Alhagie Jaiteh
56
Watson Green
Road
Dudley
DY2
7LF
West
Midlands
United
Kingdom
5Th,
April, 2017
His
Excellency
Adama
Barrow, President of the Republic of
The Gambia
Office
of the President
State
House
The
Gambia
Banjul.
Your Excellency, Sir,
May
I seize this opportunity to congratulate you on your success at the recent
election and your historic victory, a phenomenon that reaffirmed our
beliefs. Pardon me as this is
congratulation is coming late, but I would like to wish you good luck on behalf
of my village – Kuntaur Fullakunda – in carrying out all your duties during
your stewardship as President.
Sir,
I represent a large group of people from Kuntaur Fullakunda in Diaspora who saw
hope for a better future for the country in you. There is no doubt that the
support you had in the Diaspora was unequalled in the political history of The
Gambia. I may not be a household name; however, my contribution to your success
in becoming a president of The Gambia has not gone unnoticed. I was part of so
many coalition groups e.g. the LLR Coalition Group, and the Fankanta group,
just to name a few. I was nicknamed Junior Sarjo Barrow due to my political
broadcasting during the election campaign and the political impasse.
Although,
we were aware of being technically disenfranchised because of our locations -
out of The Gambia, we did all we could to sensitise our people and the Gambian
masses through blogs, social media, etc that it was time for change. Our access to uninterrupted power supply and
cheap internet broadband made it very easy for us.
Several
things in The Gambia need to change, and if there is one person who has the
determination, courage, dedication and vision to put our country on the right
path to greatness, my hope is, that person is you. The entire country seems to
be galvanised by the speed at which you seem to want to turn around the old
practices of corruption, torture, fear and hardship under the erstwhile
government and create a bustling economy with your ten-point agenda that
focuses on democracy, education, health, safe drinking water, transport, good
governance, energy and infrastructure.
Your
Excellency, we were so excited to hear first that you were visiting Niani
Constituency, and even more excited that you were to our village, Kuntaur
Fullakunda; it was very exciting for my community. The women and youths of the
village were excited and thus feeling enthused. This was a good feeling for the
community as it was the first time a president has visited the village. Saturday, the 25th of March 2017 was going
to be a historic day for our village as it will host a president, for the first
time. To make it memorable, the women
wanted to plant a tree so that the next generation remembers President Adama
Barrow’s visit to our village. There were high hopes among the women
association, youth and community leaders, and the coalition group in the
village hopes that they would have the opportunity to tell you what their
future aspirations are. The village is plagued with problems, including
scarcity of safe drinking water; we also hope that this visit will change our
fate. Problems women face in their gardens and rice fields etc would have been
known to you. Youth group hope that this
visit will bring development in the area. ‘We are getting recognition’ was the
phrase on everyone’s lips.
Mr
President, the news of your visit reached us at a very short notice through the
chief of the district and the coalition chairman in Kuntaur Fullakunda, people
of the minority communities came to help prepare the ground which can
accommodate more than 1,000 people for the event. The village hosted the whole
of Niani and beyond on that day 25th of March 2017; we welcomed everyone with
opened arms by providing food and beverages in abundance. A significant amount
of money was spent from the funds we raised to build a borehole for safe
drinking water system for the village. We did not want to let you, the Niani
constituency and the country down.
Aside
Jakaba village that contributed D5,000 (five thousand dalasis), Alhagie Sillah
brought two bags of rice and some cooking oil, otherwise every penny spent was
put together by the village of Kuntaur Fullakunda community and its people
living in the Diaspora.
Mr
President, on Friday the 24th of March 2017, we were visited at the ground by
special security agencies to examine the security arrangements in place and we
were given thumbs up for our arrangement.
Prior
to your arrival Mr President, we were invited to an impromptu meeting at
1500hrs, at the primary school ground by the coalition chairman, the coalition
women mobiliser and the district chief.
The village /community leaders were presented with the programme
schedule verbally. We were asked by the
coalition team as to how many people we have chosen to speak. This was what we,
Kuntaur Fullakunda village, wanted as our list of speakers: 1. the village Imam
lead prayer; 2. the village Alkalo welcomes the guests; 3. the president of the
women association be allowed (2-5 minutes); 4. the youth association leader be
allowed (2-5 minutes). This is what we
were told by the coalition chairman from Sukuta village: 1.the Imam of Kuntaur
Fullakunda will lead prayers; 2. a speech from your Kuntaur Fullakunda Alkalo
to welcome the guests.
However,
we were disappointed that neither the women association president nor the youth
leader or the Alkalo of our village Kuntaur Fullakunda was called upon by the
chairperson. We felt very embarrassed.
We found that very strange and unacceptable, Sir, this is 21st century,
this is new Gambia and new government.
In any civilised society, hosts of events should always be given the
chance to welcome their guests and we (Kuntaur Fullakunda), the hosts, were
denied that chance to welcome you, Mr President, and your delegation.
To
make matters worse, no explanation was given during and after the meeting as to
why no one from Kuntaur Fullakunda, the hosts, were called upon by the
coalition chairman.
Mr
President, we demand answers and an apology.
“Dialogue” is a word I have always watched you say. If you truly believe
in dialogue I would assume this issue should be addressed as quickly as
possible.
Mr
President you have made a lot of promises, and the people of this great nation
(including me) are with you. I hope you lead this country to the highest. We
need a strong and dynamic leader for that matter and you are the chosen one.
Kind
regards
Youth
Leader
A.
Jaiteh
