Back and Next - Back and NextA path through the storm
Monday, January 12, 2009
The year 2008, like it has been for previous ones, since 1994, has been one full of experiences.
But 2008 alone left behind an experience of monumental significance – from sudden occurrence of food scarcity, leading to unprecedented hike in prices of basic food stuff, to the emergence of a dismal global economic situation, thanks to a seemingly chronic global financial crisis that continues to grip world economies.
The experience of the totality of the year 2008 will leave a lasting impact in the minds of the people of the world, especially so for us as Gambians, as it served as a turning point for the revolutionisation of a philosophy that emanated from the rather thoughtful leadership we are endowed with, a philosophy that does not only preaches self reliance, but also guarantees total independence.
The man behind this philosophy being no other than His Excellency, Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, president of the Republic of The Gambia. In his end of year interview with GRTS’ Kebba Dibba, President Jammeh discussed, exquisitely, issues very crucial to the development effort of not only this country of ours, but the entire humanity - from attitudinal change among all levels of society, to religious tolerance, patriotism and self-respect, among a host of other relevant matters.
Given the significance of the lessons embedded in this close to an hour discussion of the Gambian leader, the Daily Observer deemed it obliging for our ever increasing readership, which includes not only Gambians and non-Gambians residing in the country, but those outside the country, to share from it. We hereby reproduce, thanks to the permission of the producer, Kebba Dibba, an extract of the transcript of that landmark interview.
Please, read on.
Ever optimistic
I do hope that 2009 will be history, as I look forward to bridging Janjanbureh, as I promised earlier. I wanted the actual construction to start in 2008, but unfortunately it was not possible. But I am very certain that 2009 will see the construction of the bridge in Janjanbureh. I have strong faith in the supremacy of Allah, so no matter whatever happen, I always have my faith in Allah.
I believe and trust that Allah will not allow anything bad to happen to what we have done so far. In fact, each time I look at global events, I become more optimistic because I know that the Almighty Allah must answer my prayers to make this country the best on earth. So I have never been pessimistic about events.
Concerning the attitude of the people, it has changed dramatically in 2008. So as I said, 2008 has been the best year for me, because for the past 12 years, I have been calling people to go back to the land, to the extent of encouraging even the young people to go to the land.
We made agriculture less labour intensive by providing tractors free of charge. Nobody listened to us. But in 2008, there were tractors for sale and people were buying them. So that tells you that there has been a fundamental change of attitude with regards to the people of this country. But I also want to see more positive change of attitude, especially on the side of the youths.
There was a time that they have NAYCONF in Brikama and they came up with a resolution, and I called the SoS for Youth and Sport and told him that I hope that all the resolutions that are passed would be implemented to see positive change amongst the youths. And they promised me that by next NAYCONF, 2008, things would change, you would see positive change of attitude.
And I made it clear to them that if by next NAYCONF you failed to implement the resolutions passed in Brikama, I would not attend the 2008 NAYCONF. And that is my principle.It is the youth of this country who makes me feel proud and not the old people.
And the youths do nothing but to take money from their parents to invest in perilous journeys across the Atlantic to Europe, only to come back deported or end up been a meal for the shark. And then what happens to the parents who were obliged to sell their legal resources?
So parents also have to believe in God. There is a lot of greed. They would tell people go to Europe and get money so that we can be free from this poverty. Europe will not free you from poverty. There are people in this country - evil people - who would say the Jammeh administration doesn’t want the youth to go to Europe. If there is anybody on the face of this earth who want to see the youths of this country to prosper and live happily and be proud people, not only citizens of this country but the world over, I am one of them.
I have no ill intention towards the youths, but when we tell them don’t go, it doesn’t mean that we don’t want them to prosper. We want them to prosper in dignity and not risk their lives for nothing.
