Thursday, 10 September | Sainey Darboe
Esau Williams, a BBC journalist, has brought the office of the First Lady under new, harsh glare for its involvement in the fate of almost a million Dollars of funds of dubious provenances.
In the latest of episode of “The View Point“ on QTV, the BBC journalist offered an unvarnished assessment of the state of the nation. His words:
“The ironic thing about Janneh Commission is it was set up to investigate the corrupt practices of the previous government. If you look at the corrupt practices of this government, the current government, it gives us a lot to be worried about. We’ve had an office being set up at State House at tax payers’ expense for the First Lady. Why? I put that question once upon a time to the information minister. He said to me that is not their business.
Well, I respectfully disagreed with that. She only holds that office by virtue of the fact that she is the wife of the president. Were she not to have been the wife of the president...if you go to the market in Banjul no woman selling in the market stalls there has a foundation.They only happen to have it because they are the wife of the president,something we are not used to in the Gambian political context”.
Esau Williams goes for the jugular in the hard-hitting interview, revealing:
“750,000 Dollars gets wired into that account by 10 O’ clock in the morning, by 6 O’ Clock that exact amount is withdrawn. Sources from state house were basically saying to us they knew nothing about that money. So how come that exact amount was withdrawn. This is the problem we have with the system in The Gambia. It’s not just the government’s fault because the government would do that which it’s allowed to do and get away with. It’s the failure of the media, the journalists, to go in there and poke their noses and ask tough questions of this government until we hold them to account. That’s what they are there for”.