The Big Read “Super- power Gambia”

President Jammeh’s Post-AU Summit Speech: "Gambia is a super power"

"First of all, I want to thank the Almighty Allah for making it possible. Secondly, I want to thank the Gambian people, friends of the Gambia and all Africans and none Africans who made the summit a great success. The Gambia is the smallest country in Africa and is described as one of the poorest countries in Africa and also one of the smallest countries in terms of population and land-size. These are facts that cannot be disputed but one thing is certain and I will repeat.

Today The Gambia is a super-power. I always tell you that The Gambia is a super-power but people wonder how can  little Gambia be a super-power. The Gambia is a super-power, not on military terms or its ability to bully other nations, but in its ability to provide comfort, solace and inspiration to all humanity for the benefit of mankind. The Gambia therefore, is a super-power in the service of humanity.

I dare say The Gambia is among few countries where you are not antagonised by its citizens - by virtue of where you come from, religion, or your race. When I look around, it makes me very proud to be an African, but it makes me very grateful to the Almighty Allah for being a Gambian. When you look around, you see our brothers and sisters from Ghana, brother and sisters from Mauritania, brothers and sisters from Guinea Conakry, brothers and sister from Senegal, brothers and sisters from Mali, brothers and sisters from Cote d’Voire, brothers and sisters from Sierre Leone. You think that is the end of the list? There are others to it. Today, every country in Africa is represented by its citizens, living peacefully in this country (An Ethio-Kenyan too!)

I want to thank every human being who in one way or the other has contributed to the success of the African Union Summit. For patriotic Gambians, especially the youth and women, I can’t thank you enough. I stand before you full of emotion. That is why I am wearing sun glasses. I can’t thank you enough but one thing I know and I am certain of is that if I have to take my blood to make you happy I will do it. You have made me very proud. There are also good friends of The Gambia who have been with us throughout.

Open your eyes because this African Union Summit has proven to you who your true and genuine friends are - certain governments, foreigners. There is a particular nation whose citizens have been exceptional throughout and I will reward you accordingly. As from today, the citizens of that country in The Gambia will pay only taxes that Gambians pay because you have shown to us that you love this country as much as patriotic Gambians love this country.

I must say that certain governments have been exceptional to the Republic of The Gambia and I am very grateful that at least one of the ambassadors representing that country is here with me. I want to thank the government and the people of the Republic of Taiwan, through their Ambassador for their extra-ordinary and unprecedented generosity and contribution to the African Union Summit.

Mr Ambassador when you talk to your President tell him that President Jammeh is saying if there is anything that is beyond  "shai shai" tell him "shai shai" and more "shai shai".  I also want to thank the government and people of Turkey. Before the African Union Summit, you must have seen on TV security personnel graduating from their training session, the government of Turkey provided training expert in the fields of counter terrorism and special forces operation.

I also want to thank the government and people of Algeria for they have been true brothers of The Gambia. I also want to thank the government and the people of the Arab Republic of Egypt. Everyone is saying that the organisation is unprecedented, thanks to the professionalism of the Egyptian instructors who trained our beautiful ushers.

Special thanks and gratitude also goes to my brother, my friend, the Emir of Qatar, and the government and the people of Qatar for their unprecedented logistical and financial support. Of course, the government of Taiwan and some countries provided logistic support. Some provided technical support but Qatar provided both logistic and financial support.

The Republic of Taiwan provided assistance in all the areas that you can think of. I want to thank the government and the people of the Republic of South Africa for providing financial support to The Gambia.  I also want to thank His Majesty, the King of Morocco and the people of the Kingdom of Morocco - they have provided logistic, financial and technical support.

You will be wondering why there was no black out. They provided generators as well as personnel to operate on those generators 24hrs.  I also want to thank the government and people of India for providing all the computers and IT equipment that facilitated communication during the process. I also want to thank the government and people of South Korea.  I also want to thank a very special person our honorary Consul General in Milan, Italy, Prof Francesco Cristina. On his own he provided two generators, and provided fuel for 10 days.

I also want to thank our neighbours because Senegal is our second home and The Gambia is a second home for all Senegalese. So when you are thanking people, you thank your family last. They are not the least. I want to thank the government and the people of Senegal for providing financial support.

I also want to thank the government and the people of the Kingdom of Spain for providing very valuable assistance to The Gambia. I also want to thank the government and people of the Kingdom of Thailand, especially the Prime Minister and The King.