It is insanity that people believe that you can only sit down and hope that one day your son goes to Europe and makes you a rich person, which is sad. But if you don’t believe in God, these are the sort of dreams you entertain, that you sit around doing nothing and encourage your son to take a perilous journey across the Atlantic, on boats, only to either sink or end up being asylum seekers and being deported back to The Gambia, to square one; and then you wonder what is next.
If you are greedy, make an effort to meet your own ends, make an effort to live by your own sweat. But no, they would always blame the government for everything that is happening.
If the country is very bad, how many foreigners do we have in this country - young people for that matter, from the sub-region? If foreigners can become successful in this country, what about you as Gambians? So the youths must change their attitude because I am not happy with them. What we want is development for this country, and that cannot be achieved in the absence of youths.
The easiest way to wealth is the easiest way to the grave; the shortest cut to the grave. You think you will go to Europe and all of a sudden you became a millionaire? They will say that you are illegal and you end up in prison or you end up a destitute. You go and sell drugs and you come back you think that you are a rich man. Since when have we seen a drug dealer in this country, who has been selling drugs in Europe, build a house and it has lasted? Tell me one rich man who made it through drugs and he still continues to be rich and the wealth is sustainable.
As long as you are engaged in activities that put the lives of innocent people in jeopardy, especially the young people, just because you want so make money, you will end up in jeopardy. You heard of people like Pablo Escobar who had billions. He died like a dog. Where are his billions gone? You heard of drug dealers around the world who had made money and they ended up dying like dogs or ended up been in prison. And by the time they come back from prison, they are complete destitute. Why can’t we believe in God if we call ourselves Muslims and Christians?
Global food crisis
I think Gambians are now conscious enough to know that most of the food that is sent to Africa, not only the Gambia, 98 percent of it is not very good for us.
So why can’t we produce our own food? And how is rice produced across the world and exported to Africa? We may even have better geographical conditions conducive for massive production of rice, in large quantities, than those countries that are producing them.
But it is very interesting that there are countries in Africa, West Africa for that matter, where what they produce is seed rice, which is exported to those countries which produce much outside of Africa and send it back to Africa, including to those countries that produce seed rice. So it tells you that West Africa alone, if we focus on rice production, we can even replace the major rice producers in Asia.
China may not be possible because they have millions of people in agriculture. But what is important is that we can say Africa doesn’t import rice from any country anywhere outside of the African continent. We should be able to produce enough rice in Africa.
In the Gambia, we should be able to feed ourselves to the extent where we would go back to those years when they used to say; I don’t eat imported rice because it smells. If you go to the provinces this is so.
I remember even my dad used to say so during raining season. That was the only time we eat imported rice. This was in fact due to the fact that it rains sometimes three days and, as a result, they couldn’t dry the rice to be able to pound it for them to cook, especially in August.
Health, national pride, self respect and dignity
In those days people were living healthy lives and there was noting like treated bed nets, as there were very few mosquitoes due to intense rains. In those days people were not dying of malaria very often. Now with all these health care facilities available in the country, coupled with the number of doctors, yet people are dying of Malaria.
This is because the body system (immune system) is weak, which can only be attributed to the environment, our style of living and what we eat. Most of the foods grown in other sub-regional countries can be grown in The Gambia. For example, you will be surprised to know that if you go to Mali, you will find out that the yams that were here in The Gambia are there today, as well as other rice varieties.
All what can be grown in Mali and Nigeria can as well be grown in The Gambia. Now look at Nigeria and its population, have you heard of any food crisis in that country? No, because rice is not an issue in Nigeria. In fact, that is why they call it Jollof rice. If you go to Nigeria, in fact to one of their best hotels, three quarter of their menu is Nigerian. Now if you go to our Gambian hotels, you hardly find a Gambian dish on a menu. All is European. This is the problem.
Today, if you go to a school and select 100 girls to cook, 99% will not be able to cook because of what we call junk food. Every thing is being imported. Everyday they advertise new food stuff. In fact, I am going to tell the SoS for health that all the food stuffs that they are advertising to pass quality and standard test, because there are so many new health problems that were alien to the Gambia, which can only be attributed to the type of food stuffs we eat.
