By: Nyima Sillah
Alpha Omar Jallow, a former contestant in the recent parliamentary elections and a
concerned Gambian has said there are so many things that are going in the wrong direction
in the Gambia which are directly affecting the lives and livelihood of people daily.
Among these, he said inefficient service deliveries in the public sector include a lack of
solutions to the high cost of commodities, insufficient and high cost of fertilizer, poor salary,
poor agricultural system, and poor economy, among others.
Speaking to this medium, Jallow said as a concerned Gambian, he has realized that the
Gambian people have been seriously cheated in various aspects which is a worse situation
at the moment. Additionally, he said many average people find it difficult to sustain their
livelihoods in the country as a result of the high cost of commodities.
"As we all know food is a human right and every person should have the right to access
quality foods. But right now many Gambians depend on the very poor quality of foods due to
the expensiveness of food commodities," he said. The price of goods, he said, is at its
increment on daily basis in a country with a low salary scale. “Some Gambians have a salary
scale of about D1500 which needs to be addressed," he argued.
He further pointed out the need for the Gambia to produce most of the imported edible
products, especially rice, and that the government should invest hugely in rice cultivation to
ensure the country consumes its rice.
“The government should positively utilize the river Gambia through the cultivation of rice,
more investment should be done in Jahally-Pacharr, Janjanbureh, and other rice fields in the
Upper River Region,” he said.
Commenting on the last flash flood in the country, he blamed the government through the
Ministry of Lands saying the Department of Physical Planning should have put measures in
place to prevent the disaster.
"The Physical Planning should have done preventive measures to ensure this did not
happen. This department should have stopped people from constructing waterways," he
argued.
He called on the Ministry of Lands to embark on a massive sensitization to create awareness
about construction of houses while he also talked about the high cost of fertilizer which is
less affordable to the farmers.