A web of deception on the Gambia hosting the OIC Summit this year has finally been untangled.
With a breathtaking U-turn, the OIC Secretariat finally announced that the Summit will not go ahead this year. This was confirmed by Nfally Fadera, the OIC Media Officer in the Gambia on the 17th November 2022. He emphasised that it will not be possible to host the Summit in December as planned.
However, this begs the question: when did they know that the Summit will be impossible to go ahead this December?
In the wake of a cacophony of claims and counter claims, by many Gambians that the OIC Summit cannot go ahead because of corruption, incompetence and leadership failures. Nonetheless, the OIC Secretariat kept rebuffing those claims.
This spectacular failure of hosting of OIC Summit by our government will embellish them as failures. But the insistent on lies that the Summit will go ahead even though they knew that it will not be possible, is the nadir of the OIC secretariat and the government.
Lies come in all shapes and sizes. This government is however familiar with them all. The U-turns, corruptions, mishandling of the economy, the lack of any coherent policy framework and the generic inability to manage government is above board.
Too often, our government have been evasive and the truth has been optimal. When they respond to legitimate questions on issues, they do it with half truths, or misdirection, or wild exaggeration.
They habitually give misleading press releases to issues that our people should know or have known already, and this invites disillusion.
The government should be made aware that outright lie breed contempt. The Gambian people are not fools and they can decipher the nitty-gritty of issues affecting them.
Therefore, let our government treat us with respect and be cognisant that we are in this together as a country. It will be helpful and refreshing if they can be open and be truthful to the polity. Then the good men and women of this great country will divorce with their sweeping eruditions to address the tapestry of far-reaching issues bedevilling our country.
The government need to be serious and realise that lies cannot be instituted as a matter of policy. We cannot take our country for granted. Need I remind our leadership that their failings imperil us all.
Therefore, if trust and speaking truth goes astray, our country will be undermined with bottomless consequences for all.
Day after day, our country is asked to believe the unbelievable. The government officials are sent out to defend the indefensible - making themselves look either gullible or foolish.
Let the government know that they cannot keep insulting our collective intelligence by lying about everything. Equally, they cannot continue misrepresenting the truth making it from one scandal to the next.
One wonders why is our government lying to us all the time? They lie because they have long ago forgotten the difference between truth and falsehood.
They lie because it is a lame-duck government of charlatans and clowns with no clue on how to run a decent government. To them, it is easier to lie than accept the truth.
They also believed that most Gambian people pay next to no attention to politics and will let it get away with lying. And, they think we are fearful to call them out.
Herewith, they are gambling that a country where trust has evaporated will be easier to govern than a confident country that insists on high standards.
Equally, this government ignores sharpest collapse in living standards and pretending the economy is booming. They lied on OIC Summit even though they know there was no way it would be possible to host it in this year’s December.
They delayed accepting the Gambia Central Bank hacking scandal. They came out with half stories and cover ups.
They waffled and spin doctored lies on the death of over 70 babies - victims of Indian Poisonous Medication causing Acute Kidney Injuries “AKI”. And the list goes on.
If our government is to be respected, it must speak truth to the people. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Barrow government so far.
Truth, however matters. It matters to our country and for the future generations.
Ebrima Scattred Janneh “EB”