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| Edrissa Mass Jobe of Elton |
The Jammeh cavalry is
out to defend the indefensible by reframing the question to meet the regime's desired
goal of misinforming the Gambian people.
The Daily Observer was first off the blocks with the qualifier to
Vision 2016 Statement issued by Yaya Jammeh and his former Secretary General,
Momodou Sabally, that states categorically that self-sufficiency in rice will
be attained by 2016.
This was reaffirmed by Jammeh's own Agriculture
Minister, Owens, during the ongoing tour of Jammeh in the Central River Region.
In fact, the Minister claimed this week that the regime is on target to
achieving the ultimate by the end of 2016.
During the recent visit of the president of International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) to the Gambia as guest of Jammeh, he said that
self-sufficiency in rice "is ambitious but attainable but it also calls
for strengthening of institutions, consistencies in policies, an enabling
environment for the private sector and massive investment in rural
infrastructure."
In its desperation to look for an international validators to his
unreasonable timeline of banning the importation of rice - a market
valued at $50 million annually - in December 2016, the regime, in my view,
distorted the IFAD boss's statement by stressing the "attainability"
part of his statement while ignoring the necessary conditions for the
attainment of rice self-sufficiency.
The Daily Observer led the charge and they are are being supported
by Edrissa Mass Jobe, a successful Gambian entrepreneur who took to the
Standard newspaper to accuse opponents of the Vision 2016 of cynicism with an
equally cynical advise from him for us to "decolonize our minds" to
allow, I guess, our imagination to run wild.
We didn't know that Edrissa, like Jammeh, is also a Bob Marley
fan. If to decolonize our minds is for the sole purpose of dreaming as
big as John F. Kennedy, we can do so without decolonizing anything. We
can simply dream dreams as big as JFK by declaring that Gambia will send a man
to the moon a goal 'is attainable'. What's the point when the goal is
attainable only in the 22nd century.
Our good friend has missed the point. Opponents of Vision
2016 are doing so not because the rice-sufficiency goal is not attainable but
that it is possible within the time frame. Yaya Jammeh has been at the
whelm for twenty years when he unveiled his Vision 20/20 which also called for
food self-sufficiency with the grandiose promise of turning Gambia into a
Singapore of Africa. He has discarded that Vision. Now we are being
told by this buffoon named Babilli Mansa to concentrate on Vision 2016.
We wish to assure Mr. Jobe that when we question the goals of
Vision 2016, we are not focusing on the "hurdles" as he's accused us
of doing, and in fact, we do "dare to dream" by suggesting to Yaya
Jammeh that he should allow Gambians to be free to exercise their fundamental
freedoms of speech and association - fundamental freedoms necessary for any
meaningful development to take place.
Our last word on the Vision 2016 is in the form of a warning about
the proposed Food Security Corporation (FSC). We have said that it is
very bad idea. The traditional tenure system should not be tampered with,
especially by this regime.
"Excess arable land" should never be deeded to a public
corporation, effectively creating a Land Bank, managed by public officials at the
beacon call of a dictator. This is what Jammeh is proposing under Vision 2016
with the formation of a Food security Commission and a Ministerial Committee to
oversee the FSC.
Gambia's land resources, like its other natural resources, a
meager and in this case fixed. We cannot afford to peel off the glue that
holds the social and cultural cohesiveness of The Gambia together. Every
effort will be made from our side of the divide to oppose Vision 2016,
including the formation of the the proposed Food Security Corporation. We were
hoping that the private sector operators will join us in this endeavor because
it is to its best interest.
