Africa-Press – Gambia. Roam around Government offices in The Gambia and you’ll come across very brilliant, academically sound, hardworking and patriotic young men and women in almost every office. You’ll find these young people in the Gambia Police Force, you’ll find them in the Gambia Armed Forces and you’ll find them at all ministries as well as State Owned Enterprises. I even know one or two who work for the ineffective Nawec. Let me clarify that by young, I don’t mean old men and women dying their hair to try to look 35 and under. In my book, if you’re 40, you should leave the young title alone. And no it’s not based on any science just as your requirement that one has to be a certain age to run for the presidency is not based on any science. But let me pivot back to the young, professional, educated and patriotic Gambians working in government offices.
I had an interesting conversation with one such individual. Brilliant, educated and wants to do well for the people. He has an opportunity to go outside that he’s contemplating on using and called to see what I thought. Now, what a lot of people don’t know is that if I believed I could be making a lot more difference in The Gambia by working in The Gambia, I’d gladly stay and do whatever it takes to advance the welfare of our people. Sadly, that’s not the case. And it’s not my style to ask anyone to do anything that I myself would not do. Given what he’s going through, I suggested for him to leave. Life is too short.
Unfortunately for these brilliant young men and women working in The Gambia, above them sit supervisors, ministers, senior security officers and directors who are political appointees, more loyal to their political bosses than the people they supposedly serve. These political appointees, some of whom are way beyond retirement age, are in their positions because they need their jobs to survive and they serve as the eyes and ears of their political patrons. You dare argue with them and they’ll show you that they have a direct line to one of the mandarins around the president, if not to the president himself. With degrees where someone else often did their work for them, these senior political appointees can only fall back on “I’ve been doing this job for thirty years, I know what I’m doing.” If you don’t know any better, they’d have you believe that they’ve been very successful over those thirty years. Many of these political bosses are either spineless or miseducated. Sometimes both! And sadly, because government job is the best way for them to survive, they hang on for dear life. Their expertise is reporting people whom they assume do not support the president. If you happen to be an outspoken young man or woman, they try to pull the elder card on you and if that doesn’t work, they tell their political masters that you’re an opposition sympathiser. Your fate is sealed.
If you’re one of those hardworking, patriotic and dedicated young men and women who found themselves under the yoke of some political appointees, I salute you. I respect you. You’re doing what many of us ran away from. It’s extremely difficult to work under anyone who is more interested in looking good for their political patrons than delivering for the people who pay their salaries. I don’t know how you do it but I admire your resilience. What little progress we see, it’s because of people like you. I salute you. It’s not easy to be you. The spineless political appointees would malign you, the system would collude to discourage you. If you must stay, please do. But if you can’t take it anymore, your mental wellbeing must never be compromised. I wish you all the best.
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