Corruption at the personal level, company level, national level, and international levels exist and vary. The focus of my discussion is largely international deception and corruption, but I must briefly discuss or contrast it with the national level for some people to understand. Every form of authority comes with powers that may be abused, so the best of humankind must study to minimize such abuses of power, which can be intentionally on one part but unintentionally on another part. Rules, laws, regulations, penalties, institutions, re-educations, etc become vital in fighting corruption. Although a worldwide cooperation against international corruption would have been most ideal, it will be harder to achieve because some of the most powerful countries do sometimes benefit through international corruption, so they may forward excuses that the naive will buy. Continental, regional, or even new national measures can be enacted to totally defeat or minimize international corruption. So which journalists and politicians will not just echo me publicly, but strive towards realization, including crippling the so-called powerful countries that may oppose our goals.
Brief contrast: When a police officer or immigration officer is involved in corruption with a private citizen, we categorize it as personal corruption that may be under $10 in many African countries and still demands what measures to prevent such and may demand harsher punishment. Due to time and space limitations, let us fast forward to anti- corruption measures at the national level. Using the Gambia as an example, The Gambia Public Procurement Authority was reportedly established in 2001 under president Jammeh and given new powers in subsequent dates. Does this mean the Gambia had little or no measures or office to minimize corruption through contracts at the national level? History, change of names, new powers between dates may be unnecessary discussion for today.
However, my verifiable points are that president Jawara is arguably the worst Gambian president on mass corruption. Which institutions he initiated to fight corruption and how effective they were is another long debate I am avoiding for today. However, we all know Jawara was not extremely corrupt at the personal level, but his indifference or even encouraging of mass corruption led to the 1981 unsuccessful deadly coup and the successful bloodless coup of 1994 that led to countless suffering and even deaths of Gambians and even non-Gambians (Ghanians massacre as verifiable example). So corruption varyingly kills from poverty, malnutrition, poor services during Jawara; then it contributes a lot more than atom’s weight to many other ills. Although Jammeh is the most corrupt Gambian president at the personal level, Jammeh is arguably the ‘hard savior’ of the Gambia on mass corruption, including GPPA starting and having new powers under his watch to minimize corruption between companies and government (national level). Jammeh was not the smartest person and not humble enough to hire smart and caring folks, so there were many loopholes at GPPA, but how was your country between administrations and change of minister or which top officials for change?
Fast forward to President Barrow, arguably the least educated or least intelligent Gambian president, but he is humble and caring enough to have studied and hired smart people to close many loopholes at the GPPA. So we can argue the Lord of anti-corruption may be ‘slow’ but consistently helping the Gambia+ on reducing corruption at the national level, but will he speed up to help the Gambia, Africa, and the world to eliminate or significantly reduce international corruption? Well, He is inspiring me with beautiful ideas, but president Barrow switches between humility and arrogance, and he is largely ungrateful for knowledge. Will he learn, will he acknowledge+, and will he try to help other countries are all separate questions.
Although I give president Barrow a C or B level pass on fighting certain forms of corruption at the mid-level national level, I think President Barrow and many African presidents are at varying levels of F on confronting international corruption.
Measures on pre-awarding Contracts: You cannot tell me we need some rigorous GPPA regulations to award one million dollars construction contract, but a lot less regulated process to award 50 or 100 million dollars contract at the international level. When president Barrow revealed the Gambia unsuccessfully drilled five wells for oil and Gas exploration, it was news to many of us. He further revealed two of the wells were under his watch and it cost the Gambia 100 million dollars, wasted, but political words claim ‘prospects’ as dangerous empathy to a sleeping people with a sleeping president?
Like national contracts, we demand all international contracts to go through some form of advertisement by stages, where need be. For example, the Africa, West African, or Gambian Authority for international contracts can advertise, but also contact all potentially qualified companies to consider what offers they have for oil exploration in the Gambia, Ghana, or xyz. President Barrow revealed the two under his watch were FAR and Petronas, but He failed to state which companies president Jammeh used and how much it cost us. Gambian journalists I am ordering you to work on that, but Nigerian journalists and every country must similarly work on all bad contracts your nation suffered under which president, with which international companies and their country of origin. Is it possible that FAR and Petronas fooled Gambians under Jammeh and re-fooled us through Barrow, changed their names after bad press, or pocketed at least 10 billion dollars in Africa alone on failed oil exploration missions? What is their success versus failure rates on oil explorations? Do they tell you 90% chances of Gas or oil is under a mountain or xyz river, or have other companies they collaborate with to do one part and they do the killing, the finishing? These are multi-billion dollar companies who still need jobs, so they must share the risk or we find willing companies in China, Russia, etc, or we create our own companies for such. The Gambia lost $100 million dollars on two wells, so is it a good guess to say about $200 million for the five wells, until our Journalists lately do their job? How much for Ghana, Bissau, and each African country? My suggested measures can save Africa billions of dollars by putting a stop on these normalized and under challenged injustices.
