Hammadi Maasinah.
When comparing apples with lemons this is what we get as results. Even before reaching the frontiers of Europe a closest neighbour has taught Yahya Jammeh another lesson on what investment,transparency and attracting investment really entails. What a shame for those trying to justify investing under Yahya. Next we will realise the essence of buying airtime and other implications connected to this telephone-business. Senegal had television well before The Gambia when Yahya Jammeh was running in the bushes of Buluf or whereever he was. Eventhough everything is not rosy in Dakar at least "civility" reasons with "concensus" sometimes. Mistakes must be allowed but not always. A simple old dictum that means a lot! This simple dictum carries the cap that fits the devil at home. It is so pleasing to hear what happened in Dakar. France Telecom and Sonatel will not continue dominating the market,however,they are still welcome to stay and compete. Was that what they received in Banjul? GAMTEL came into existence not because of July 22nd under Yahya Jammeh. GAMTEL rose around 1985 or so in collaboration with the same FranceTelecom. This was when Yahya Jammeh was dawdling in the streets of Bakau New Town and Sanchaba angrily insulting everything everybody.
For those who accuse critics of being the people who stop investors,I have another dimension to show you today. How about when Yahya Jammeh accuses western pharmacies and western producers of HIV medicine of being "racists"? Who is stopping Gambian HIV Patients from benefitting from the CNN-DR GUPTA-BILL CLINTON efforts? Them or Yahya Jammeh himself? Who is competing home-based investors like Radville farm today? Other companies or Yahya Jammeh himself? Yahya siezes land from poor villagers through out the length and breadth of the country,uses forced labour and then calls himself a decent promoter of agriculture and investment! What a country! His is similar to Sekou Toure's days of a forceful cultural revolution in Guinea Conakry. Sekou forced Guineans to sing and dance. He also forced them to produce bananas for export until 1984 when he demised. Calling former Presiddent Leopold Sedar Senghore a stooge of the West. Where is Dakar today? Where is Guinea Conakry today? Are they beyond those countries they were calling western puppets? There is a big difference between being a puppet and parrot. One thing Sekou Toure did not was he never sang praises for any country for the sake of dollars. Yahya Jammeh is the 'revolutionary" who changes colours when he makes money. What a character trying to muddy the waters for genuine revolutionaries! Being a revolutionary does not mean being hateful and sulky. Infact revolutionaries inhale discipline like oxygen. They also blow away domination like hurricanes do to garbage! Domination cannot be one-sided in a mind. It has to be considered a bad thing inside and outside of every mind calling itself a messiah of the people. If you do not want to be dominated,do not dominate period. Today we are learning from all quarters of the decent world that our shores have been soaked in shame. When investors read the latest piece on Senegal's investment in the telecom field will they choose Banjul or Dakar? They will choose the latter because of ethics and established fine traditions simple as that. The sore wound in The Gambia is not being exposed by online Gambian journalists alone,it is being exposed by every responsible media outlet. The prove of the pudding is in the eating. Another lesson from our neighbours.
Shame on APRC! Read the following article (courtesy reuters and seneweb.com)
Senegal awards third mobile licence to Sudatel
DAKAR, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Senegal granted a mobile and fixed-line operating licence to Sudan Telecommunications Co. (Sudatel) for $200 million on Friday, the West African country's telecoms watchdog ARTP said.
The licence makes Sudatel the third mobile operator in the former French colony and ends the monopoly in fixed-line and Internet services of Sonatel, a partly state-owned company whose major shareholder is France Telecom .
"Sudatel has been judged the winner of the bidding round," ARTP director Daniel Goumalo Seck told a news conference.
Sonatel last year relaunched its Alize mobile unit under France Telecom's international Orange brand. It competes in Senegal's mobile services market with Tigo, a unit of Luxembourg-based Millicom .
France Telecom holds a 42.33 percent stake in Sonatel. The Senegalese state holds 27.67 percent.
Sudatel beat offers from Celtel, a subsidiary of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co , and from the Saudi Bin Laden Group for the Senegal licence.