In an advance world like ours, with the growing influence of globalisation, institutions like GAMTEL/GAMCEL and NAWEC occupy a very significant part in the development drive of a developing country like The Gambia; and, no doubt, this perception forms the basis of the priority areas of our government’s development agenda.

 The successful implementation of national dreams like the Silicon Valley, an initiative of the leadership of this country, is strongly dependent on formidable service provisions, in terms of electricity and telecommunications, among a host of others. This forms the driving force behind the uncompromising stance of the APRC government.

While GAMTEL/GAMCEL have done well even prior to the second republic, receiving an even more rigorous support from this government; NAWEC has struggled all along, only gaining momentum thanks to the personal intervention of the president himself. GAMTEL though,  stumbled a little bit before cruising briefly to glory. However, just recently, it hit hard times, and this warranted government to make the prudent decision of overhauling its management system.

But despite all these efforts by government, people still complain, and, of course, their complaints are mostly genuine. It is either a network problem today or a country-wide internet problem tomorrow. The problems are continuous and frustrating. However, what we do not know is that the problems are not the fault of government as such; they are in fact perpetuated by unscrupulous saboteurs within the society. Such people constitute saboteurs of national development. And interestingly, these institutions themselves harbour these saboteurs.

Extreme greed, powered by selfishness and lack of patriotism, coupled with unawareness on the part of some sections of the public, are responsible for this trend. GAMTEL is not only suffering from acts of theft of its technology, but some people, out of untold wickedness, mess up with the operations of this company. And for NAWEC, copper wires and aluminium fibres are the targets; although sometimes some individuals unintentionally tamper with these NAWEC facilities. There are a whole lot of obstacles faced by these institutions; and it all boils down to sabotage.

But as we have always held, the general public owe it to these institutions just as much as the institutions owe it to Gambians; saboteurs are part of this very society that faces all these problems. The question remains: is it worth it that we cover up for these unscrupulous people at the expense of our discomfort? How many of us have exercised our civic duties to take saboteurs to task? These are issues that need discussing as part of the general effort of helping the appropriate authorities to make informed decisions about what is actually responsible for their poor performances.

Negligence will be tantamounting to aiding the culprits, and we should consider ourselves as accomplices of these treacherous and criminal individuals if we fail to expose them. In the same vein, it will help a great deal if the managements concerned also come out plain about cases concerning sabotage within their operational activities, lest they all appear guilty in the end.