Another Meet the People’s Tour-another Naafulo ‘pissir-passar’?

By D. A. Jawo

Once again, we are all witnesses to the wanton “Naafulo pissir-passar” (wastage of public funds) that the Barrow administration has embarked on during the ongoing ritualistic ‘Meet the People’s Tour’, all in their bid to perpetuate themselves in power.

Ironically however, the architect of that eye-catching slogan, Essa Mbye Faal, is not only with the delegation during the tour, but he is also no doubt voluntarily partaking in the “pissir-passar” that he had so vehemently criticized. One would therefore wonder how he can justify that complete turn-around to his admirers and supporters.

Just as usual, since the advent of this administration, virtually the whole government machinery, together with the entire leadership of the NPP and its so-called alliance partners are mobilised to go on the tour at the expense of the state, apparently, not only to swell the crowds and give the impression of President Adama Barrow’s popularity amongst Gambians, but one can easily imagine the millions of Dalasis of public money spent on transporting, housing and feeding all those people, a majority of whom have absolutely no role to play in such a tour.

We can imagine the cost implications of mobilizing public resources, including hundreds of government vehicles, a majority of which were impounded from state agencies and departments, thus causing serious disruptions in the functioning of those institutions. It is even alleged that a majority of those vehicles have been allocated, with free fuel coupons, to NPP hangers-on, mainly to run their own personal errands at the expense of the poor tax payers.

While millions of Dalasis and other state resources had been budgeted for the tour from tax payers’ money, it is now quite obvious that it has virtually been transformed more into a political jamboree than discussing the challenges facing the farming community and Gambians in general.

If it is indeed a genuine state-sponsored tour with the objective of addressing the problems of the different communities, why is it apparently restricted to ruling party militants and sympathizers and virtually made a no-go area to others with more stake in the development of their communities, such as opposition National Assembly members and local councillors? However, because of the purely political nature of the tour, hardly any non-NPP official is welcomed. We have seen the rare occasions when opposition members with genuine intentions attended such meetings and ended up being embarrassed and humiliated.

Anyone following the proceedings of the tour on TV would realise that most of the speeches delivered during the meetings being held across the country are being mainly focused on politics rather than what needs to be done to address the plight of ordinary Gambians. Of course, most of those chosen to speak during those meetings know what is expected of them, which in most cases is to sing praises of President Barrow and his administration and promise him a landslide victory in the forthcoming presidential elections rather than discuss the real problems faced by their communities.

It is certainly not only unfair but morally wrong for President Barrow to continue using state resources budgeted for the tour to campaign for his re-election at the expense of his opponents, as he seems to be doing. It is also unfair for him and some of those who accompanied him to use the facilities of the national broadcaster, GRTS and other public-funded institutions to carricature and castigate members of the opposition and other critics of the government while those people are denied access to those same facilities. Indeed, one new element of the tour has been the use of the ethnic weapon to castigate certain ethnic groups and communities perceived to be sympathizers of the opposition, usually perpetrated by people we expect to know better.

Being a state-sponsored tour, one would have expected that the delegation would have comprised mainly of permanent secretaries, heads of departments and other public institutions as well as project implementers rather than mobilizing NPP militants and their allies, thus relegating the technocrats to insignificance.

We can all recall that during the Sir Dawda era, the “Meet the Farmers’ Tour” was very much centered on the farming community. He used to be accompanied mainly by senior government officials and technocrats who would listen to the farmers and respond to problems concerning their ministries and other institutions. However, what we see nowadays is the president being accompanied mainly by politicians who would unfairly use this state-sponsored occasion as a campaign platform for self-perpetuation.

Certainly, most Gambians have been quite disappointed by what had been happening because everyone had expected much more from this administration than they seem to be getting, especially considering the enthusiasm that Gambians had when they came out in large numbers in both 2016 and 2021 to put all their confidence on President Barrow to address their problems. There is certainly no moral justification for the more than D50 million budgeted for the tour, whose actual cost is even very likely to significantly exceed that budgeted amount.

The post Another Meet the People’s Tour-another Naafulo ‘pissir-passar’? appeared first on Daily Observer Gambia .