By: Landing Colley
Leading Gambian Human Rights lawyer Assan Martin has expressed that the Gambia economic situation is getting worse also the standard of living is becoming more unbearable on Gambians and non-Gambians.
“Our tourism sector is in catastrophe and all the hotels are in dying situation. In fact the Minister even said the hotels are dead and there is no bail out for the hotels,” Lawyer Martin said in an exclusive interview with The Voice.
Knowing The Gambia’s economic situation, he pointed out that 90% of Gambians earning is day-by-day while businesses are getting worsen with recent constrain or regulation been put in place by the government.
“Today in The Gambia inflation is out of order and depreciation is the order. There is big failure by the Minister of Finance in handling of the economic situation especially budgetary allocation issue. This has been affected and the country is affected during this Covid-19 time and the nation has been exposed to massive corruption,” the former Magistrate stated.
For The Gambia economy to do well he said “it will take a miracle, good and effective capable government that is competent to handle those areas, because the salaries are also a problem, pensioners are not paid well, nurses and the police are not paid well. And with this standard of living that’s why we are having corruptions in our culture, in our midst and it need to be addressed.”
Martin, who made an effort to contest the 2011 presidential election under ticket of the United Front disclosed that in general term unemployment is at highest rate in the country. Especially youth unemployment is a problem and majority of the youth are not doing well in all the industries of the country.
“Under ex-President Yahya Jammeh some of these things were not too much in terms of what you are seeing bluntly today, corruption is so bluntly. Under Jammeh leadership, economy among other things was at least manageable but currently we are in a big economy mess. Because you could see now that some certain sectors what they are doing today they cannot do that yesterday,” he explained.
According to him, in the past months lot of funds come in, and lot of money have been talked about and there is no changes in life of Gambians “this is where we are having problem with this current administration,” he lamented.
“Where is all the money that is coming into the country, because it’s not impacting in the life of the Gambians? How are this money managed that’s why some of us are calling out where is the public funds. It is because it has to be within the public frame and those money need to be audited, though our national audit board is dead because they are not giving us the periodic audit that we need,” to know he emphasized.
He urged the Gambian lawmakers to investigate all the funds received by the government on how they were spent to whose benefits.
Martin stated that law gives the Head of State the power under section 34 to call for State of Emergency but the problem is the regulation that is been using here is affecting the daily life of the people.
“This is affecting the citizens daily living especially those that are paying bills such as rent, water, electricity just to name a few. Unfortunately our government is not doing anything for a bailout. That’s to cut the bills but definitely government need to review and look at the situation f things,” he concluded.
