There is no denying that the Gambia’s Diamond Jubilee anniversary will be observed amid excruciating and turbulent economic times for the population.
There is also no gainsaying that the Gambia’s 60th independence anniversary will be commemorated amid a highly-polarized phase of the country’s political history, necessitating a national dialogue as part of the commemorative events.
Looking back and into the future, contrasting the past and the present, we are compelled to ask: Is there much to be celebrated?
Well, what we already knew is that the hopes and aspirations that many Gambians had 60 years ago has long-evaporated.
We gained independence in 1965 yet we are economically-dependent 60 years on.
We attained independence six decades ago yet many of our compatriots go to bed on empty stomachs.
Tomorrow will mark our Diamond Jubilee yet our hospitals and healthcare facilities struggle to prevent avoidable deaths.
At 60, our police force still looks more like a firefighting institution than a security apparatus for, among others, detecting and preventing violent crimes.
Sixty years of nationhood has yet to deliver us from political and economic backwardness.
The Gambia’s independence anniversary will be celebrated at a time when victims of former President Yahya Jammeh still suffer in silence with hopes for accountability and reparations fading fast.
How about the rising food and housing costs? It’s still a struggle for many Gambian households to put nutritious food on the floor.
Prostitution for survival is on the increase while the youth continue to lose confidence in themselves and their government as regard their rights to gainful employment, economic emancipation and quality life.
Civil servants at the bottom of the ladder are still going home with pay cheques that hardly cater to their most basic needs.
With these and many more, we ask: Is there much to be celebrated tomorrow?