Hamat Bah, the Gambia’s minister of religious affairs and local governments, recently attempted to mount the high moral ground to preach the gospel of good governance and delivery to certain regional governments.
Hamat was recently at a UNDP-organized meeting during which he decided, as usual, to launch a blanket attack on some area councils, accusing them of being more obsessed with party politics than service delivery.
Hamat, the speck in your eye!
What remarkable achievement can Hamat pound his chest about when he was at the helm of the tourism ministry? Was it not under his watch that millions of taxpayer money was squandered in the name of promoting domestic and regional tourism?
What is the status of the construction of the eco-lodges and the four-star hotel that the tourism ministry under Hamat’s watch said it was spearheading?
Despite millions of dalasi being spent on these projects or at least that’s what we were made to understand, no exciting news has so far emerged.
The proposed Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara four-star hotel in Barra, the Kunkilling eco-camp, Sotuma Sirreh, Arafat and Nyanga Bantang eco-lodges have stalled, despite the more than D70 million investment.
It would not take more than three minutes to list down Hamat’s achievement as a tourism minister? He did not have any massive feather on his cap during his stint. If anything, the tourism sector had been palpitating during his tenure. Industry operators have on end complained of dwindling tourist numbers and tourist money.
And how about the Kamalo files? So, is Hamat trying to tell us that some of the files have been lost and that they could not be recovered? Hell no! Something can be done about these files and it must be seen to be done?
The claim of lost Kamalo files smacks of a cover-up. It’s also an indication of a carefree attitude on the part of the authorities. This Kamalo land issue should not be trivialized Hamat or his ministry seemingly tried to. The citizens need answers and if even providing them answers requires a resumption and invigoration of the investigation, so be it. The public needs to know the beneficiaries of these allocations and heads must roll to send clear signals that corruption and corrupt practices would not be condoned. This Kamalo land allocation probe must be activated.
How about the land allocations at the TDA under Hamat’s watch?
So, Hamat has other fish to fry than being obsessed with local governments even though it has been reported that the KMC mayor Talib Bensouda is dedicating more time to the UMC than KMC.
