Yaya Jammeh : The lunacy of a nut

Gambians woke up last Friday to a national surprise, yet again.  To be more precise, there were multiple surprises in a single swearing-in speech for The Gambia's third Chief Justice in a little over six months.  The previous occupant is serving a mandatory two-years prison sentence, together with the previous occupant of the post of Attorney General and Minister of Justice.  The two were previous charged with bribery and corruption but ended up with a different charge of providing false information to a public official.

Jammeh used the swearing-in of Chief Justice Ali Nawaz Chowhan, an internationally known and respected jurist to display his crude form of diplomacy wrapped in a package of threats to stick it to the usual suspects - Britain and the United States as the bastions of "imperialism and neocolonialism" which "Gambia will not tolerate any more."

Swearing-in ceremonies the world over, Kim Jun Un's North Korea included, are solemn occasions that focus on the person being sworn to oath and his/her professional accomplishments and what is expected in his/her new assignment. The occasion is generally and exclusively to the person being sworn-in and his or her family, colleagues and friends.  The focus is never on anything else, except when the presiding officer is Jammeh and the venue is the Cabinet Room in the presence of cabinet Ministers who interrupted every sentence, it seemed, with clap of hands of approval of Professor Jammeh's lectures.  If they don't, they will be fired.  In fact, if you get the sequencing of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhajie Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jamus Junkung Jammeh's name wrong, you will be verbally reprimanded and/or fired.

The occasion was used to announce that Gambia will forsake the English language to be replaced by a local language or languages.  The Sheikh was not clear, and understandably so because the dilemma selecting one language over another will pose Jammeh, the politician.  So when in doubt, keep it nebulous.  There was little doubt that he also realized the impracticality of his wish.  As the final arbiter of any budget decision, he is very aware of the state of Gambian education in general, and the uselessness of the Curriculum Unit in particular to oversee the transformation.  It poses real problems that even the recalcitrant Jammeh realizes. So, he knows, it's not going to happen.  The announcement was Jammeh's way of rubbing the British nose, and the stiff upper lip, if you will, into the sand.  It also serves a useful purpose of diverting attention from the impending economic disaster that awaits his regime, resulting from a poor harvest, bad marketing arrangements for Gambia's groundnut and the continued depreciation of the local currency, further widening the fiscal and current account deficit.  All of this sounds like a "neocolonialist" plot hatched right out of No. 10 Downing Street with some African-American guy in Washington DC.

Jammeh is a master at diverting national attention.  Anytime bad news is expected, he'll pull a stunt to get people occupied inspecting the shiny object.  Just to illustrate how effective this can be, especially in a country like The Gambia where the illiteracy rate is high and access to information for the literate is limited - and that includes internet access : I received an inquiry from someone in rural Gambia who wanted to know if Jammeh was telling the truth when he claimed that the "British rule The Gambia for over 400 years", and all throughout this period "built only one high school, and the worst hospital in the entire British Empire."  The hospital in question was the Royal Victoria Hospital (since renamed Francis Small Teaching Hospital) and in the good judgement of Jammeh, the hospital "was appropriately named because Queen Victoria was the worst rule you can ever think of.  She was the bloodiest of all bloody monarchs." The anti-British vitriol which started a few years ago, reached the high water mark last October when the Gambian dictator abruptly withdrew membership from the Commonwealth calling it a "neocolonialist institution"

At least, this gentleman had the means to communicate with someone in America about an avalanche of historical revisionism targeted at unsuspecting Gambians, and was also able to get advise on the facts as well as receive information on the latest soft-wares designed specifically for dictatorships like the one we have in The Gambia.  Unfortunately, majority of Gambians do not enjoy the luxury of an iPhone with the latest app that "unblocks" and reroutes all internet-based calls around Jammeh's attempts at blocking access.

