Thursday, November 20, 2014

Not even Dr. Kal Bayo can save Yaya Jammeh

Dr. Kalidu Bayo, Secretary General
The regime of Yaya Jammeh has so destroyed the structures of government that not even the hiring of Dr. Kalidu Bayo can save the regime.  Instead, the regime will end up consuming him.

Here's why Dr. Kalidu Bayo will fail:

1.  The regime is populated by those not interested in governing which is in itself the biggest challenge any Secretary General faces.

2. Yaya Jammeh seized power to enrich himself, those of his immediate family members and a few minions.  The lucky ones will part with their loot and the many unlucky ones will end up at the National Intelligence Agency's dungeon where they are tortured for the purpose of extracting "evidence" that will eventually be used to prosecute the victim even when the constitution guarantees the protection of the people against self-incrimination.

3.  Crony capitalism instead of free and open market capitalism is the standard operating system where a very selected few, Gambians and non-Gambians, are protected from the real and free market mechanisms - a protection that makes it possible for these very privileged few businessmen to price gouge thus feeding inflation.

4.  The Civil Service that Kal Bayo heads has been dismantled, and its reputation dragged through the mud by a group of nonentities led by Yaya Jammeh.  Most of these undistinguished and unaccomplished members of the regime, including the pathetic members of the National Assembly, are school drop-outs.  Good luck to you, Kal.  Try communicating with them, starting with your boss and see if any of them make any sense. They are completely out of their depths.

5.  The recent Supplementary Appropriations Bill that eventually won the approval of the rubber stamp National Assembly is the latest of the numerous irresponsible acts of Yaya Jammeh. The extra-budgetary request of over D 1.12 billion ensures that the domestic borrowing limits set by the IMF and agreed to by the regime will once again be exceeded.  This will, of course, not the first time that the regime has flouted their promise to stay within prudent fiscal limits.  An economy that's on a meld-down mode consumes everyone, including the Secretary General.

6.  On the human rights front, the persistent use of arrests, imprisonment and torture is the most effective tool applied by this wrecked regime to keep the population in check.  The gay and lesbian communities are the latest victims to be targeted by the regime resulting in many fleeing the country for neighboring Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.  When will this arbitrary suppression of the freedoms and liberties of Gambian end.  Let us see you, Dr. Kal Bayo, do something to stop this madness.

7.  Finally, I am certain that you have come to realize the moment you stepped in your office that the Service is not the same as the one you helped build in the 1990s. It has been destroyed by an incompetent and corrupt regime of which you are now a part; a destruction so extensive and comprehensive that you may be consumed by it.  Good luck.