Corrupt Benefactor
The daily observer reports that Yaya jammeh has recently donated a 30 seater Toyota coaster Van to the Gambia under 17 football team. Hmmmm. Makes me wonder what we are suppose to glean from that story. Should we be thankful that he (yaya) decided to get some money from Allah's bank to get the Van? or should we raise hell over the insanity that has grip that nation post July 22nd, 1994.
Yaya Jammeh, a poor, semi-literate soldier who took power in a 1994 coup with grandiose promises of accountability and Transparency is now one of the riches men in Africa. Which begs the question: how does a man earning about $1500 a month affords to buy himself a private jet? Build his ancestral hamlet into a modern town with uninterrupted supply of water and electricity. Something unheard of in most of continental Africa save for the republic of south Africa. To call Yaya corrupt is an understatement. In the meantime we ( Gambians ) are supposed to be grateful when he decide to give back some of the money he stole from the treasury in the form of a van handout. How about Yaya having some conscience and returning all the money he stole from us in crude oil 1& 2, the Taiwan loans etc.
The last time I checked we have a sports ministry in that nation. What are their budget priorities? Ooops ... I got ahead of myself there. They don't have any. These are some of the pertinent issues we expect the daily newpaper to dwell on. But evidently that is asking too much of the observer. Gravevine has it that they are under Yaya's payroll. The brain child of Dr. Best where dedicated Gambian journalist used to ply their trade has been turned into a pitiful propaganda organ of the dictatorship terrorising our nation.