Gambians have, off late, been subjected to a barrage of propaganda from Jammeh's ruling APRC party whose members are fanning the Gambia, armed with two books purportedly written by Professor Jammeh entitled "A million reasons to leave the Commonwealth" and the second which, I'm told has just made it to the Guinness Book of World Record as the longest book title entitled "How the tragic consequences of British looting and misrule in The Gambia inspired the founding of the United Nations and its drive for decolonization January 1943 and beyond."  There !!. During his swearing-in speech, he made mention of President Roosevelt describing the Gambian capital of Banjul during a brief stop-over at an Allied airstrip as a "hell-hole on earth."  Whether the American President drew inspiration from the sight of these wretchedly poor and malnourished natives of mosquito-infested Gambia to get the whole idea of a United Nations going or not is unclear from the title of Professor Jammeh's book.  You will have to buy it to get the rest of the author's story of the United Nations and how those looting neocolonialists Britons spurred Roosevelt into action.  It is presumptive of me to think Jammeh is referring to the right Roosevelt.  He could be referring to the other Roosevelt since both claim to be "experts on the African jungle."

As I write, there are two groups of National Assemblymen doing an oral book review of the books to an unsuspecting population across the country.  They are deliberately misleading Gambians by distorting Gambian history as well as British colonial history in the most vile and dishonest way.  British colonialism is certainly nothing to write home about but verifiable facts must be reported as such.  What these Parliamentarians - I am old school, and a British and Commonwealth history buff - are engaged in is historical revisionism designed to deflect attention from the worst economic melt-down in post-Independent Gambia.

It was during the swearing-in of the new Pakistani-born Chief Justice that Gambians were informed of the plight of Justice Mabel Agyemang, the Ghanaian-born former Chief Justice.  To provide context, Jammeh accused foreign embassies (read Britain, U.S and E.U. Delegation) of interfering in Gambia's judicial system, and "despite the fact that outside forces are talking about the judiciary being independent, they have no right to tell me how I should run my country or how to behave because I am not in their country."  He proceeded to remind Gambians that even though these embassy people are "not judges, not legal practitioners and yet, they sit down and tell you this case is politically motivated."

It was at this point that he made the starling revelation that the former Chief Justice "was nowhere to be seen despite the fact that she was being appointed by us...she was taking orders from elsewhere...a country, from an embassy whose country is hostile to our country."  The dictator assured everyone that Justice Agyemang's "life was not endangered" and that she was not being taken to court.  Jammeh told an obviously stunned Cabinet, in the presence of the new Chief Justice with the YouTube-look on his face, obviously embarrassed, that the former Chief Justice "was being hidden by a particular embassy...we are not in a haste."  He concluded this segment of the swearing-in ceremony with the assurance to all that his regime "will see the person, where she is, and we will deal with the embassy concerned because this is unacceptable."

By this time, the new Chief Justice of The Gambia may be questioning the wisdom of associating with a regime like the one headed by a nut who has no regard for the law or the judiciary, and who declared during the ceremony that 'there's no (such thing as an) independent judiciary - it's not true that the judiciary is independent."  The Commonwealth's CFTC is certainly not financing the position since Gambia's membership has been withdrawn by the dictator.  Therefore, the presence of the Pakistani Ambassador to the Gambia, resident in Dakar, at the ceremony suggests that the Chief Justice's salary is being paid by the Government of Pakistan, and since the dictator claimed close friendship with the Pakistani Prime Minister, the bilateral cooperation program between the two countries may be footing the bill.  If it is the Gambia government that will be responsible, expect an early fall-out between Jammeh and the Chief Justice Chowhan, first over money and then over his rulings, assuming that he will be independent of the Executive.

We will end by wishing Happy Commonwealth Day to the 2.2 billion citizens from the 1,7 million Gambians who were, unilaterally and sans notice, deprived of their right to membership to this great organization by a lunatic.   We look forward to returning to the family of Commonwealth of Nations once we get rid of the dictatorship, and return the country to sanity.

Justice Mabel Agyemang : One more victim of a patently vindictive dictator

Justice Mabel Agyemang's troubles started the moment she accepted the post of Chief Justice - troubles that compounded exponentially when the erratic Gambian dictator abruptly and unilaterally withdrew Gambia's membership from the Commonwealth.  Taiwan, another victim of Jammeh's diplomatic 'offensive' of last November that resulted in the severance of an 19-year diplomatic relations, described their former friend's behavior as idiosyncratic.  Jammeh demanded money from Taiwan, and when he was refused, he severed ties with no regard for the Gambian populace who  may have been benefiting from projects financed by Taiwan.

