President Jammeh returns from AU Summit

The Gambian leader, Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, has once again reiterated the need for continental unity in order for Africa to attain its desired goals.

He was speaking at the Banjul International Airport, shortly after arriving from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he attended the 12th ordinary session of heads of state and government of the African Union.

President Jammeh was accompanied to Addis Ababa by a high ranking delegation, and on his return to Banjul, was received at the airport by the vice president, Aja Dr Isatou Njie Saidy, secretaries of state, National Assembly members, service chiefs, members of the diplomatic and consular community, a cross section of civil servants, students and cultural groups.

President Jammeh told reporters that The Gambia has always advocated for unity. “In fact, we were the authors among the heads of states that initiated the transformation from OAU to AU,” he said, and added: “I played a leading role in that.” The idea, President Jammeh went on, is that Africa must be united. He stressed that without unity, Africa can never be strong; Africa will never be respected, and that our resources will never benefit us.

Professor Jammeh pointed to the typical example of the fact that all the continents are represented at the level of the United Nations Security Council, with permanent members, except Africa. This, he believes, is unacceptable, especially when Africa is the main source of raw materials for the developed North. He questioned the rationale behind such a status quo.

He pointed out that “without Africa the industries of the North will close” as they will not have the resources to function. President Jammeh also laid the blame for Africa’s underdevelopment partly on division among African countries, indicating that it serves as a cause for our failure to be represented permanently at the Security Council, leaving the continent without a single veto power.

“For us to be respected, we have to be united,” he said, “we have to speak with one voice.”  He further pointed out that it has always been his dream to see a unified Africa that speaks with one voice.

Responding to a question regarding the nature of infrastructural development in the continent, President Jammeh said although at individual levels (country-by-country basis) it might vary, at the continental level Africa is “very, very backward.” He also harped on the limitations created by lack of infrastructure such as communication and trading infrastructure, pointing out that it is not possible to travel to Nigeria from Gambia by road, or by train, which makes it difficult to pursue business undertakings within the continent.

All these, President Jammeh indicated, impact immensely on the continent’s development drive. He observed that while within European countries, one will be able to move from one place to the other freely, it is almost impossible to do so in the continent of Africa, “because the infrastructure is not there”.

Also citing the chronic problem of electricity supply as an example, President Jammeh stressed that there are countries in Africa endowed with enough water falls that, if harnessed properly, could supply a greater part of the continent with hydroelectric power, but because of the fact that the infrastructure is not there, the people of Africa have been limited in the harnessing of our natural resources.

Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Liberia put together and possessing the requisite agricultural infrastructure, the president said, “could compete the Asians in the production of rice and other foodstuffs”. But again, he noted, the infrastructure is not there.

He said: “Even in The Gambia, we have not achieved 10% of the infrastructural development that I aim for, for the country to be a modern one. We want a railway, we want Gambians to be able to choose to travel either by road, by rail or by air. In The Gambia, we have only one airport. Is that safe for a country?” he enquired and added: “We should have another airport somewhere in the interior.”

President Jammeh went on: “What we did was to lay a solid foundation for us to be able to work seriously together so that we integrate all these - road infrastructure, commercial and political infrastructure.” President Jammeh further stressed that he is very much interested in the laying of a solid foundation for the eventual unification of Africa; and he expressed satisfaction with the fact that the African Union Commission has been given more authority.

He said: “Instead of it being a commission that has no teeth to bite, now it has an authority to pass anything that will be binding on member countries.” Once more, the Gambian leader took on the West for being “hypocrites.” He said they imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, thereby deepening poverty in that country, only for them to turn around and blame the poverty on Mugabe. He said that after the outbreak of cholera in the Southern African nation, instead of them (the West) coming to the aid of the people of Zimbabwe, they were calling for military action against the country.

He expressed regret at the fact that the cholera outbreak has killed a lot of people in Zimbabwe, noting, however, that if this situation were in some European country, things would have been different. He said even if they (the West) disagreed with that country; they would have solved the problem in a different way.

As far as President Jammeh is concerned, the issue is a matter of saving the people of Zimbabwe, not Mugabe. He concluded: “Since there is now a government of national unity, there is no need for sanctions. And if the AU takes a stance, these sanctions will be lifted.”