GPU Prexy Speaks on His Position on Choice of Executive

In the count down to the Gambia Press Union (GPU) congress, Mr Madi Ceesay, the outgoing president of the union, has said that whatever the case might be GPU is for Gambian journalists who, ipso facto, should take control of it. “I expect from Gambian journalists, especially those journalists who are committed members and met all the requirements of being members of GPU, to fight tooth and nail to make sure that the GPU falls into the right hands.

“They should exercise maturity. We should not be a laughing stock. The whole world is watching us, and the only advice I can give people is that journalist associations are unique: No puppet executive can run any national union in the world. It has not happened anywhere, and it will not happen here,” he stated.

Mr Ceesay went on to outline the characteristics of the ideal executive body, saying: “We want the affairs of the union to be in correct hands that will look at the welfare of the journalists. What we need in this country is continuous training.”

“I think common sense will teach anybody that those who rushed in the last dying minutes of the outgoing executive only have an agenda. Otherwise, if you are a practising journalist in this country, you sit down relaxed as if there is no GPU even though you have been benefiting from GPU-organised training and many other things, but you decided not to become a member until when the executive took it upon itself to visit media houses to educate and sensitise journalists in this country about the GPU,” he asserted.

Mr Ceesay’s comments come amidst widespread allegations that the has committed more time and devotion to his company, Media Agenda, rather than the affairs of GPU.

Critics of the outgoing executive have also charged that they have failed to deliver as expected of them, hence the call for them to be replaced.

But for Mr Ceesay, this is far from the reality: “I really don’t have any words for those who feel that we have failed them. The general public would be their own judges. I don’t have to speak for myself. I don’t have to speak for the executive, and I don’t intend to defend my executive. What we have done is physical.”

Speaking in an interview with this paper recently, Mr Ceesay extolled some of the projects that his executive helped engineer, among them the acquisition of a printing press, the setting up of an Internet Café and the D1.2 million GAMES training project.

Mr Ceesay, who declined to make known whether he would be contesting this time around, maintained that people have the right to their opinions, noting that what he believed in is action. “Actions will speak for themselves,” he remarked.

The GPU congress is scheduled for Saturday 22nd March 2008.