In The Death Industry, CORRUPTION Is The King!

by Alagi Yorro Jallow
Mamudu: This is not about politics. This is about the welfare of our nation. Your welfare. The welfare of our relations and posterity. Can we do something about corruption? Yes, we can! Will we do something about fighting corruption? That is up to you now. A tiger does not shout its ‘tigeritude,’ it acts upon its instincts and wears its stripes with pride
Did you know that corruption thrives on COMPLACENCY? That is when we allow it to continue when we feel too weak and inadequate to do anything about it.
Mamudu: You and your Attorney General and Justice Minister, must change your strategy, messaging, policy, lip service to fighting corruption in the country, the imposition of corrupt elites on the electorate and run organized issue-based politics. Times have changed. Rallying people around an imaginary enemy, politics of Godfatherism, the “politics of our time to eat, and patronage will not work in the Gambia again.
Mamudu: You and your government may spin it all you want, but your government has suffered a severe dent, and going into 2021, Presidential and Legislative Elections, the forces of change have been emboldened. It is possible. Anything that can happen in the General Elections. You may not like the fact of being happy. However, the silent majority of Gambians are not happy with the level of alleged corruption in your government. The Baby steps to community emancipation began yesterday.
Mamudu: Look, forget, HIV/AIDS, cancer, road accidents, famine, malaria, and political violence. Forget about terrorism and the coronavirus pandemic that threatens our humanity. In the death industry, CORRUPTION is the king!
Mamudu: In the Army, there is something called the Rogue’s March. Dishonored or disgraced soldiers are unceremoniously bundled out of the military and the barracks, stripped of their ranks, badges and buttons caned and escorted out of the gates as the drum major beats counting the lashes as the tick, the leech in the military is thrown out like so much garbage, without honor.
To do this, the military must be very tired of you so much so that they want to embarrass you to the utmost as you leave. It is only the province of rogues, and no one serving in the military wants to go through this dishonor. Moreover, it is a very rare happenstance. That is what the Gambian people have given the vaunted Rogue’s March!
They say all politics is local. What this means in political parlance is that as a politician, you have to connect with the issues that affect those whose mandate you seek and craft your message in such a way that your leadership and governance records appeal to their hearts.
Mamudu: We pay taxes and fines. We receive grants and loans from wealthy nations. This is HUGE money. When this money is used as required, we will have well-equipped hospitals, efficient and safe transport infrastructure, a decent standard of living, and other amenities that will make life easier and more prolonged. When this money is channeled to the right use, floods and other natural calamities can be mitigated. When this money is used correctly, the effects of epidemics can be mitigated.
Mamudu: Have you seen cases where people die because they could not receive due medical attention on time? Corruption is behind that. Have you seen cases where vehicles collide head-on costing scores of lives? Perhaps that is a case of corruption. Yes, drivers of un-roadworthy vehicles shell out bribes. Overspeeding motorists bribe traffic officers to be let off the hook.
According to the world bank, we lose an estimated 3 billion each year to a black hole called corruption. Did you know that amount can construct more than 100 respiratory ventilators in our hospitals, twenty fully equipped cancer treatment centers complete with specialized doctors and appropriate equipment such that our people do not have to transcend mountains and oceans to receive treatment in faraway lands?
Mamudu: Undoubtedly, corruption is ugly! It is the monster eating away at the fabric of our nation. Yes, there are cartels. Some influential individuals can do anything atrocious to a person who dares ask too many questions or who seems to know too much. They can kill. They can enforce disappearance. They can frustrate you at every level and stage.
However, did you know that they cannot do all that if all of us spoke up against corruption and told them off? Did you know that the cartels are not powerful than the voice of the people?
Look, they can kill or intimidate those who fight corruption because it is only campaign speaking against it and expose those corrupt officials. However, they cannot kill all of us if all of us clamored against the vice! They cannot isolate a few voices from the innumerable voices calling out for liberation.
Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jnr. Once said, that let everyone go and sweep his backyard clean, and the whole world would be swept clean. If each one of us took it as a challenge to speak and act against corruption, the forts of corruption will come tumbling down like the walls of Jericho at the sound of the Israelite’s trumpets.
Mamudu: We can condemn acts of corruption and the perpetrators of corruption. We can pile pressure on the government to take stern action against those who engage in the vice. We can decide not to reward the corrupt with public offices. We can agitate for the corrupt to leave the office. There is a lot we can do, people.
Mamudu: We only need to be angry enough. Moreover, to be angry, think of the many deaths that could have been averted if public resources were not diverted to private purses. To be angry, think of the many times you do not get service on time because of corruption. To be angry, think of what millions of Dalasis- a quarter, our annual budget- could do.
Nevertheless, more than being angry, we need to be smart. Do not defend a corrupt person just because he comes from your tribe, is your former classmate, is your relative, is good-looking, or he is a woman. Do not defend a corrupt person because he comes from your political party.
Mamudu: Did you know some of these corrupt politicians and elites exploit your vulnerabilities by whipping up tribal differences when they are pressed to account? Haven’t you heard them saying ‘my tribe is being targeted?’ Please, do not let them get away with that. So, I was saying that more than being angry, we need to be smart in the fight against corruption. We should wage a thorough and indiscriminate war against corruption in all its manifestations.
Furthermore, we can do it!
Let us speak up. Let us fan this conversation. Let us talk- freely, unhindered, and against the vice and its perpetrators. We choose to stand against corruption. What about you.