To begin to understand the former Chief Justice's plight, one must understand the circumstances leading up to her appointment.  The position of Chief Justice became vacant in the most dramatic and unexpected of fashion, following the imprisonment of her predecessor former Chief Justice and fellow expatriate, the Nigerian-born Justice Joseph Wowo.  Unlike Justice Agyemang, Justice Wowo was a member of the club of mercenary judges hired off the streets by Yaya Jammeh to do his bidding for him in the judiciary.

Justice Agyemang, by all accounts, has an impeccable character and a professional track record that was built in her native Ghana and internationally.  Since her call to the bar in Ghana in 1987, she had served various judicial capacities in Ghana, Gambia and Swaziland with distinction  before returning to the Gambia under CFTC contract to serve as an Appeals Court judge before her elevation to the Supreme Court.

By contrast, her predecessor belonged to a category of judges who felt no moral scruple to dispense injustice to Jammeh's enemies, be they of the political kind or otherwise.  In short, Wowo was one of the leading hanging judges of the dictatorship.  However, he soon fell afoul of Jammeh.  He was dismissed, arrested and charged with giving false information to a public officer that carries an two-year mandatory jail time.  All of this happened to Justice Wowo in January 2013.  He was in the custody of the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA) when, for unexplained reason or reasons, he was released.  He left The Gambia, not for Nigeria, but for the United States where he was apparently resided until his surprising return to the Gambian capital in July 2013 (barely six months after being being charged) to accept the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of The Gambia.  Weeks into his new job, a YouTube audio tape surfaced purportedly of the voices of Justice Wowo and his former boss, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice in the private residence of the latter, soliciting bribe from a business partner of a Dutch businessman.  Chief Justice Wowo, Mr. Attorney General and Minister of Justice were both fired, charged with bribery, a charge later amended or changed to providing false information to a public officer.  The two are now serving two-year mandatory jail sentences.

It is in the midst of this judicial cesspool that Justice Agyemang found herself in when she was appointed Chief Justice to succeed Justice Wowo.   Because the regime had little time to recruit an outside judge, and the fact that they had ran out of potential candidates for the post - Joseph Wowa was in jail and another Jammeh's favorite mercenary, Emmanuel Nkea, had just been elevated to the judgeship of the all-important Special Criminal Court, a court that has been a potent weapon in the Jammeh's arsenal, the lot fell on the Ghanaian.  Jammeh was willing to take a chance on an independent and competent judge, even if it is for a short period of time; until he can find his kind of judge.  Has Jammeh found his kind of judge in the internationally renown Pakistani Ali Nawaz Chawhan?  I doubt it, unless the respected justice is ready to compromise his professional competence, and moral integrity, including his commitment and dedication to the rule of law. Time will tell, a precious commodity that seem to always be seem to favor the Gambian dictator.

Justice Agyemang's appointment was, in my view, circumstantial, in the sense that there was none of the Jammeh-type judge in the mode of Wowo or Nkea available at the time.  You may wonder by now why not a single Gambian judge has been mentioned as possible candidate for the job. Many have wondered as well, but Jammeh is in Jammeh is in a better position to answer.

Shortly after her appointment, Jammeh abruptly and without notice to even his Minister of Foreign Affairs withdrew Gambia's membership from the Commonwealth, immediately putting the Judge's contract with the CFTC in jeopardy since she cannot serve under the same terms and conditions in a non-member State.  The only option left was to negotiate a local contract with the government equivalent or comparable to her CFTC which includes salary, education allowances for her children.

In a normal country, this should not pose any problem because then the government will assume full responsibility of managing the contract.  But in Jammeh's Gambia, even something as simple and routine as meeting her monthly salary payments and educational allowances will now become a matter of state security that will involve Jammeh himself and his dreaded Gestapo-like security apparatus.  Jammeh is notorious for not abiding by contracts.  He has breached numerous contracts in the past 24 months involving an Australian mining concerning and a Canadian oil exploration company.  He is not an honest man and it is reputation well-earned.  So it is very easy for Jammeh to create a problem where one doesn't exist just to be even with Justice Agyemang.  Sooner rather than later, the rest of the international community will come to realize that Jammeh runs a criminal enterprise, not a country.

