NPP cleansing exercise – a commendable gesture, but….
By D. A. Jawo
The ruling National People’s Party (NPP) youths, led by Momodou Sabally, who recently took part in a cleansing exercise at the Serekunda market deserve some commendation for their action. Indeed, certain areas of the Kanifing Municipality have been overwhelmed by waste management problems which need to be given serious attention by the Council.
However, the question that everyone seems to ask is why the NPP should undertake such an exercise at this very time when the race for the presidential elections is heating up. It is quite obvious to even the dumbest person that the objective has more to do with scoring some political points against Talib Bensouda and his Coalition 2026 than serving the interest of the market vendors or those living around the area. Otherwise, if indeed it was a genuine attempt to address the environmental problems facing the municipality, rather than going ahead with the exercise behind the back of the Mayor and the Council, they could have quite easily coordinated with them, which no doubt could have produced much better results.
It is also quite obvious to anyone who cares for the truth that the Talib administration has performed far much more for the KMC than any of its predecessors, spending millions in trying to address the numerous waste management problems facing the municipality.
Of course, while there is much room for improvement, but considering the negative attitude of the average Gambian towards environmental issues, for instance, it is hard to see why the KMC should be entirely blamed for the situation that it currently finds itself in.
It is quite true that the Council is overwhelmed by the environmental situation, especially owing to the fact that it has not only been deliberately denied the subvention that should have been legally given to it by the central government, but it has also been facing so many obstacles from the same central government in trying to implement some of its projects. Therefore, it is quite obvious that the council lacks adequate resources to deal with the multiplicity of problems that it is supposed to deal with.
What was even more surprising during the NPP cleansing exercise was the participation of the head of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), Sana Dahaba, knowing fully well that it was a politically motivated activity. Is it really fair for heads of state institutions to allow themselves to be used as political tools?
