Governments in the civilised world gauge their achievements through the barometer of job creation, improvements in the health outcomes, effective provision of social services, poverty reduction, infrastructure development among many other scorecards.
The NPP administration is still unable to find a durable solution to the truculent irregular migration issue, despite the investment of massive human and financial resources in the fight against it.
But who should blame the young ones, who chose “martyrdom” over poverty and deprivation, remittance inflow over disintegration of family structures, and dignity over indignity?
Indeed, these young people are only victims of the situation! Imagine a country, where the millstone of cost of living gets heavier and heavier each passing day on the governed while the governors exhibit nonchalance. Imagine a country, where scarcity of employment opportunities and poverty wages and salaries are increasingly threatening family cohesion, rapidly tearing the society’s moral fabric. Imagine a country, where food and water insecurities have become sources of avoidable worry and torment to the citizens.
How about the pharmacies in our health centres and hospitals that have become places of referrals to private pharmacies? And healthcare workers have had to deal with situations, when their salaries were not paid on time. And the government is not seen in some quarters as serious in the fight against official corruption, which many say is blighting the country’s progress.
Despite the exciting statistics from the Central Bank of The Gambia almost every month, macro-economic stability has yet to be attained.
So, you see why many young people feel the grass is greener on the other side. And they will risk it all to get there.