AU, Ecowas, or xyz University Beyond Oil Exploration: We are blindly paying billions as gamble, but can we at least split the billions to safely gamble if we can train and have ten African oil drilling companies, who may still over rob us if we do not regulate and learn negotiation tactics? How many millions you need for the professors and you cannot tell me five years of training in theory and practical cannot yield acceptable results. After they graduate, how can we ascertain at least fifty percent of them work here or for a deceptive trusted Asian or Western company? Such a university can deal with many other natural resources.
Mutual Need on Value: When the black+ woman lied ‘booky’ or female private part is more valuable than male private part (peny), she was lying on value on a relay to justify dowry or rising dowries at entry versus exit alimony. After good sex or porn videos, millions of women+ are increasingly admitting it is a mutual need or want? Well, 10% or xyz% of white+ women say you do not even have to sell sex, you sell less than sex and millions of stupid men make them easier millionaires than FAR and Petronas rob to pay for porn and what else? Once you open the door of deception on value, it can either go up or go down. So dowry of seven to ten years of working by black Moses (pbuh) versus months or years of working in poor Gambia may contribute to unblessed or mixed blessed children who may be prostitute minded until cannabis replaces oil in what percentages? My point is that me and president Barrow+ are partly at odds due to cannabis, but also our understanding of value and mutual need.
These multi-billion dollar companies can be more deceptive than the corruption of black and white women combined, so they may inflate the value of their products and services, and claim we need them forever, not mutually need each other? Like the ‘booky’ can urinate in joy and pain as primary function, but sex can also be in much higher joy and pain as secondary function. The equipment they already bought must be used, their staff must be paid. So a good negotiator like Jarga will confront their excuses a lot more than President Barrow and his naive officers. First, you create a better competitor: a beautiful Arab or Asian woman calling Jarga with or without Cannabis will help me resist the prostitute minded black or worse than prostitute white porn star that nearly got Trump, Diddy, and who else? By even twenty five percent of Africa uniting and demanding new working terms, the world will subdue and/or we train our own.
Priority: When I told the Gambia to invest 100 million dollars to attain drought resistant and year round farming, how many claim we have no money during Jammeh to date. I would rather spend 100 million on a certain needed investment like water at a nationwide level for farming, then farm your hemp to compete with oil… After food sufficiency, not only can learning improve, but you have better negotiation leverage you should not abuse. A big percentage of what oil is used for can be from hemp, so you can essentially farm ‘oil’ but blind followers cannot see and forward excuses. Both Jammeh and Barrow rather spend 100 million dollars gambling on oil because the corruption and easy to control is over there. Beside oil, the Gambia is reportedly spending 300 million dollars annually on food import, but we don’t have 100 millions for year round farming means priorities are unknown and our non-thinking leaders lack ways of making it happen… Then how many millions or billions for roads, bridges, etc instead of trying to invest on personal aircrafts and drones for humans made in Africa? You do not trust me to head the research, but you also do not trust ten thousand of your best minds cannot study to make it happen within five years, just take billions in loans to pay in decades or centuries? You have interpol against cannabis+ users, but do you trust me to head a national, regional, continental, a worldwide institution against international corruption? More important than discussing if I am qualified is asking why you never propose new measures to regulate and improve international contracts. Spend your time by sending it to all leaders and ask who else you trust to work with or without me, but how come those you trust failed compared to my callings?
Penalties: Like you need penalties on lower level corruption, we must have penalties against international companies. We must study their every crime within the past century to classify them differently. Some crimes demand heavy fines, some imprisonment, some crimes demand even banning for decade(s).
Jury Pool in Awarding Contracts: You cannot trust your low level Member of Parliaments (MPs) to do many things and handle international contracts efficiently. Once you update databases of technocrats, you can create decent teams to check who best to award which contracts. If we need a ‘Jury’ of 12 to award oil exploration in the Gambia, our national law may demand 3 to 6 be from the Gambia, the remaining foreigners may be even better experts (referees) who should not be revealed too early, picked through raffle, and to convene in which ways to ascertain they read through offers, not corruptible within the week or so. Simple majority versus Ranked choice voting after which recorded discussion? Jarga ranked a Chinese company number one due to cost or which kind of quality guarantee, but can number two adjust on xyz. If the technocrats ranked the top three with notes, then even the smart non-technocrat can finish up through bilateral negotiations or open negotiations of all parties where need be.
Excuses: Again, we know devils will always come with excuses against great solutions. They may claim quality matters most in international contracts. Well, do you trust a revolving president or few unidentified officers to gauge quality or a team of technocrats as jury for example? Quality, cost, conditions, etc should each carry what points on gauging?
