Persons come and go, but the Gambia our Motherland will remain forever!!!!
The Gambian Young People are at a very crucial junction. It’s a crucial moment in the annals of the Gambia both in terms of political, economic and social. The country have is faced with many development problems such as governance, poverty,
unemployment, lack of quality education and skills, HIV/Aid’s,
rural/urban migration, etc. How does the future of the Gambian Young
People look? What can be done to redress the trend are fundamental
questions that require fundamental answers.
As
stated in the last edition, give the devil its due. The same principle
will be applied here for the simple fact that physical structures have
been created. The Gambia have witnessed the construction of schools
from basic cycle to university, hospitals and health centres, roads,
the arch 22, etc. But is this enough? Gambisara feels that there is a
lot more to be done. Gambisara is mentioning these structures because
is what the Government is using as its campaign tool. The Gambian Young
People do not have the standard of education required to drive them
forward to be self-employed. We are not marketable and thus leading to
our inability to be successful entrepreneurs, like our Senegalese
counterparts. The skills training programmes available fail to provide
marketable skills that properly match the demands of our labour market
which have a direct link to our economy. We have the GTTI, the
President’s International Awards Scheme and other skill training
centres all training but similar programmes. With all of them, how many
Gambian entrepreneurs do we have especially in the rural areas creating
employment opportunities for my rural colleagues, thus to motivate us
to live and work in our regions or even villages of origin? We see
mainly consumer shops in the Interior of the country. To be honest,
Gambisara feels that there is little employment educational programmes
taught to combat high unemployment which hits the Gambian Youth
hardest. The average Gambian Youth can’t visit the bank due to its
rigid collateral requirements, high interest rates and poor official
policy and promotion of small and medium sized enterprises, thus,
contributing greatly towards the creating a huge stumbling
bloc for self-employment and entrepreneurial initiatives. This leaves
many Gambian Young people including myself in desperate state of mind
and in continued poverty. The only resort to think as savour is to
migrate to Europe or the US
in search of greener pastures by any means necessary. This desperate
situation led to many of my colleagues in the struggle to leave a
decent live to use dangerous route using what the military term as
short possible route “SPR” to Europe through Spain and or he Canary Islands.
Recently
we have privy to know that a group of Gambian Young People who called
themselves members of NAPSA (National Patriotic Student’s Association)
to have paid a week-long visit to President Yaya Jammeh in his Kanilai
home. According to them, the main reason for
the visit was to congratulate him on behalf of Gambian students for his
wonderful job and extraordinary effort towards the development of
students in the country. “Gambian students must be aware of the
good job the President is doing especially towards the welfare of
student’s. It is therefore the responsibility of NAPSA to extend our
warm gratitude to the President”. They
said President Jammeh’s government has a lot for Gambian students,
adding that lot of schools and other learning institutions, including
the University of The Gambia, has been built across the country. It concluded by stating that “NAPSA
and Gambian students are very grateful to President Jammeh and his
government for their support to students of this country”.
Gambisara have no grudges against President Jammeh and the APRC, but how
policy decisions are being made and how they are affecting the Gambia
and its people as a country. The group that calls itself NAPSA should
be aware of the fact that they are not GAMSU and they cannot supersede
GAMSU in any way. They are the student body recognised across the
globe. I said before, and will repeat it again, let us Young
people not allow ourselves to be use as Political stooges by any
political party. Let’s read in between the lines of their manifestoes and make decisions in the best interest of the Gambia’s
future. NAPSA, you have gone too far. You were created after the
intended peaceful demonstrations which were turned violent by security
forces, our own brothers and sisters in uniform. The Government headed
by Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy and assisted by current SoS
Babucarr Jatta, then Army chief, Sankung Badjie, Ann Therese
Ndong-Jatta gave President Jammeh the wrong information that the
demonstration and even tainted the opposition UDP for being the
mastermind of the demonstration. President Jammeh responded by ordering
them to shoot and kill. This was followed by the innocent killings of
your student colleagues, our brothers and sisters. What was the
Government’s response again? To quickly rush in the indemnity bill to
indemnify all those involved. Precisely on April 18 2001, the National Assembly approved the most controversial bill and back dated it to January 2000. Among the bill “The
President may, for the purpose of promoting reconciliation in an
appropriate case, indemnify any person he may determine, for any act,
matter or omission to act, or things done or purported to have done
during unlawful assembly, public disturbance, riotous situation or
period of public emergency”. Despite general outcry
from the public and friends of the Gambia,
President Jammeh signed the bill in May 2001 thus, effectively
preventing those affected, including parents of the children killed on
April 10-11 from seeking redress in any court of law in the Gambia. NAPSA, be careful! You have gone too far over the years and are still being encouraged by FJC
and co. Where are the likes of Baba Jobe, Abdoulie Kujabi, Nai Ceesay,
Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta, Joseph Joof, Sankung Badjie, Landing 13
Badjie, Mayor Abdoulie Conteh, Samba Faal, Daba Marena or even the
mighty Sanna Sabally? President Yaya Jammeh will also be history sooner
or later. My simple advice is to ask you to limit yourself to your
studies and don’t let to be used as political purposes.
Gambisara would like to refer the NAPSA membership to this extract from the APRC 2001 manifesto. It reads: “The
APRC regards human rights as indivisible and symbiotic in their
relationship. We also consider that the most essential human rights, in
our present socio-economic circumstances are those which guarantee the
basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, education, medical
care, clean water and environment, work and the opportunity to live and
develop in a free society and in peace and dignity. That the APRC
pledges to work assiduously towards making these rights accessible to
all Gambians. The APRC also pledges to uphold and defend the human
rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in Chapter IV of the
Constitution of the Second Republic, particularly, the right to life,
personal liberty, property, freedom of speech, association, assembly,
movement, privacy, equality before the law and freedom of a responsible
press. We, as a people, must however know where our rights end and
where others peoples’ rights begin. The various rights and freedoms
must however be exercised with due regard to our duties to the State”.
Gambisara would want you jointly ask the
APRC through FJC,
her brother Bala Garba Jahumpa, Yankuba Touray or the chief himself,
President Jammeh himself for interpretation? Why the massive exodus and
disappearance of promising young Gambian talents? Why there is massive
unemployment in the country? Why are our farmers not paid their hard
earned cash? Why our economy is in chaos? Why the south bank road
cannot be completed? Why is there no investment in the productive
sectors? etc.
It’s
about time we Gambian Youth read in between the lines. For Gambisara,
the key reason why our parents send us to school is to make the
difference and contribute positively to society. Not to read and write
and to be propaganda tool for people. Can you imagine an official being
entrusted to oversee a crucial Department of State such as Youth
matters, in the person of SoS Omar Faye only to travel out to the US
to throw a lavish beach party in the expense of the tax payer? It’s
only President Jammeh and the APRC Government that will allow such
practice, knowing fully well that the SoS Faye will be paid his monthly
salary and per diem allocated to the position. Fellow Gambian Youths,
we should not allow ourselves be used as political stooges by any
political party. We should carefully scrutinise manifestoes of
Political parties, where we are in doubt, we solicit clarification from
their party officials so that we will make quality decisions in the
best interest of the country and not personalities. Persons come and
go, but the Gambia, our motherland will remain forever!