Sidia Jatta Blames Africa’s Woes on the West

In what could be seen as another instance of tough talking by a prominent African politician against Western governments, Hon. Sidia Jatta, the National Assembly Member for Wuli West constituency, who poises as a titan in the opposition National Alliance for Democracy and Development, have strongly spoken against what he called Western government’s tendency to champion plots to destabilise the African continent, blaming the continent’s poverty on what he termed as colonial gerrymandering.

In his recent contribution to the ratification of the revised colonial partnership agreement between the ACP-EU countries at the national Assembly, Hon. Jatta blamed western governments for being largely responsible for the poverty of the African continent.

“The continent has become poor mainly because of their colonial gerrymandering. If they come today and say that they want to develop the African continent…The Gambia where they stayed for over 100 years and have not left us with any senior institute of learning, I wonder whether there is any sincerity,” he said.

Hon. Jatta added that, “Yes the African continent cannot be an island on to itself but independence means the capacity to learn, to stand on your feet. We cannot depend primarily on others for our immediate things. The time for taking all the time is over. We must also give.”

According to the Wuli West parliamentarian, Africans must carry on the struggle to free the continent. “We are not free. This is not a symbol of freedom. Yes they may say partnership every where but at the end of the day they control the key.

“What angers me is that they are all armed to the teeth and they don’t want anybody else to have any weapons. They want us to keep on importing weapons from them. They encourage us to import from them in order for them to dispose of their weapons and yet, they are talking against our established governments in the early 60s. I am referring to Europe and the United States,” Hon. Jatta asserted.

The Wuli West parliamentarian claimed that the West have tended to condone and connive with those bent on destabilising Africa by way of removing progressive governments in the early 60s. “And now they are saying we should fight against terrorism when they were terrorists. By removing these governments, they have set us back and they have said nothing about that,” Hon. Jatta fumed.

He therefore cautioned members of the National Assembly to critically review every agreement they may want to enter into because, according to him, some agreements are meant to deter our development.