Gambia- gas shortage caused by local authorities not world market-State house alone consumes 30% vs population's 70% of our country’s quota-(Kerosene, gas oil and petrol).
 
 
The Panther.
 
 While the whole world is crying about fuel shortage now, The Gambia’s plight has been on since 1994. Anyone interested can conduct a thorough research therefore see how many times fuel shortage has been hitting The Gambia since President  Jammeh assumed power. Countless times to say the least.
 
Fuel shortage in our country is not as a result of the challenging tides from the world market, as we are being made to believe. That’s far from being the truth! It is simply because of the rampant misuse of this valuable product by the Gambia’s liability our own “Kenyeleng” Jammeh.  During these trying times the state house is using heavy engines to transports useless Casamance wrestlers from the thickets of those dark villages. At the pleasure of Yahya!
Thinking about the Gambian market and the quota allocated to its consumers one can see where these analyses are coming from. The Gambia’s population is not more than 2 Million! Why on earth can’t our reserves serve this low number much better than other neighbors? In fact we could have been re-exporting it to our neighbors! We all remember when people used to pour kerosene on wood to start a fire during the rainy season. Those were the days such products were so rampant. We remember when places like Kotu workshop used to clean spare parts by using gas oil mixed with petrol. These were the days neither of those products was scarce. Who dares do the above nowadays?
In the past there were the same challenges in the world. We had wars as a result of that cargo liners were blocked by barricaded sea routes for either political reasons or something similar. The 1967 Israel-Arab neighbor’s was one factor during those days. Some of us were babies, others were not yet born but we heard the stories of wars. Did that stop Gambians from seeing excess fuel storage in Half-die zone. Did that stop those tanks which paraded the feeder roads of PWD-Public Works Department from distributing gas right round the territory of The Gambia almost every other month? Did we ever see or even hear about excessive gas shortages like what obtains these days? Afterwards came the 1991 gulf war, three years before 1994. During that period Gambia still received its quota and gas stations had enough to sell. Prices went high and low here and there but acute shortage was not part of the story at the time. We still remember the easy ways to and from Senegal with those oil tanks (trucks). Everything between us and Dakar was so neat and amicable. The re-export trade was vibrant and productive. All these are days of nostalgia now.  Gambians were not pretending to be big. We lived simple therefore rolled in simple terms.
Today we have TWO STATE HOUSES, TWO PRESIDENTIAL CONVOYS AND EXCESSIVE FUEL CONSUMING MACHINES.
The cars President Jammeh drives are those  people like the Presidential candidate Barak Obama has been attacking when it comes to gas emission. The same cars are those former VP Al Gore does not want to see rolling in the streets. The most fearful factors when gas consumption is put on the plate are what Jammeh plays with. Huge Hummer cars, a private jet and fleets of huge machines. Jammeh’s plane alone consumes more than 60,000 liters of kerosene at any time it takes off. His long convoy of heavy engines consumes 30% of the quota of fuel allocated to The Gambia as a whole. Is that not scary? 1 man consuming 30% of what is meant for 1.6 Million people?  He uses cars or other heavy engines more than any President does the world over. When Jammeh moves to his farm a long convoy follows him. When he travels to and from Banjul (where his second state house is located) he uses these heavy engines. For Jammeh Kanilai is the first state house. Now compare him to Senegal. President Wade uses the Palais and the Palais alone. He does not have two state houses. Here is a country with 11Million inhabitants while ours which is less than 2 Million has a president  using more gas than the whole Senegalese government does. There are people in Dakar saying things are cheaper in Banjul? Yes they can say so because Banjul people dare not make noise like other West Africans are doing these days. Ours is not because things are cheap, our people are scared to utter a word. Jammeh does not respect the ECOWAS court let alone our poor people in the streets of Banjul,Bakau,Serekunda,Brikama,Soma,Farefenie and Basse areas.
If the state house was to reduce its convoys, then curtail the activities of one of its state houses we would have seen a big drop. Therefore the shortage would have been history. President Jammeh hoards fuel because he would rather see all Gambians walking as pedestrians than reduce his fleets of heavy engines! Well men like him always want to see disparity between them and the local populace. That assures him of being a ruler not a servant. When he sees beggars he throws biscuits along the way. When he sees pedestrians he is reassured of endless waves from a hungry crowd that is pretending to respect him as a king-president.
 
Now that Jammeh has commissioned the depot in Sanyang let us wait and see if this white elephant project- which is the creation of Amadou Samba shall ever make a single profit for The Gambia? That is why when we see people saying they have not served under Jammeh therefore they are clean it makes us chuckle. Has Amadou Samba ever held a portfolio under Jammeh? Today who has done worse to us than this oligarch of a vampire? In all this relatives from the same corner would rather not want to hear his name mentioned! This is why after Jammeh there will be a bloody clash between those who think that anyone related to them is free to go even if he or she killed our people with Jammeh and those who are realistically patriotic sons and daughter of the land. There are so many characters being labeled today who are far more clean and patriotic than most of these useless, wicked and slimy “Kabudu-political” products. That has to seize! Amadou Samba and his line of sympathizers or kins are far worse than anything Sana Sabally or others did. This is why some so-called opposing forces are closer to hypocrites that realists. The realistic part of the whole show is that in The Gambia we still have a savage way of entrenching “sectionalism” and “regionalism”. This trend has to stop. This is the very reason why Jammeh can get away with what he does. This is exactly why some people feel that there is a culture in and out of Banjul which always  wants to salvage others simply because they are part them. Everything Yahya does is facilitated by these lackeys but at the end blamed on his secretaries of state or others holding government portfolios. That’s not all true! There are some people in the Banjul’s present day-mafiosi who help Yahya and/or have been helping him far more than government civil servants do or did.
These are the facts we have to look into, spit the truth on the faces of these so-called Mafiosi. They hide behind a cheap excuse saying I have never served under Yahya thus lays all  blames on everybody but their next of kin, even if the latter are hiding serial killers. Not having held a portfolio under Jammeh does not make one a saint. That is absolutely false and hypocritical. After Yahya Jammeh there will be a cultural coup d’etat. We must learn to understand that The Gambia cannot be two people in one state! We are either one people or are not. Therefore we may as well be composed of realists versus hypocrites. If the latter is true then a cultural coup d’etat is ripe!
How many of these so-called Banjul-mafiosi underlings are helping Yahya run the two state houses? They are there! Many of these Banjul-mafiosi underlings care less even  if Yahya appoints all Foni jolas to occupy government positions, as far as they can get a good chunk of the money thus go home behaving like aliens in our country? The same trend was there during the PPP days. Today where are we? Tomorrow if this trend continues where shall we be again? When will those who are subjective learn to understand that they are not free from the side effects of a deadly social uprising when it starts? It is no longer a matter of if,it is a matter of when!
These are factors we do not want to address but will  be forced to address when the bell of anger tolls.