The financial aspect of the contract may have been a source of conflict, but the diplomatic status that the former Chief Justice lost when she was no longer under CFTC contract made her vulnerable to the repressive mafia-like tactics of the regime.  After serving in the Gambia for a total of 8 years during her two tours, she was and still is very well aware of the repressive nature of the Jammeh regime.  She has seen as recently as last month when a colleague of her, former Chief Judge of the Special Criminal Court, Emmanuel Nkea, handed his resignation letter to a friend from the safety of his isle seat aboard his Cameroon-bound flight  for fear that he will be bundled-up by Jammeh's hit squad known locally as the "Junglers".  It is the same fear that must have driven Justice Mabel Agyemang to seek refuge in an embassy that has not been identified by the regime.

We hope she's safe and will soon be reunited with her family.  Meanwhile, we will continue to fight against this vicious, corrupt and inept dictatorship that threatens not only the viability of the Gambia as a unified entity but the very stability and social cohesion of the entire sub-region.

Former Ghanaian-born Chief Justice takes refuge at an Embassy in Banjul

The Gambian dictator has revealed that the Ghanaian-born Justice Mabel Agyemang who was confirmed on 30th June 2013 and sworn in on 1st August as Gambia's Chief Justice is seeking refuge at an unidentified Embassy, following the termination of her contract.

No explanation was given as to why the Chief Justice was dismissed.  However, during the swearing-in of the newly appointed Pakistani-born Chief Justice, the starling revelation was made by the Gambian dictator that the former Chief Justice is "being hidden by a particular embassy".   Jammeh described the embassy providing refuge to an embattled Justice as "an embassy whose country is hostile to our country", which limits our search to a couple of Embassies in a country that has less that six embassies in total.

The question that is now in the minds of many Gambians and Ghanaian alike is what triggered this diplomatic stand-off between an increasingly hostile regime in the face of increasing international pressure over the regimes poor human rights record, a Western country and Ghana.

Even though Jammeh did not leveled a particular charge that is criminal in nature against the highly respected former Chief Justice, Jammeh implied, during a televised lecture carried by the government-controlled television and radio, that she is a thief and a criminal.  His rationale for leveling such a brazen and malicious charge is because she 'disappeared' after she was informed of the decision to dismiss her.

According to the Gambian dictator, even though her salary was being paid by the Gambia government, she was "taking orders from elsewhere... a hostile embassy".  Jammeh claimed that his regime knows where she is and they "will deal with the embassy concerned" in the end.

Jammeh's rambling speech did not deviate from his usual style, accusing the West of being hostile to his regime - a tirade of historical revisionism with the spurious claim of 400 years of British colonialism that has become his latest tactic, designed to distract attention from an increasing irate and dissatisfied populace who are faced with the worst economic crisis in post-Independent Gambia.

The diplomatic fall-out from the incident is uncertain, given the unpredictable and erratic nature of Jammeh's behavior.  What is certain is safe passage will be secured for the former Chief Justice because Ghana and her many Western friends will see to that.  Meanwhile, the diplomatic isolation of the worst dictatorship in Africa continues.

Farmers have lost confidence in their government

Mid way into the 2013/14 groundnut buying season, the official government target of 40,000 tons appears as elusive today as it was at the start of the season last December.  You will recall that the season started in the midst of a huge confusion when the then Agribusiness Services and Producer Association (ASPA) announced a producer price and the start-up date of the season which did not sit well with Jammeh who ended up refusing to renew its Agreement with the association.

This move effectively barred ASPA from further involvement in a buying that was few days from starting thus sending the wrong message to the farming community, and thus putting additional pressure on the Gambian Groundnut Corporation that is tethering on bankruptcy as the sole actor this season.

Last year, private buyers were allowed to buy groundnuts only after GGC failed to cope which immediately resulted in higher prices to the farmers.  The private buyers were willing to pay more for the farmers' produce.  With the monopoly position given to the GGC again this year, there are indications that farmers have not been selling their produce, expecting that private buyers will be allowed in before the end of the season in few weeks time.