The Prime Minister loves The Gambia so much that he sent his deputy Prime Minister to come and attend this African Union Summit in Banjul. Finally, I want to thank all Heads of State and their representatives for attending the African Union Summit, making it unprecedented.

I also want to thank the Nigerian community through the Ambassador.

When we did the last Operation Clean the Nation just before the AU Summit, I saw a group of people ahead of where I was going to. What attracted my attention is the number of men, who participated in the cleaning exercise.

I knew that was not a Gambian group. Gambian men would not like what I am coming to say, but I will be very happy to tell you, if the Nigerian community in The Gambia, led by their distinguished High Commissioner who is a true friend and sister to The Gambia can fully participate in the cleaning exercise, what are the Gambian men doing? These were the comments I hear from the men: "hey the country is very clean, and this should continue."

They had the guts to drive past me, and wave at me, while I was cleaning. If you are not going to participate don’t drive past me to show me that you have a beautiful car. If I as the President cleans the street I don’t know who you are that you cannot clean the street, and you are saying let it continue.
 
If it was not Gambian girls, women and youth, this AU Summit would have been a failure. Each time I go out to participate in a cleaning exercise 99 per cent of all the participants are female gender. Where are the male gender? Do you know why I put women in key positions? If Gambian men continue with these kinds of behaviour and attitude that is detrimental to development, I can say you will be endangered species in my government because you will be so few, and I don’t mind to giving all the cabinet portfolios to the women of this country.

If you are not participating in Operation Clean the Nation, you should stay at home. In fact, you know that it is an offence to drive around whilst we are cleaning the nation. The next Operation Clean the Nation, I will deploy the NIA and the police to see how many civil servants participate. Cleaning the nation is not for the benefit of any individual, but for the benefit of our children and ourselves.

There is no civil servant who is higher than the President, next time if you do not participate in the cleaning exercise you will be looking for a job elsewhere. There is nothing political about cleaning the country. Yet you sit down and say this has to continue. Do you think you are better than anyone of those cleaning the country? They are better than you, because they are showing you that they are better people to develop this country.

I want to thank our brothers and sisters from Ghana, and the cultural troupe of Ghana. I also want to thank my cousins, the hunters from Mali. There are certain groups in The Gambia, who only went to the Airport to welcome their presidents. But the groups I mentioned were there throughout.

I want to thank every Gambian youth and woman for the welcome. There were few men, but it has been successful. Those men who have not participated, what does this tell you? Whether you participate or not, Yahya Jammeh, backed by Gambian women and Gambian youth, will make this country a heaven.

Finally, I want to thank the organisers and participants to the Miss Africa Queen pageantry and all those who participated in the competition. There is always first, second and third and you call them winners. But in the case of the AU pageantry in The Gambia, every participant is a winner, because you have demonstrated what a beautiful continent we would have been if we are all united.

Well I vowed not to throw any bomb. I can stop here, but I will tell you, Gambians and friends of The Gambia that if there was any expression better than thank you, I will would have said it to you. But I can only say may Almighty Allah reward you abundantly. I want to thank the Secretariat, Ushers, Protocols, Drivers, Security, ‘Yai compins’, youths, Governors, Chiefs, cultural troupes and the last but not the least , I want to thank a special friend of The Gambia without whose full participation the AU would not have been held in The Gambia.

Whom am I talking about? It is the one who promised to make me proud and he has made me more than proud- Muhammed Kharaffi. Kharaffi and Sons have built one of the best conference centres in the whole world, not only in Africa. What he has done is unprecedented. Towards the end they were flying equipment by the DHL, because they did not want it to fail.

They are special group of investors that are exceptional and they have invested this much and gone to the extra-mile using the DHL planes to bring equipment to make sure that they complete on time before the summit. One thing I want Gambians to know is that any person I bring into this country, I bring him in your best national interest. When Kharrafi came here people in the system did everything possible to frustrate him. There was a false rumour that the company has a relationship with me. To those people, I tell you thank you, because today I stand a proud African and a proud Gambian.

I also want to thank the media in general for being so skeptical and negative. All what you said which is negative has contributed in facilitating Allah’s blessing so that I prove to the whole world what type of media we have in this country.

People have come and they have seen it for themselves. Allah has rewarded you accordingly by proving you wrong. I also want to thank the government and people of Venezuela and the government and the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I also want to thank our brothers and our true friends, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Last but not the least, I want to thank a special Serer Mustapha Njie and Taf construction and I also want to apologise to his family.

Editor’s note

Excellent speech – the opposition took the "Gambia is a super-power" statement completely out of context, possibly deliberately!