Prof Gomez was speaking shortly after his recent familiarisation tour which he embarked on by visiting Malik Mendy’s tailoring shop and the President’s International Award (PIA).
The tour was purposely for the minister to have firsthand information on strides, experiences, achievement registered and challenges encountered by the institutions.
The tour was also to see how best MoHERST could effectively collaborate with the institutions to enable them achieve their institutional goals as far as TVET programme and youth empowerment are concerned.
Prof Gomez stated that the purpose of journalists imposing developmental agenda on government officials should not be based on what they (officials) want, but what is supposed to be done.
He acknowledged that they are using the taxpayers’ money, which he said should not be used anyhow.
“This is not normal and we must rectify it. We are using taxpayers’ money and taxpayers’ money cannot be used anyhow. You journalists are the development agents and you should impose the development agenda on all of us,” he suggested.
However, he commended the media for the good job in its role of keeping the public informed, noting that people have to sacrifice.
“Some of you also would push us by asking us difficult questions; making sure that we don’t deviate; so that at the end of the day we better serve the Gambian people,” he said.
He said that “some of us, our names would be mentioned, but your name would not be mentioned, but who ensured that the roadmap is sharpened to ensure that we don’t deviate; who are those ones? It is you the journalists,” he concluded.
