Baby Steps on Our Road to Development

President Jammeh stated, in his recent speech at the fifth convocation ceremony at The University of The Gambia, "If foreigners can give their all for the university, what about we Gambians?" This is a very fair statement and shows that the president is aware of the shortcomings of the government in terms of what they can afford to give to the university. This fact accepted we must move away from depending on money from abroad in terms of expanding our educational and health infrastructure. We speak regularly and rightly about the need for food self sufficiency but we must also strive for self sufficiency in all areas. Only if we achieve this can we develop to our full potential. Nobody wishes to be indebted to anyone for what they have or feel they have it because it was merely handed to them. We all wish to earn, achieve and benefit not only ourselves but those around us and the nation as a whole. We look forward to the expansion of the university in the coming years but more so we look forward to a time when we have a fully functional basic and secondary education system with facilities, materials and fully trained and qualified teachers that is completely non-reliant on donations from abroad or aid of any kind.