We, however, recognise the fact that the security apparatus, especially the Drug and Law Enforcement Agency of The Gambia (DLEAG), have been trying very hard to curb the increasing use of illicit drugs in the country by particularly the youth.
Last year alone, 633 people were arrested, among them 84 foreigners, for illicit drug trafficking and peddling.
Excessive illicit drug use in a country has many detrimental effects which include violence, theft and death. It also aggravates burglary and wanton stabbing and destruction of human life. As a result, it endangers the lives of our youth who are the future leaders of this nation. The health implication and its cost is another problem for families and the government. All hands should therefore be on deck to fight it.
Mr President, the government should provide more logistics to aid the work of DLEAG and other security apparatuses. And the international community, especially the UN system, should also give a helping hand to combating this menace.
The Immigration Department should also increase their efforts at the frontiers to effectively man porous borders to prevent illegal entry into the country.
All these put together should compel government to give full logistic support to the security to carry out their work efficiently and professionally.
Mr President, on the sports front, we welcome the new coach, Jonathan Mckinstry, an Irish, who will become, effective June 1st, the new national coach of our senior team Scorpions. He has replaced Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet, who served as senior national coach for a period of five years and six months and took The Gambia to two consecutive Africa Nations Cup for the first time (2022 and 2023).
Mr President, the new coach has a track record of consistently raising performance at elite level by developing teams, players and staff across Asia and Africa during his almost two decades career as a junior and senior football coach. His first uphill task and mission is to qualify The Gambia to the next Nations Cup in 2025 in Morocco.
Mr President, with this new development and you being the Chief Patron of the Gambia Football Federation, government should give more funding to support and enable the team undertake several international test matches to better prepare the Scorpions for the challenges ahead, for without financial resources we can hardly get good results.
Mr President, it is also very important that the rehabilitation work at the stadium is expedited to get the stadium up to date and to standard.
Having the stadium standardised will help the Gambia to host home matches and handle them very well and successfully.
Good day!