I also have a piece of advice for those who advertise - before you eat anything in the advertisement, you have to know what you are coming to eat, and where it comes from, because it may cause you more than what you have been paid to do the advertisement. But why can’t Gambians go back to our diets to live long and healthier? What is even more important is that let us go back to our roots.
Let us go back to our traditional days and eat what we know. In those days, there were very few asthmatic patients; diabetes was unheard of, and high blood pressure was for only few old people. But today, these are things that are rampant.
So we have to cherish our tradition. The time we came in we called on people to go back to our roots. And in fact that was why we were calling for national pride when we came on, self respect and dignity. And for you to have a sense of pride, self respect and independence, you must be able to feed yourself, and there we were and still calling for.
The ingredients of development: Education; change of attitude; and patriotism.
It has taken 14 years for the people really to see my message. Whatever I tell Gambians they should do. If we do it, we may not see the reason why we get it. But I can swear that whatever I tell Gambians to do, it is in their best interest, whether they see it at that time or not, but certainly they will see the reason why I told them later on. And not just for the sake of talking.
I have been trying for this country to be the best in the world. I will live and die for this country. In fact, that is why we have the vision 2020 blue print, so that for every one to know our direction. Without that blue print, we don’t build the country because I believe in giving people a surprise. But because we don’t tell the people our goals and objectives, it may be practically impossible to bring some people on board. But how do we get there? This is what we have to do.
What are the ingredients? Education is one; a change of attitude is two; patriotism is paramount. Without it we cannot achieve the vision 2020. And if we are patriotic we must love each other because it is not only a single group or set of people that would be able to take us there. We must reach our destination as a country, and as a people.
So we have to disregard tribalism and where a particular tribe comes from in the country. We must look at the country and put its interest first ahead of our personal interests. When we do that we will be able to achieve the vision.
Importance of good leadership
Leadership is very important as the type determines the direction of the country. Look at Africa from independence to date; Africa is still the richest continent in terms of natural resources. And why are we always cited as the poorest of the poor? When they are talking about assistance to the worlds’ children, they show staving African children in refugee camps.
As if for the whole of the African continent - the future is bleak! It is only we the Africans that can turn that around and control our resources. Apart from few countries, the rest of African countries with mineral resources are paid only 3 percent royalty for the minerals that are been extracted from their countries by Western multinational companies. Out of a hundred, the whole country gets only 3 percent, when the mineral resources belong to us.
In fact, there are certain financial institutions that encourage Africa to be backward, because they would always say ‘leave that to the private sector, when the African private sector doesn’t have the means.
We thought that we are free from colonialism, only to fall into the worst form of colonialism, which is economic exploitation. So we have to really change our attitude, and that is why leadership is paramount to the overall attainment of the vision. I am not against anybody, but my people come first. We have been exploited for a very long time, and enough is enough! Leadership is very important in Africa.
How many of us are ready to confront them and say this is what we want for our people. If I had wanted just to produce oil for the sake of producing it, we would have been exporting oil by now. But we don’t accept 3 percent or 5 percent over a period of 35 years when it belongs to the Gambians, and we take only that percentage for those years. No! Not in my administration. I am ready to leave it there for one billion years than allowing them to come and take over it and become richer, and yet treat my people like dogs when they go to their country.
This is the reason why we have not exploited the oil. Look at all the companies that produce coffee. These are Western companies. There is no major Western producer of coffee, yet one company that produces coffee is richer than all the African coffee producing countries put together.
You know why? For example if they take African coffee - the beans at one dollar per kilo, they go and process the same bean and sell it 15 dollars per kilo. And then as an African farmer, I work for 6 months to produce these beans and all what I get is a dollar per kilo. So 1000 kilo which is one tone, I get only 1000 dollars, and then they tell you that the world market price has been very good for you. This is how they still treat us, as fools, and then they tell us oh, Africans, you are backward because you are lazy and, or you are not working or because the governments are not democratic.
