For the sake of politics otherwise, sane people have left the bathhouse chasing those who came for their clothes and doing so naked. The otherwise sane persons do not care what onlookers will say about them.
That is the overall picture of our political landscape today.
To some extent, the behaviour of some politicians exposes their low level of credibility as they say anything to discredit their opponents without fact-checking their claims.
What is worrying is that those who engage in these deliberate lies and misinformation can be regarded as part of the leading lights of our society. The situation has been exacerbated by the proliferation of the media where the panelists and journalists are only interested in freedom of speech but not being responsible for their actions.
The hosts of programmes on radio and television show open bias by looking on helplessly while politicians insult their opponents, including the President, under the pretext that they have failed to fulfill their promises.
Check the media space in recent times across the country where the people are on the neck of the government to fix their roads and other infrastructure and you will feel embarrassed listening to the tone of their appeal to the government.
Our President is the figurehead and soul of the nation but some people for the sake of politics will smear and call him names when things appear not to be going well.
We ask all Gambian to pause for a moment and ponder over these issues. They must remember that no President takes office with a bottomless pit of money to undertake the country’s development.
The President does so with our taxes but let us ask ourselves whether in Gambia every income earner pays tax. Apart from workers in the formal sector and some businesses, the rest of the income earners like traders do not pay taxes.
Look at the level of housing construction in Gambia and again ask yourself whether you pay property tax. If these questions are answered and Gambians realise that the road to development lies in our obligation as responsible and patriotic citizens, the status quo would alter and expressions would be made responsibly.
Let us digress a bit and go back to the need for responsible utterances in the media landscape.