They may claim two types of international contracts like weapon buying as an excuse, but how many types of other international contracts can be regulated. Personally, even weapons should be done without corruption loopholes. The Gambia can say we will not allow Chinese companies on weapons, but let the ones we trust compete in just manners. I jokingly asked if president Barrow or xyz got one or ten millions from the gambled money? Well, the Gambia lost 100 millions under Barrow to false hope and bad international practices… How much to Jammeh and each African leader is for learning and complain mongers, but how our next leaders can do better is for all of us to brainstorm.
Exceptions and special considerations: Sometimes past relationships may demand points, but it cannot be infinite. I am one of those who believe there was both good and evil in colonisation, but much worse deceptions after colonisation. Thanks to colonisation, I can communicate with about 25% of Africans using just English. The English who fought off Portuguese slave masters deserve what versus their children from the Gambia or Bissau? My point is education matters and Africans are yet to respect even education to my liking, let alone thinking and other aspects of learning. I am not yet blindly supporting Ibrahim Traore or any of your adored living or dead leaders, because you all refuse to declare ‘mandatory education up to age 18 or 20’. You showed me a factory or two by Traore, humbly talking to a poor neglected person on the street, etc, but how is he and every president responsible for the education of every! citizen, especially the children must be the starting point of Gauging a caring leader. Mandela, Nkrumah, etc all failed on that, but who will be the first to pass and challenge others is what ch.103 and myself demand. People are differently gifted, but all must respect learning enough for others and self, and black folks need such more than any race. So beside mandatory education, which we can do without outside help, which countries are ready to help us on higher learning collaborations may deserve points in awarding contracts. So if I were president, I may either give upfront points to companies from certain countries that help on education+ or demand you give me top three companies, then I make the final decision considering many things. Presently, the executive has too much power on international affairs and we can see how Trump is abusing it, but you wait for your ‘Trump’ to blame the electors or your inaction to balance power?
Public Voting on Big Contracts: different ages have different opportunities. Our age offers more direct democracy opportunity, meaning Gambians can vote on any contract or route worth over 50 million dollars; while the u.s citizens can vote on a billion dollar border wall or billion dollar deportation bill of even non-criminals. Electronic voting, free or reasonable, on many issues can be a voluntary option to override elected officials, where need be. Yes, most Americans want more control of immigration and hate immigrant criminals. However, it is not true that most Americans agree with what and how Trump chooses to weaponize immigration even as a censor tool … Similarly, many Gambians wish for oil or ease on ferry transportation, but with the right balance messaging, many Gambians can realize Barrow is very wrong on the mentioned. So a law that demands at least three months debate before the public vote through phone or internet on big contracts or routes may help. Paying $1 or $5 to vote is reasonable for even poor Gambia, to cover voting costs and reduce dangerous protests. The excess money can go to funding ‘free’ or tax paid bigger elections of who versus what.
Ranked Choice Voting: Human evolution is very real, but people refusing to learn from each other delays human evolution in many quarters. You can research about it and try to help beyond your country for real choice voting. Simple majority is the worst system of elections; the top two facing off for the second round is slightly better, but it has huge disadvantages. So if God inspires Ranked choice voting, it should spread around the world like a ‘pandemic’, albeit a positive ‘pandemic’. I wrote how if the ranked choice voting offered to Newyorkers is five, but candidates are seven or more, it will mean insufficient choice. So after registration, you know how many mayoral to presidential candidates you have, give the voters the choice to rank them all, without demanding the citizen to rank them all. So if a citizen wants to rank only one, two or three, it should be fine, but let the options be more open. Hemp paper can reduce the cost and it takes less than five minutes to rank even over ten candidates. It will give voters real choice based on love instead of fear based; it will reduce nasty campaigning that can cost a lot more; and it will give opportunity to small, independent, and rising parties to do better. So which media houses and parties will be the first to endorse ranked choice voting in the Gambia and each country? Educating the populace is the first step and demands a lot more than the paragraph I choose as seed.
Remember Your Tasks: Be you a journalist, official, opposition, or ordinary person, ch.103 demands ‘we exhort each other to truth’ or be part of the problem, the lost… Do you need new laws or just discussions that focus on trading blames? Are your discussions designed to open-up minds and action plans? Will you get a team for laws and forget a team for a policy that the sitting leaders can utilize, a foreign country to accept it first, or your next leaders to accept it? If it was all up to me, God will speed up a lot more, even if it means final judgement day. Some of us are not leaving only financial debts, but moral debts as ‘inheritance’. Luckily, our world is much smaller. I wish Gambian media houses and authorities seriously work on the mentioned, but Nigerian officials, Senegalese, etc may understand setting new institutions and laws is to protect us from the unknown leaders to come until judgement day. So may God help me a lot more personally, but also help every good spirit, punish every defiant evil spirit. May God bless us a lot more through Showlove Trinity: Let’s learn, let’s work , let’s have fun.
By Jarga Kebba Gigo
An Activist and Transformer
Author of Juts Quhr-aahn.