Under this massive exploitation, I never heard of a conference that they summoned in defence of African farmers or to say as from now the rights of African farmers would be protected to the extent that we will no longer fix the price for their raw materials, but we would sit down and discuss so that we fix the price that is mutually beneficial to us.
Have you ever heard of the UN calling for such conference, EU or America? No! Because any day that the African farmer has the right to fix the price for his raw materials, that is the day we would kiss poverty good bye in Africa. But that day may not happen as long as we have leadership that are serving Western interest.
Tenants - landlord relationship
There are people who are charging citizens in foreign currency, so that only foreigners can live in their compounds. These days I have been calm for a while. In fact in 2008 I have not fired many people because I want Gambians to see if I don’t fire people what happens. Those involved in such activities should know that it is illegal.
In fact now that we have a real IGP, the police would work with rent control and the department of state responsible to make sure that this nonsense does not continue. They should make good accommodation attainable and affordable to Gambians. This problem would be solved as it is unacceptable, and they are seeking their candidacy to go to jail.
Can you believe that there are foreigners who came to this country, Europeans for that matter, and got involved in charging in foreign currency (Pound Standing) and never paid tax? I am giving them a warning because I am not going to compromise. I want the best for the Gambian people and I would not accept to be derailed by ungodly, greedy people.
Let them try and continue doing such and see where they would end up. By February they would celebrate independence in jail. Not only on rent, but I am made to understand that in certain part of the country where, when you want to buy something, they ask for CFA. If I caught them they would go to jail straight.
In this country, nobody will mess my people. If they want to trade they should go to CFA countries, because my country is not a CFA country. Whatever I have here is for people. So no matter how big my country is, how many people do we have in this country? It is just unfortunate that few people out of the 1.5milion are responding to my call in farming.
What I want to tell the Gambian people is to strive hard and make the country what we want it to be. This would require working together despite our differences. If we all come on board, we can make this country the greatest nation on earth.
But 2008 alone left behind an experience of monumental significance – from sudden occurrence of food scarcity, leading to unprecedented hike in prices of basic food stuff, to the emergence of a dismal global economic situation, thanks to a seemingly chronic global financial crisis that continues to grip world economies.
The experience of the totality of the year 2008 will leave a lasting impact in the minds of the people of the world, especially so for us as Gambians, as it served as a turning point for the revolutionisation of a philosophy that emanated from the rather thoughtful leadership we are endowed with, a philosophy that does not only preaches self reliance, but also guarantees total independence.
The man behind this philosophy being no other than His Excellency, Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, president of the Republic of The Gambia. In his end of year interview with GRTS’ Kebba Dibba, President Jammeh discussed, exquisitely, issues very crucial to the development effort of not only this country of ours, but the entire humanity - from attitudinal change among all levels of society, to religious tolerance, patriotism and self-respect, among a host of other relevant matters.
Given the significance of the lessons embedded in this close to an hour discussion of the Gambian leader, the Daily Observer deemed it obliging for our ever increasing readership, which includes not only Gambians and non-Gambians residing in the country, but those outside the country, to share from it. We hereby reproduce, thanks to the permission of the producer, Kebba Dibba, an extract of the transcript of that landmark interview.
Please, read on.
Ever optimistic
I do hope that 2009 will be history, as I look forward to bridging Janjanbureh, as I promised earlier. I wanted the actual construction to start in 2008, but unfortunately it was not possible. But I am very certain that 2009 will see the construction of the bridge in Janjanbureh. I have strong faith in the supremacy of Allah, so no matter whatever happen, I always have my faith in Allah.
I believe and trust that Allah will not allow anything bad to happen to what we have done so far. In fact, each time I look at global events, I become more optimistic because I know that the Almighty Allah must answer my prayers to make this country the best on earth. So I have never been pessimistic about events.
