Gambians Expresses Concern Over Jammeh’s Pledge To Pay D1.5 Million dalasis For A Revolution Song!!!

By Landing Badjie, Banjul

Despite all the spluttering noises from the larger Gambian public as well as circles of friends of The Gambia about President Jammeh’s pronouncement to give D1.5m to anyone who coins the July 22 military coup anthem, State House is yet to respond to the growing public concern about the wisdom in such a huge spending.

President Jammeh recently announced at State House in Banjul that any person who successfully devises the July 22 Revolution anthem, which will later serve as the APRC anthem, will go home D1.5m wealthier.

The President also made a pledge of D500,000 to the runner-up.

But since his recent pronouncement, widespread disaffection and public condemnation about Mr. Jammeh’s pledges refuse to subside.

 At a time when a bag of rice- Gambia ’s staple food- has shot through the roof, President Jammeh’s decision to spend over D1m on such a non-poverty reducing project could not have come at a worse time.

Prices of essential commodities are galloping by the day whilst the reported appreciation in the value of the country’s currency-the Dalasi- is yet to bring any tangible benefit to the poor, hungry stomachs of Gambians and non-citizens resident in the country.

The man in the street is living below the breadline. Unemployment and crime rates in the country are high with tens of hundreds of thousands of young Gambians braving the high seas through the Canaries to Europe .

These are some of the reasons why Gambians and all those with Gambia at heart are questioning the rationale of the Gambian leader’s decision to invest such a whopping sum in a project as ‘unwise’ as the July 22 Revolution and APRC anthems project.

“ My stomach is hungry and my child is sick,” said a woman on a queue at the paediatrics section of the Jammeh Foundation for Peace Hospital in Bundung.

“ My husband cannot afford decent meals for us let alone afford the expensive medical fees as he is unemployed. The least we expect is the right conditions for better life.”

But despite the widespread condemnation of Mr. Jammeh’s pledges, others are of the view that the revolution was a turning point in Gambia ’s history and must be given its ‘rightful’ place in the books of history.

“ July 22 Revolution deserves all the treatment that other important phases in the world history do. It has heralded a period of hope for the Gambian people. So let it be glorified,” said an APRC supporter in a poor, sprawling suburb in Serrekunda, the country’s largest town.

Whatever the case may be, a majority of Gambians are living below the breadline, unemployment is rife, crime rate is on the up and avoidable deaths commonplace. The least that Gambians expect from the APRC dispensation is the creation of conditions favourable for development, more than spending millions of Dalasis on such ventures as the July 22 anthem.

  The State House is yet to respond to public condemnations.