#Editorial

Good Morning Mr. President: On OIC, Women, Covid & football!

Aug 23, 2021, 11:50 AM

Mr. President, it was a good move that you decided to go out and inspect the conditions of some of the roads in the country especially during the rainy season.​

We expect that work will commence soonest if we are really serious about our desire to host the next OIC Summit in 2022.

Mr. President, such visits should not only stop at the roads but the hospitals should be your next stop for visits.​

Not forgetting the markets too, the plight of the women should be your top priority if you want to win the next election. Gambian women especially those practising vegetable gardening are crying for proper market space to sell their products on a daily basis. Big markets like Serekunda, Latrikunda and Brikama are in a very bad state especially during the rainy season. Major feeder roads should also be rehabilitated.

Mr. President, your government should engage U.K., European Union, particularly Germany over the deportation of Gambians who did not commit any​ crime in their countries of residence.​
Those who have stayed there for five years upwards should be given due consideration and be given amnesty to stay and work.
Their possible deportation would bring insecurity and affect the economy, increasing the transmission of the pandemic COVID, as the diaspora is playing a key role in the economy with over US$500 million remittances per annum, financial sources have said.
According to the media, Germany recently rejected applications of 4000 Gambians who applied for asylum.​
U.K. and The Gambia have strong ties as ​the former were our colonial masters and we are both members of the Commonwealth.
Many Africans without documents are not targeted like The Gambians which should be looked into.​
Your government should make everything possible for the E.U. and U.K. to rescind their decisions of ​deporting Gambians and leave them to live peacefully in their countries.​

Mr. President, coming back home, with the advent of New Gambia through your leadership, democracy, good governance and rule of law should always be nourished.
Gambians should not abuse our democracy by insulting people or create fake news especially on social media networks.​
We welcome the move by your government​ ​ to draft legislation to bring a lasting solution to raining of insults on innocent citizens daily on social networks.

People insulting, abuse, innuendos daily as stated by government spokesman, Ebrima Sankareh should be stopped.

We are in an election year. We should preserve peace in the country; trouble makers should face the full face of the law.
Permits should be given to all political parties whenever the police think necessary.
People should continue to wear facemasks and respect social distance.


Finally Mr. President, government, NGOs and the business community should come together to help the footballers of the national team for a good preparation for their maiden participation in the African Cup of Nations scheduled to take place from January 9th to February 6th 2022 in Cameroon.
In their group, The Gambia will meet experienced teams like Tunisia who have participated 20 times and won the trophy once in 2004 against Morocco in a 2-1 win in Tunis.​ Mali has participated 12 times and reached the final once but lost against Congo Brazza 3 -2 in 1972 in Cameroon whilst ​Mauritania have participated twice in the Competition, first participating in 2019 in Egypt while The Gambia are debutants.
The team really needs more financial resources to achieve good results and to go further in the competition.

Good day!