Concerning the attitude of the people, it has changed dramatically in 2008. So as I said, 2008 has been the best year for me, because for the past 12 years, I have been calling people to go back to the land, to the extent of encouraging even the young people to go to the land.
We made agriculture less labour intensive by providing tractors free of charge. Nobody listened to us. But in 2008, there were tractors for sale and people were buying them. So that tells you that there has been a fundamental change of attitude with regards to the people of this country. But I also want to see more positive change of attitude, especially on the side of the youths.
There was a time that they have NAYCONF in Brikama and they came up with a resolution, and I called the SoS for Youth and Sport and told him that I hope that all the resolutions that are passed would be implemented to see positive change amongst the youths. And they promised me that by next NAYCONF, 2008, things would change, you would see positive change of attitude.
And I made it clear to them that if by next NAYCONF you failed to implement the resolutions passed in Brikama, I would not attend the 2008 NAYCONF. And that is my principle.It is the youth of this country who makes me feel proud and not the old people.
And the youths do nothing but to take money from their parents to invest in perilous journeys across the Atlantic to Europe, only to come back deported or end up been a meal for the shark. And then what happens to the parents who were obliged to sell their legal resources?
So parents also have to believe in God. There is a lot of greed. They would tell people go to Europe and get money so that we can be free from this poverty. Europe will not free you from poverty. There are people in this country - evil people - who would say the Jammeh administration doesn’t want the youth to go to Europe. If there is anybody on the face of this earth who want to see the youths of this country to prosper and live happily and be proud people, not only citizens of this country but the world over, I am one of them.
I have no ill intention towards the youths, but when we tell them don’t go, it doesn’t mean that we don’t want them to prosper. We want them to prosper in dignity and not risk their lives for nothing.
It is insanity that people believe that you can only sit down and hope that one day your son goes to Europe and makes you a rich person, which is sad. But if you don’t believe in God, these are the sort of dreams you entertain, that you sit around doing nothing and encourage your son to take a perilous journey across the Atlantic, on boats, only to either sink or end up being asylum seekers and being deported back to The Gambia, to square one; and then you wonder what is next.
If you are greedy, make an effort to meet your own ends, make an effort to live by your own sweat. But no, they would always blame the government for everything that is happening.
If the country is very bad, how many foreigners do we have in this country - young people for that matter, from the sub-region? If foreigners can become successful in this country, what about you as Gambians? So the youths must change their attitude because I am not happy with them. What we want is development for this country, and that cannot be achieved in the absence of youths.
The easiest way to wealth is the easiest way to the grave; the shortest cut to the grave. You think you will go to Europe and all of a sudden you became a millionaire? They will say that you are illegal and you end up in prison or you end up a destitute. You go and sell drugs and you come back you think that you are a rich man. Since when have we seen a drug dealer in this country, who has been selling drugs in Europe, build a house and it has lasted? Tell me one rich man who made it through drugs and he still continues to be rich and the wealth is sustainable.
As long as you are engaged in activities that put the lives of innocent people in jeopardy, especially the young people, just because you want so make money, you will end up in jeopardy. You heard of people like Pablo Escobar who had billions. He died like a dog. Where are his billions gone? You heard of drug dealers around the world who had made money and they ended up dying like dogs or ended up been in prison. And by the time they come back from prison, they are complete destitute. Why can’t we believe in God if we call ourselves Muslims and Christians?
Global food crisis
I think Gambians are now conscious enough to know that most of the food that is sent to Africa, not only the Gambia, 98 percent of it is not very good for us.
So why can’t we produce our own food? And how is rice produced across the world and exported to Africa? We may even have better geographical conditions conducive for massive production of rice, in large quantities, than those countries that are producing them.
But it is very interesting that there are countries in Africa, West Africa for that matter, where what they produce is seed rice, which is exported to those countries which produce much outside of Africa and send it back to Africa, including to those countries that produce seed rice. So it tells you that West Africa alone, if we focus on rice production, we can even replace the major rice producers in Asia.
