By Baba Jaiteh
Hard work, dedication, perseverance and commitment
are but vital ingredients for new Gambia. Mr Editor, please allow me
space in your newspaper once again to add my voice to the humble
population of Gambians both at home and in the diaspora who in one way
or the other contributed immensely to the change we witnessing on the
soil of our beloved smiling coast of Africa. It has been a painful and
difficult journey of struggle but the Gambian people and democracy has
been victorious finally.
Fellow citizens, now that dictator Jammeh is out of our way and opportunities once again spring to the door steps of every Gambian; it is about time we all come together as a nation, grab this opportunity, work together towards a common good and take the country forward to a new level. We have by far been dragged backwards by 22 years of a brutal dictatorial regime who will always waste no time to plug the country’s wealth and resources in the wrong sockets.
It should not come as a surprise to any patriotic citizen that the desperate dictator is still talking and crying like a baby after seeing the opportunities that he denied Gambians of for the past 22 years once again knock on our doors. There you go, seeking public attention and trying to distract everyone from the realities. The fact is every looser will have something to query about, which is absolutely normal. One thing I would like to tell all patriotic Gambians is to ignore whatever this desperate and sick dictator is trying to say, focus on the preparations to inaugurate President-elect Barrow on the 19th of January 2017 and thereafter start the serious business of nation building. We as a nation should not let ourselves to be dragged into his petty talks which am sure the leaders of our able coalition are aware of. We are better than that as a nation really. I wrote in one of my articles that “Jammeh is a failure from start to end” which is clearly evident in his desperate attempt to stay in power. Jammeh is not interested in any one except himself. Dale Carnegie once wrote in his book {How to win friends and influence people} that; I quote “it is always an individual who is not interested in his fellow human beings, who have the greatest difficulties in life and it is from among such individuals that all human failures spring” unquote. Shockingly dictator Jammeh is from among such individuals who are not interested in their fellow citizens apparently.
So I am advising every patriotic citizen not to pay any attention to his rhetoric since we have seen it in the past with dictators. The best way to deal with every fool is to ignore them.
I want to remind my fellow citizens who in one way or the other contributed to the change we witnessing, that the struggle in my opinion has just began as we have a lot of work to do to bring the country back on its feet once again. Development is easy to say and write but very difficult to achieve. It takes resilience, hard work, perseverance, dedication and commitment to lay the foundations of a strong and vibrant economy. Most of us may think that the task of building a better Gambia rest in the hands of President-elect Barrow and his team. Yes, you can argue that as they are the leaders of the country. However, I think the task lies on all of us Gambians regardless of who you are, where you are and what you doing? When it comes to national development, every patriotic citizen has a very important role to play. We have come a long way fighting for freedom, equal rights and justice for all Gambians regardless of your political affiliation.
I would therefore call on all Gambians both at home and in the diaspora to set aside our political differences and concentrate on national development. Politics is what we did to choose a leader which is done and dusted. Now we need hard work, perseverance, dedication and commitment to develop the country from decadence to posterity. It is not going to be easy for sure but it is not impossible and as a people we should not think it will be. Meanwhile, if we look back on the activities of the past government; we should be able to learn very good lessons which can help us to put in place serious policies especially economic policies that can guarantee economic posterity. 22 years of squandering of public funds and the negligence of the status quo to leave public institutions to collapse in the manner in which they did; cannot be fixed automatically. It will have to take years am not sure how much, in order to fix the mess. So let us not be fooled by our imaginations that it can be done as quickly as we think. We all have to be patient and give President-elect Barrow and his team time and attention to start the process and eventually set the ball rolling for a better Gambia.
Clearly fellow citizens, there is every indication that together we can do it since we have the expertise and willingness to give change a chance. We have qualified engineers, Medical Doctors, Media Personnel, entrepreneurs, intellectuals to mention just a few both at home and in the diaspora who can all contribute in their own ways to give Barrow and team a boost and kick start the economy on its road to recovery. If that happens, I have a very good feeling that Gambia will transform itself from being a crying coast of Africa to the smiling coast of Africa once again. The confidence and agility of Gambians that we all know before dictator Jammeh will surface once again and Gambia will be a heaven of innovation and creativity.
Long live the people of the Gambia, Long live Democracy and Long live Gambia!! We are one people for better and for worst.