By Lamin Njie
The man who served Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara for 13 years as minister of forestry and later agriculture has fondly recalled the former president who died on Tuesday as a someone who was ‘very tolerant and accommodating.’
Omar Jallow alias OJ started working for Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara in 1981 when then President Jawara appointed him as minister of water resources, forestry and environment. After eight years in the role, OJ was appointed as minister of agriculture. He stayed in the role until 1994.
Former president Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara died on Tuesday at his home in Fajara at the age of 95, bringing the curtain down on a well-lived life.
Speaking in an exclusive interview at the Banjul International Airport moments after returning to The Gambia from the United Kingdom on Wednesday, OJ said ‘my relationship with him (Sir Dawda) is a father-son relationship’.
“Because Sir Dawda was one person whom I have realised have some values that is rare in leadership in Africa. He was very tolerant, very accommodating and very accessible. And he listens to people and people’s opinion and respects people’s values and people’s feelings and people’s beliefs,” Mr Jallow said.
The death on Tuesday of former President Jawara has seen a whole country rallying to honour a man credited for his major role in the independence effort and later the enviable position of The Gambia as one of the few parliamentary democracies in the 1960s and 1970s.
President Adama Barrow praised the former president on Tuesday describing him as ‘a great man.’
“The demise of Sir Dawda is a big loss to Gambia and it’s a big loss to the entire African continent. He was a great man. He was a pan-African, a big politician,” Mr Barrow told journalists shortly after meeting with the family of the former president.
Phoday Saikouba Jarjusey told The Fatu Network on Wednesday the passing of Sir Dawda is the ‘end of an era in terms of Gambian political life.’
“He got this holistic approach to public administration and management. I have worked closely with him. All I can say about Sir Dawda was [he] was a human being through and through,” Mr Jarjusey who worked with Jawara in the same office for eleven and a half years said.
Yahya Ceesay, a man who was with Jawara during the independence struggle and later went on to serve him in various capacities including minister in a period that spanned nearly 30 years described Jawara as ‘so intelligent.’
“He is an example to Africa. Because when he was taking the independence what people were saying was that the country was too small, that he cannot manage Gambia as an independent country. He said he would and he did,” Mr Ceesay told journalists on Tuesday at the former president’s house.