China may not be possible because they have millions of people in agriculture. But what is important is that we can say Africa doesn’t import rice from any country anywhere outside of the African continent. We should be able to produce enough rice in Africa.
In the Gambia, we should be able to feed ourselves to the extent where we would go back to those years when they used to say; I don’t eat imported rice because it smells. If you go to the provinces this is so.
I remember even my dad used to say so during raining season. That was the only time we eat imported rice. This was in fact due to the fact that it rains sometimes three days and, as a result, they couldn’t dry the rice to be able to pound it for them to cook, especially in August.
Health, national pride, self respect and dignity
In those days people were living healthy lives and there was noting like treated bed nets, as there were very few mosquitoes due to intense rains. In those days people were not dying of malaria very often. Now with all these health care facilities available in the country, coupled with the number of doctors, yet people are dying of Malaria.
This is because the body system (immune system) is weak, which can only be attributed to the environment, our style of living and what we eat. Most of the foods grown in other sub-regional countries can be grown in The Gambia. For example, you will be surprised to know that if you go to Mali, you will find out that the yams that were here in The Gambia are there today, as well as other rice varieties.
All what can be grown in Mali and Nigeria can as well be grown in The Gambia. Now look at Nigeria and its population, have you heard of any food crisis in that country? No, because rice is not an issue in Nigeria. In fact, that is why they call it Jollof rice. If you go to Nigeria, in fact to one of their best hotels, three quarter of their menu is Nigerian. Now if you go to our Gambian hotels, you hardly find a Gambian dish on a menu. All is European. This is the problem.
Today, if you go to a school and select 100 girls to cook, 99% will not be able to cook because of what we call junk food. Every thing is being imported. Everyday they advertise new food stuff. In fact, I am going to tell the SoS for health that all the food stuffs that they are advertising to pass quality and standard test, because there are so many new health problems that were alien to the Gambia, which can only be attributed to the type of food stuffs we eat.
I also have a piece of advice for those who advertise - before you eat anything in the advertisement, you have to know what you are coming to eat, and where it comes from, because it may cause you more than what you have been paid to do the advertisement. But why can’t Gambians go back to our diets to live long and healthier? What is even more important is that let us go back to our roots.
Let us go back to our traditional days and eat what we know. In those days, there were very few asthmatic patients; diabetes was unheard of, and high blood pressure was for only few old people. But today, these are things that are rampant.
So we have to cherish our tradition. The time we came in we called on people to go back to our roots. And in fact that was why we were calling for national pride when we came on, self respect and dignity. And for you to have a sense of pride, self respect and independence, you must be able to feed yourself, and there we were and still calling for.
The ingredients of development: Education; change of attitude; and patriotism.
It has taken 14 years for the people really to see my message. Whatever I tell Gambians they should do. If we do it, we may not see the reason why we get it. But I can swear that whatever I tell Gambians to do, it is in their best interest, whether they see it at that time or not, but certainly they will see the reason why I told them later on. And not just for the sake of talking.
I have been trying for this country to be the best in the world. I will live and die for this country. In fact, that is why we have the vision 2020 blue print, so that for every one to know our direction. Without that blue print, we don’t build the country because I believe in giving people a surprise. But because we don’t tell the people our goals and objectives, it may be practically impossible to bring some people on board. But how do we get there? This is what we have to do.
What are the ingredients? Education is one; a change of attitude is two; patriotism is paramount. Without it we cannot achieve the vision 2020. And if we are patriotic we must love each other because it is not only a single group or set of people that would be able to take us there. We must reach our destination as a country, and as a people.
So we have to disregard tribalism and where a particular tribe comes from in the country. We must look at the country and put its interest first ahead of our personal interests. When we do that we will be able to achieve the vision.
Importance of good leadership
Leadership is very important as the type determines the direction of the country. Look at Africa from independence to date; Africa is still the richest continent in terms of natural resources. And why are we always cited as the poorest of the poor? When they are talking about assistance to the worlds’ children, they show staving African children in refugee camps.
