and undignified behavior to unleash tribal militias to seize Olympic House, close the offices and take possession of properties belonging to the GNOC has already started to negatively affect Gambian athletes who have been prevented from participating in sporting events abroad as a result of this ill-advised action of the Minister of Youth and Sports.

IOC hopes that reason will prevail for the highest interest of sport and the Gambian athletes.  These shenanigans have been too frequent in the administration of sports in the Gambia which should cease.  Jammeh should be told so by those doing the bidding for him that sport and its administration should neither be politicized nor personalized. Enough is enough.

DEVELOPING : IOC's scathing reaction to the closure of Olympic House

As we reported a little over a week ago that the International Olympic Committee will not take kindly to the dictatorship attempts at the politicization of the GNOC,  The International Olympic Committee has reacted scathingly and firmly with ultimatum to the Minister of Youth and Sports.  Since the letter was dated yesterday 14th April, 2014, we will allow reasonable time for the regime to respond before we report fully on the matter.  The regime is culpable but, as we have seen in the previous case of the Gambia Football Federation's arbitrary banning of football officials, supporters of this regime lurking behind and doing the bidding for Yaya Jammeh are equally culpable.  In fact, they are the drivers of these recent spats of interference in the affairs of the independent and apolitical sports federations.

..... DEVLOPING STORY

Offer GGC to ALIMENTA for D1

The seizure of the ALIMENTA-owned and operated Denton Bridge and Kaur milling facilities, together with their other assets in 1999 by Yaya Jammeh was the start of the rapid decline of the groundnut sub-sector; a decline that continues to date.

To reverse the trend, the regime must, first and foremost, admit that the current marketing arrangements have failed under the apex organization, Gambia Groundnut Corporation (GGC).  It has become painfully obvious that the synergy between production, extension, research and marketing was neither appreciated nor understood by the "soldiers with a difference" even though they all claimed to be of rural backgrounds.  Ironically, their first major act in this sector, after seizing power, was to dissolve the farmer-own Cooperative Movement, followed by the seizure of the privately-owned ALIMENTA properties.

Over time, public investment in agricultural extension and research slowed under their watch, leaving the National Agricultural Research Institute and the Department of Agriculture strapped for basic financial resources to carry out their basic mandates to the farming community; to provide support and extension services.  Production subsequently declined because of poor input distribution system and support.  Seed quality also deteriorated correspondingly.  Th marketing of the premier foreign exchange earner remained a major stumbling block even in bumper harvest years.  GGC is, and has been a bankrupt business enterprise since it was formed.  It was rescued from itself on two occasions from total liquidation, thanks to Gambian taxpayer's bail-out.  It lacked resources, both financial and managerial know-how, to survive as a viable business.

The genesis of the GGC will help explain why the GGC must be liquidated. The defunct Gambia Divestiture Agency failed primarily as a result of the regime's refusal to allow it the operational independence necessary to successfully divest the ALIMENTA facilities and similar government assets.  Many saw the failure of the GDA as a self-induced outcome. The regime simply did not want a transparent method of disposal of government assets which led it to constantly interfere in and reverse the decisions of the GDA.   It was this strong desire to maintain control and influence over the groundnut sub-sector for the economy that led, eventually, to the creation of Gambia Groundnut Corporation (GGC).  The interests of farmers played little part in its creation, in direct contrast to the colonial-era Gambia Oilseeds Marketing Board (GOMB) or its successor the Gambia Produce Marketing Board (GOMB).

The failure of this year's groundnut production and marketing is directly attributable to Jammeh's interference in the market, just as we saw last June when the regime interfered with the foreign exchange market that we have yet to recover from.  One the even of the start of the groundnut buying season, Yaya Jammeh fired the Agribusiness Services and Producers Association (ASPA) and walked away from the terms of the MOU between government and ASPA, effectively banning private buyers from participating in the buying of groundnuts.  He also gave monopoly power to GGC, a bankrupt entity.  The result of which we are beginning to see emerge from the rubble of the 2013/14 trade season.  When I ask a North Bank resident this morning about this year's trade season, he responded thus "Uncle, there is no trade season.  This is a failure."  When I responded my suggesting that perhaps if private buyers were allowed, as they were in the second half of  the 2012/13 season, things would have been better.  His response was "that's the issue" which led me to my Facebook commentary and this blog.  Late year GGC bought 30,000 tons.  This year, they will be lucky to match the figure, leaving the farmers poorer than they found them last years.

The recovery of the agriculture sector will not take place until (i) government interference in sub-sector stops (ii) GGC is liquidated in one form or another and (iii) agricultural research becomes a priority again (iv) a robust extension service is reintroduced (v) top-down  re-organization of the technical departments under the purview of the Ministry of Agriculture and Allied Ministries.

Government interference in the sector will remain as long as Jammeh remains on power.  So it is an issue we will grapple with for sometime to come.  But the issue of what to do with GGC should be in the uttermost minds of any successor government.  It is not premature to start thinking about what to do with it and how to effect a transition that will cause minimal disruption to the ground-nut sub-sector.  Returning the GGC in private hands is a necessary prerequisite to a return to normalcy in the sub-sector.

Of course, there are various forms of privatization but given the history of the evolutionary transformation that led to the GGC, it would be worthwhile to consider offering ALIMENTA its former assets for the price of D1 (one dalasi) with the rest of the terms to be negotiated on a long-term basis.  The Gambia needs the guaranteed markets that an association with a world class company like ALIMENTA can bring to the table. It was a grave mistake committed by a bunch of power-hungry and corrupt individuals that has costed the Gambia US$11 million in compensation to the company, and it has limited our access to a market that we once had access to through ALIMENTA.  The company will not entertain any proposals from the Jammeh regime for obvious reasons, but a successor government may stand a better chance to, at least, being listened to.

Offering GGC for one dalasi is, at least, one option among many, that deserves serious consideration.   The present arrangement under Jammeh is untenable and must be changed to respond adequately to the needs of the farming communities across rural Gambia.