The withholding of their produce has resulted in a government press release advising farmers against the practice, and warning them that government will not be held responsible for the farmers' "self-inflicted predicament" should the end of season find them still with groundnuts in their custody.  Government sees the rational economic decision of the Gambian farmers as "hoarding" rather than farmers exercising their basic right to withhold their produce should they feel they are not being paid the right price.  As one observer noted recently, this government is trying to govern by press release.  We've seen the same when the Office of The President meddled in the foreign exchange market with daily issuance of press release to fix foreign exchange rates which failed miserably, leaving the forex market is disarray to this day.

In addition to the withholding of groundnuts from the market, GGC is cash-strapped which has led to extensive credit buying.  In short, farmers have already surrender their nuts to the GGC without a penny being paid to them as yet because of the insolvency of the organization charged with the buying and marketing of Gambia's premier foreign exchange earner.

These factors have contributed to the current predicament facing the Gambian farmer who has been exploited by a government that claimed to have seized power illegally almost twenty years ago, in order to protect and promote the welfare of the rural population that Jammeh and his minions claimed were being exploited by the previous government.  The prices on offer by the government monopoly is what is driving the farmers to the local markets and, perhaps, across the border to Senegal where they can be guaranteed cash for their produce.  There is. however, little evidence that groundnuts are moving across the border.

Our visits to selected buying points have revealed extensive cash shortage in secco after secco.  So even if farmers were to selling all of the nuts in their possession, the GGC will be unable to buy them without resorting to credit buying.

The Gambian farmer seems to be exercising one of its options by releasing some of its produce in the local markets or "lummos" for local consumption.  This retail option will be the most attractive closer to the end of the season and as it becomes evident that GGC can no longer access cash fro its bankers.  Why deliver to GGC on credit when the produce can be sold retail and locally over time to provide needed cash to the farmer to maintain the family.  In fact, there are seccos managers who will refuse to accept groundnuts from farmers even on credit.  They are advising framers to return when cash is available, signalling that secco clerks do not have confidence in the whole groundnut marketing arrangement this year.

Based on our findings thus far, and given all the pre-season marketing arrangements, the projected 40,000 tons target of the government is unlikely to be met.  The total crop may not exceed 30,000 tons which the amount purchased last year when the farmer enjoyed a higher price than the price on offer this year.

Regardless of the final outcome of the buying season, the economy will continue to perform poorly as a result of the under-performance of the two biggest foreign exchange earning sectors - agriculture and tourism.   With less foreign exchange, Gambia's fiscal and current account deficit will continue to widen. Restoring macroeconomic stability will not take place in an under-performing environment of the agriculture sector.

Taiwan uncomfortable about the corruption accusation

Some officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Taiwan appear to be "very uncomfortable with the corruption allegation" leveled against them by Yaya Jammeh who threatened to reveal high level corruption within the Taiwan government.

This was revealed to sidisanneh.blogspot.com by a Danish journalist based in Beijing who visited Taipei in January to report on Taiwan's foreign aid policy and program.

The reporter used the occasion to question the Taipei authorities on specific issues covered by this blog during and immediately following the acrimonious break-up of diplomatic relations between Gambia and Taipei last November.   Prior to his mission to Taipei, he posed several questions to us to which we responded to comprehensively and to the best of our knowledge.  In return, the reporter promised to share his findings with us.

You will recall that after revelations were made by unidentified sources within MOFA that the abrupt severance of diplomatic relations by the idiosyncratic dictator was, perhaps, in reaction to their refusal of his demand for money.  Although Taiwan authorities refused to specify the actual amount the Gambian dictator demanded when responding to the journalist's questions, the reporter did say that based on responses to his inquiries, it was apparent that "the president of Gambia has asked for a big amount of money in the beginning of last year."  The "big amount" of money varies from $ 10 million to $ 20 million from different sources within MOFA.

Although we still cannot receive confirmation on the amount that Jammeh demanded in January of 2013, the Taiwanese did reveal that Jammeh's letter cited "strategic national interests" of The Gambia for the money he demanded in January of last year.  Curiously, it is the same reason he advanced in severing ties with Taipei.

