Anyone who has really sat down to analyse the 2016 election results dispassionately, would unhesitatingly agree that the 2021 election is not just any kinds of election you enter into with any kind of candidate with hope that miracle will and emerge victorious in the election.
Not only is that, the 2021 elections also not the kind of elections you enter into with weak or questionable messages. From all indications, the elections are going to be made or break for all parties. There is, therefore, the need for all parties’ members across the country to consciously graduate from the politics of emotions and sentiments to a reality-based politics.
Frankly, name calling and jabs throwing hold no weight in modern day politics. At best, they can only earn you some immediate laughter from your members. Without doubt, the Gambian electorates, particularly those who constitute what we call the Floating Voters Party (FVP), have become more sophisticated, wise and unpredictable. They don’t swallow anything politicians say hook, line and sinker anymore. They really think through issues deeply before they decide who to cast their votes for.
As it is to be expected, the 2021 elections campaign messages would be issues-based and problem-solving like never before. Gambians would demand from the politicians more practical solutions to the country’s socio-economic problems like never before. In particular, the issues of security relative to jobs, food and safety would be at the heart of the electioneering campaign. If you consider the fact that youth unemployment is the major issue in the country currently, you would appreciate what the Gambians electorates would want to hear from the politicians in December.
Many parents after paying so much to see their children through technical, vocational and tertiary education have had to still buy food for their graduate children. Therefore, the Gambians parents and their children would want to hear from the politicians how the unemployment problem would be solved.
All parties would therefore need a presidential candidate with a pro-electorates vision and message that present realistic hope to the ordinary men and women on the street. The young man or lady who has completed school but is unemployed and hungry out there needs job to do so that he or she can earn income to buy food for him/herself and the family and also pay taxes to the government for economic and social investments.
Yes, it is good to think of how to increase government tax revenue through digitalization. But, it’s super good to think of providing jobs for the people through industrialization. No matter how you look at it, jobs creation holds the key to any other door in the house of development.
Every country that has developed started with the massive-industrialization economic strategy. The journey of economic development begins with industrialization as the first step and there is no shortcut to it. It is not for nothing that the developed countries are also called the industrialized countries. The economic wisdom behind the massive-industrialization economic strategy is simply this: when the economic activities in the industrial sector are well developed and expanded, the other two sectors would also grow automatically.