As if for the whole of the African continent - the future is bleak! It is only we the Africans that can turn that around and control our resources. Apart from few countries, the rest of African countries with mineral resources are paid only 3 percent royalty for the minerals that are been extracted from their countries by Western multinational companies. Out of a hundred, the whole country gets only 3 percent, when the mineral resources belong to us.
In fact, there are certain financial institutions that encourage Africa to be backward, because they would always say ‘leave that to the private sector, when the African private sector doesn’t have the means.
We thought that we are free from colonialism, only to fall into the worst form of colonialism, which is economic exploitation. So we have to really change our attitude, and that is why leadership is paramount to the overall attainment of the vision. I am not against anybody, but my people come first. We have been exploited for a very long time, and enough is enough! Leadership is very important in Africa.
How many of us are ready to confront them and say this is what we want for our people. If I had wanted just to produce oil for the sake of producing it, we would have been exporting oil by now. But we don’t accept 3 percent or 5 percent over a period of 35 years when it belongs to the Gambians, and we take only that percentage for those years. No! Not in my administration. I am ready to leave it there for one billion years than allowing them to come and take over it and become richer, and yet treat my people like dogs when they go to their country.
This is the reason why we have not exploited the oil. Look at all the companies that produce coffee. These are Western companies. There is no major Western producer of coffee, yet one company that produces coffee is richer than all the African coffee producing countries put together.
You know why? For example if they take African coffee - the beans at one dollar per kilo, they go and process the same bean and sell it 15 dollars per kilo. And then as an African farmer, I work for 6 months to produce these beans and all what I get is a dollar per kilo. So 1000 kilo which is one tone, I get only 1000 dollars, and then they tell you that the world market price has been very good for you. This is how they still treat us, as fools, and then they tell us oh, Africans, you are backward because you are lazy and, or you are not working or because the governments are not democratic.
Under this massive exploitation, I never heard of a conference that they summoned in defence of African farmers or to say as from now the rights of African farmers would be protected to the extent that we will no longer fix the price for their raw materials, but we would sit down and discuss so that we fix the price that is mutually beneficial to us.
Have you ever heard of the UN calling for such conference, EU or America? No! Because any day that the African farmer has the right to fix the price for his raw materials, that is the day we would kiss poverty good bye in Africa. But that day may not happen as long as we have leadership that are serving Western interest.
Tenants - landlord relationship
There are people who are charging citizens in foreign currency, so that only foreigners can live in their compounds. These days I have been calm for a while. In fact in 2008 I have not fired many people because I want Gambians to see if I don’t fire people what happens. Those involved in such activities should know that it is illegal.
In fact now that we have a real IGP, the police would work with rent control and the department of state responsible to make sure that this nonsense does not continue. They should make good accommodation attainable and affordable to Gambians. This problem would be solved as it is unacceptable, and they are seeking their candidacy to go to jail.
Can you believe that there are foreigners who came to this country, Europeans for that matter, and got involved in charging in foreign currency (Pound Standing) and never paid tax? I am giving them a warning because I am not going to compromise. I want the best for the Gambian people and I would not accept to be derailed by ungodly, greedy people.
Let them try and continue doing such and see where they would end up. By February they would celebrate independence in jail. Not only on rent, but I am made to understand that in certain part of the country where, when you want to buy something, they ask for CFA. If I caught them they would go to jail straight.
In this country, nobody will mess my people. If they want to trade they should go to CFA countries, because my country is not a CFA country. Whatever I have here is for people. So no matter how big my country is, how many people do we have in this country? It is just unfortunate that few people out of the 1.5milion are responding to my call in farming.
What I want to tell the Gambian people is to strive hard and make the country what we want it to be. This would require working together despite our differences. If we all come on board, we can make this country the greatest nation on earth.
Author: DO
See Also - See Also