According to officials in Taipei, they were not the only ones caught unawares by Jammeh's decision to part ways, diplomatically, with his friends of almost twenty years.  Apparently, Beijing was also caught by surprise.

On the question of the projects they financed in their long association with Yaya Jammeh, the reporter said "[A]cording to MOFA, 90% of their aids project in Gambia are implimented which they said was a high number."  An interesting revelation by authorities at MOFA was that their projects were "monitored and supervised" by international organizations.  Since our reporter who collaborated with us on this project did not have time to look into this claim, we will pursue this angle of our inquiries as we try to shed light into the Taiwan's foreign aid package to The Gambia.

The Danish journalist's Gambia-specific portion of his inquiries was summed up this way "[U]nfortunately, due to the corruption accusations, they didn't want to say much more."  The reluctance on the part of the Taiwanese, while understandable, will only encourage more speculations that will continue to cast shadow over its development assistance program with its diplomatic partners in Africa and Latin America.  It may also lend credence to Jammeh's threat to reveal "shocking" information in his possession should Taiwan continue to reveal embarrassing details about his incessant demands for money in the name of the Gambian people.

We will continue to pursue this topic as long as there remains unanswered questions, the responses to which both Taiwan and the dictatorial regime in Banjul owe the Gambian people.

Gambia : VIBER ALERT, some tips

The dictatorial regime in The Gambia has been trying to interfere with VIBER, the free messaging and internet calling app.  The growing popularity of Viber as well as similar services like Skype, has been a thorn on the side of the Jammeh regime for the past few years, not only because it is free to call anywhere in the world but it provides a channel of communication that was secure enough to withstand the preying ears, if you will, of an increasingly desperate and isolated regime.

However, these past days have seen attempts by the dictatorship in Banjul to interrupt Viber services.  This is, of course, not the first time that the Jammeh regime tried to censor the internet.  You will recall that last year, Jammeh attempted to ban all local and international calls using Viber and Skype which, according to a government announcement, cause "major financial loss."

We managed to place calls to Banjul using Viber and discovered that there are some who are indeed experiencing interruption of service for the past couple of days.  There are, however, a few who have already resolved the problem by simply downloading other apps to get around what appears to be a nuisance.

To get around Yaya Jammeh, download VPN or virtual private network software which allows you to be assigned random IP address which changes every time you use Viber.  We were told that the persons engaged by the regime to interfere with the internet are "amateurs who will only succeed in damaging their servers."

Pass it on, and we hope you will restore the unlimited and uninterrupted service you come to expect from the internet-based communications apps.

As for the regime of Yaya Jammeh, it would be far easier to pursue policies that address the concerns of citizens than be concerned with who speaks with whom and about what; it is  futile exercise and a losing one at that.

The Gambia: A chronically mismanaged economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative in The Gambia, Mr. Kagabo Gaston Mpatswe lamented at the deterioration of the Gambian economy, especially in the second half of last year. He reiterated the Fund's November 2013 mission findings and recommendations.  Despite persistent IMF warnings, the fiscal and current account deficits continue to widen which the IMF Resident Representative seem to attribute to "spending pressures" that led to the "large fiscal slippages."  Interest rates continue to climb because of government domestic borrowing habit which the IMF seem to be helpless in reining in, causing the private sector to be deprived of much needed credit to grow and create jobs for the ordinary Gambian citizen.

Needless to say that to break the domestic spending fever of this regime, more-of-the same is not going to do the trick.  The Fund and other donors need to do more than to rehash the same boiler plate template of calling for 'fiscal prudence', a call that is obviously being ignored repeatedly, mission after mission.

The 'spending pressures' this regime face are mostly self-inflicted or to put it in another way, they are internally-generated pressures driven by politics to keep the current regime in power by embarking on projects that will otherwise not attract outside funding.  The A(F)PRC regimes have perfected the unconventional route to project financing by necessity.  When they seized power illegally in 1994 and were faced with sanctions by donors, they searched for friends who could provide them the lifeline needed to exchange their army uniforms for civilian grand boubous.  They looted the public treasury to supplement their other sources.  Not that they these practices have ceased, they have been perfected by Jammeh and his former and present senior officials that occupied the financial infrastructure.  Wasn't the IMF a victim of statistical malfeasance at the hands of the Central Bank of the Gambia (CBG) that resulted in The Gambia being sanctioned.

