By Lang Barrow
Mr. President please give priority to the most pressing needs of the Gambian people and the economy. Your success depends on forgetting about the long awaited so-called blue print from your think tank you have been talking about. They are too bureaucratic to produce any thing different from the one that you found, because I believe these are the same technocrats that you are likely to use given the limited choices at your disposal. One thing I do know about us modern elites is that we are highly educated in terms of paper qualification but lack the experience and skills set to practically apply what we have learned. Don’t forget that more than half of the our university graduates with master’s degree we brag about were produced during the 22 years of barbaric and hostile regime of Yahya Jammeh, and largely obtained from UK and the USA to be precised. Most of them never ever practice what they have learnt. I have to salute you My President for considering those with progressively responsible experience within and outside the country first. It was going to be a developmental nightmare for the Gambia again if you had put together a bunch of inexperienced people from the diaspora as a way to compensate them for their contributions in uprooting Yahya from power. Whether you knew this or not, it was the anticipation of many people you saw or heard on social media and possibly met after assuming power. No wonder you have started receiving critiques this soon from the very hard fighters of past regime most of whom initially supported you. Mr. President, please be on the watch out and never be too complacent at all with any situation, any set group or individuals.
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Mr President, I know you have the very least of experience in the civil service much more running a big organization like a government. So I expect you to be a fast learner and act as required by the circumstances in hand without being deterred by various interests of the very people you put together and trusted them with the responsibility of developing the country. Please note that the interests and needs of the people must come first and nothing else. Those people you put together to support you to deliver the much needed services and development we aspired for our country amassed wealth of experience. These people can use your inexperience to their own advantages. Please be aware of their evil machination because they can make you fail decimally as a president and in life after your presidency.
My dear President, I want you to know that you can’t solve all the woes of development problems in the Gambia. I therefore advise you to focus on the provision and extension of sustained electricity and portable water supplies in urban communities to stimulate economic growth, safety and security, foreign investment, employment creation and provision of justice to the families of the people slaughtered by Yahya Jammeh. Take on challenges where you can make an immediate impact to build your legacy because your term of office is short.
This is my professional input. As an outsider or a spectator I deem it necessary to put forward my ideas rather than offer nothing. I want you to succeed and not to become another failed leader like your predecessors. I hope the messages in this article would be conveyed or communicated to you my esteemed president. May Allah bless the Gambia in all our development endeavours in ameliorating our standard of living. Amen!
Thank you for your time.
Ends