THE CONTRADICTION..

In less than a year after the anti-corruption bill was passed by the lawmakers, citizens welcomed this long-awaited document with the belief that corruption and its activities would be a thing of the past, but the recent pardoning of a man jailed for not only dragging his flourishing career as a civil servant and his doctorate in the bud but using our state institution to enrich himself by receiving a bribe from a Chinese agency translates to the readiness of the government to fight corruption.

The anti-corruption bill is dead on arrival, if a man convicted of corruption and jailed can be pardoned by the president who should endorse and enforce the bill to its full effect, we should not be cajoled toaccept that the bill will be respected and serve its purpose. The purpose of the bill is defeated after a convict of corruption is among the prisoners pardoned by the president.

The stagnation of The Gambia from reaching her potential is proudly sponsored by the corrupted state institutions and corruptible civil servants. Thus, theneed for a complete overhaul of these institutions through the establishment of commissions to expose the rotten civil servants and punish them should not be delayed or compromised by any sitting government. 

We are at a crossroads, amidst the escalation of corruption in all strategic sectors of our economy which is preventing the country from economic stability and delivers the results of the state’s failure to address key issues in the country.

The decision to pardon a corrupted civil servant signals a bad direction and contradicts the anti-corruption bill.

By: Lamin Manneh