Attention of the Fund is being drawn to yet another manufactured spending pressure in the horizon i.e the so-called world class university campus at Faraba Banta, the architectural plans of which were presented to Jammeh who endorsed them on the spot with the assurance to the consulting engineers that the funds for the university have "already been secured."

Our records show that two loan agreements pertaining to the Faraba Banta world class university" were signed the regime, one with the Kuwaiti Fund and the most recent with BADEA.  The first was to the tune of about $14.4 million signed in July 2010 by the then Minister of Finance Mamadou Diaz Foon and the second was for an amount of $ 7 million in April 2011 by then the Finance Minister Mambury Njie.  Both of the signing ceremonies took place at the State House in Banjul for maximum propaganda points.  The total cost of the "world-class university at Faraba Banta" was confirmed by Jammeh last week to be $ 51 million.

If we assume that the $ 21.4 million has not been renegotiated and used for other purposes, and that they have not been cancelled, there will still a funding gap of approximate $ 30 million.  Without going into loan servicing implications and the impact these loans will have on the overall debt burden of a country with more pressing priorities like huge food deficit problems and a groundnut sector that threatens to implode, the Fund should play a more proactive and sterner role in getting the regime to prioritize the pressing issues facing the economy and the country instead of pursuing silly but very expensive projects.

The agriculture sector has suffered neglect at the hands of the regime despite paying lip service to it. Mr. Mpatswe will soon discover that sloganeering is a national past time, and just like "soldiers with a difference" and "transparency, accountability and probity", "grow what you eat and eat what you grow" will prove to be more empty words from a regime that it out of its depth and consumed by corruption.

By allowing a monopoly control of the groundnut buying business to be in the hands of the Gambia Groundnut Corporation (GGC), farmers will be cheated of their labor by not being offered competitive prices.  Private buyers should have been allowed to participate in a free market environment, as was the case in the second half of last year's buying season which saw an immediate increase in the price that the private operators were prepared to pay farmers for their produce.

Macroeconomic stability`is by definition a national economy that minimizes vulnerabilities to external shocks. Exposure to currency fluctuation, huge debt burdens and unmanaged inflation can cause economic crises and collapse in GDP.

We have witnessed the Office of the President dabbling in the foreign exchange markets last summer causing panic and confusion that, in our view, destroys the very foundation upon which the free exchange rate mechanism was established since the inception of the ERP in January 1986.  That foundation is trust in the system that guaranteed freedom from political interference, especially from politicians like Jammeh.

The Central Bank Governor failed Gambians and so did the IMF, the former for not resigning in protest for the usurpation of his powers by the executive, and the latter form not applying a firmer rebuke than the Fund's warning contained in its November mission report.  Presidential interference has caused disruptions in the forex market and has irreparably undermined confidence which took almost three decades to build.  An inefficient forex market, coupled with an under-performing agriculture sector as the major foreign exchange earner, is a toxic cocktail for an economy that is already on life support.  The building of international reserve to act as "sock absorber" under these circumstances will be difficult if not impossible.

Potential long-term growth rate potential exits provided structural reforms take place in key infrastructure sub-sectors like telecommunications and energy.  We have witness GAMTEL mismanaged, its resources pilfered and its most profitable operations hived off and given to Jammeh's cronies in the name of public-private partnerships or some form of joint ventures, turning a once profitable telecommunication company into a bankrupt one.  NAWEC is even in worse state.

As in so many areas of Gambian life, this regime has failed in economic management too.  It has been twenty painful years of experimentation with our economy by a group of soldiers who've had no experience in governance of any kind.  It is so sad that they have wrecked a once well-managed economy putting the lives of so many Gambians at risk.  It is time for them to go so that serious Gambians can embark on the difficult task of picking up the pieces from Yaya Jammeh and his minions.  It is not that Gambians don't know how to manage an economy in decline.  They've done it before in the mid-1980s with the ERP, and they can do it again.