The tour will also avail you the opportunity to visit ongoing projects, and where possible lay foundation stones for other projects. However, no one needs to remind you that this tour is a constitutionally mandated tour as you should one or twice embark on a countrywide tour every year. Therefore, since the tour is mainly to listen to the concerns of local people, it should not be hijacked by politics that could at the end of the day defeat the purpose. The tour is for your technocrats to listen to issues affecting Gambians with a view to addressing them.
Mr. President, this year’s groundnut trade season will soon begin and farmers are expecting good prices. The government should therefore do everything possible in ensuring that there is a good price. We are quite sure that if this year’s price is good, farmers in the country will not sell their groundnuts in other countries as it used to happen. Farming in this country is extremely difficult. Many farmers in the country lack modern equipment for their farming and need reasonable prices to purchase fertiliser. They depend entirely on this farming for their survival. It is through the little they get from farming that they use cater for their needs.
Mr. President, it is also important that your government focuses more on rice production. The country has a vast area of land that is fit for rice production. If we are really committed to it, there is a high tendency that we can stop the importation of rice in the country or reduce it. The rice field in Jahally Pacharr in the Central River Region, including the vast area of land in Nanija District and around Tambasansang in the Tumana District, if utilised, can feed the entire country. Agriculture, which is the backbone of the country, needs to get the highest in the country's budget. We could use our bilateral relationship with other countries, especially the People’s Republic of China with a view for them to help us with modern farming technologies and also with technocrats who will be training our local staff in the country.
Mr. President another issue that the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) should really focus on is addressing the inhumane treatment of Africans especially young people who continue to endure such fate. The African Heads of State Summit should take up this issue with utmost seriousness. African migrants who have stayed in Europe for many years without any criminal records should be given opportunities to have documents and work in those countries. Sending those migrants who create no problems back to Africa has many consequences. In fact, most of these Africans do encounter this problem in the Middle East. For some of them, the moment they arrive in those countries, there documents are seized and they are subjected to lot of maltreatment with little payment. Such inhumane treatment must stop.
Finally, Mr. President, it is important that your government brings back the draft constitution and do away with the 1997 Constitution. The 1997 constitution which was brought by the former regime had been butchered more than 50 times just to favour the former regime. Therefore, this government shouldn’t be still working with that constitution. More than one hundred million dalasis was spent on the draft constitution, hence it shouldn’t be wasted like that. It’s important that we look at the draft constitution critically and where possible change some parts for the interest of the country.
Good Day!