First of all I want to thank all of you for accepting the challenge.  It is not an easy challenge since all of you know that the expectations are higher this time than any material time, so I need not tell you that if in the last five years the burden was 3 tons this time it will be 3000 tons because we have to deliver within five years all the good things that we told the Gambian people who voted for us. 

What is the most important is that it is not only the government, the SoS or president who bring infrastructural development, we all need the support and the cooperation of every citizen of this country.  That is very important because as a government and as a cabinet, the government is composed of different layers: the president, vice president, SoS, permanent secretaries, directors and it goes down to the last person at the bottom of the ladder.  It is like a machinery, an engine.  If any of these levels is not functioning there is bound to be a problem in efficiency and delivery.  So we must work together. The Gambian people also have a role to play, especially the youth of this country.  We will do everything possible to provide them with jobs, but if I promise them that there will be no unemployment in this country, it will be the joke of the century.

There is no government that can say we will provide homes for every one.  The Almighty Allah himself did not make every one rich or poor but it requires everyone to make a minimal effort.

Coming back to cabinet, we all have to work as a family knowing nobody is perfect. Team work is indispensable in cabinet.  Divergence of views should not be interpreted as hatred or enmity or whatever.  Of course if I say that you are not competing, that is a lie.  Because I want to see an SoS who will deliver best.  But it is a healthy competition that engenders unity rather than acrimony.  Five years may sound very long but it is very short.  Vision 2020 is no longer Vision 2020 because it was since 1995.  We have fourteen more years to go to fulfil and we are far behind with regards to the achievement of Vision 2020.  It is not even gone 25%.  So we have to redouble our efforts and deliver so that we will be able to achieve Vision 2020 on time.  What is important is as far as you believe in God, you have faith in the supremacy of the Almighty Allah and you sincerely serve your country, God will always guide you and protect you. Nothing will be too difficult for you but what is important is that you will not face certain difficulties that other people that believe in anything else face.

This is a a warning. This is a very small country. Stop pretending towards each other.  Somebody is either your friend or not your friend. Stop being hypocrites.  Don’t pretend that you like somebody and when you think misfortune has befallen him, you start saying things that are unbecoming .  It does not mean that whoever said bad about you is your enemy.  You should know that true friends are very rare in this world.  I think some of you must have known that now. What is important is that if I know that you don’t like me,  I don’t hate you because you don’t like me.  I try to befriend you for you to be my friend and if I can’t, I leave you alone.  One important lesson that all of you have learnt is that don’t trust anybody.  There is no true friend. If there is, then it is very rare especially in a situation like this.  I was shocked about the comments I heard from people about others.  I won’t tell you who.  Who the cap fits, wear it.  That is really unexpected.  I thought all of you are a family, all of you are friends and no matter what, you will stand in thick and thin.  That is what is expected of a cabinet.  Remember what you wish for others, the wollof will say wishes are houses. The owner or the originator of the wish will be the first dweller of the house.  This one thing that I cannot forgive is hypocrisy and pretending. If you are sincere and honest I will be a friend to you.  Even if you kill a person, tell me that you have killed a person, I will understand.  I am a human being.  One thing I will never forgive is for you to take me as a fool.  You do something that is wrong and when you are asked about it, you pretend that you have not done anything wrong, when the truth surfaces you are going home.  In fact from now, I will not be as tolerant as before.  You are not working for me, you are working for the country and for yourself and your children because you are being paid for it.  And also, don’t wait until Yahya Jammeh is around and you pretend to work.  This campaign has revealed a lot of things but what is important is let us be sincere.

The last point is, I will not entertain different clubs in cabinet or in any part of the government.  I will not encourage empires in government.  That is not going to be.  If I know, I will break it beause it is not good for government. This is where corruption starts.  That does not mean that you should not have friends.  Let me be very clear. If you intend to do what is bad I will know and any day I know all of you are going out of government because I will not encourage syndicates in government and I will not encourage anything that is not in the interest of this country.  Let us work together as a government, as a people to deliver to the Gambian people what we promised them and even more than what we have promised them.  I wish you all the best for accepting the challenge.