By Alhassan Darboe

I will open this sentence by paraphrasing the acclaimed Nigerian columnist, Sam Omatseye who in these troubling times of the ravaging plague (Covid-19), philosophized that leaders are never any thing you expect them to be. Omatseye argued that of all human qualities, “we can applaud courage, the prince of all qualities, which also fires vision. We need not only the audacity of action, but first the boldness of the thinking mind”. Take it for granted or treat it as a special case of low expectations in our country, if the communication, actions and inactions of the Gambia government laid bare anything, it is the paradox of UDP producing two leaders from within its ranks in the time of a so-called revolution that never lived up to its billing.

I call the emergence of Mayor Bensouda and president Barrow from within the UDP ranks as paradoxical because both leaders sprout forth in the time of a so-called revolution that ousted a dictator. Both leaders came from one party yet chose to lead differently. Barrow, the dictator’s successor does everything to maintain the vestiges of dictatorship he arguably fought so hard to uproot at the cost of health, freedom, and lives of his friends in the struggle.

Bensouda, mayor of Kanifing municipality went on to become a sophisticated, world class and revolutionary leader at a municipal level. And another, president Barrow went onto become a total waste of sacrifice and resources at the highest office of our land. Sad indeed if you ask me. But what do I see and know really? James Allen, British philosopher, and writer ages ago argued that in a moment of crisis (es), circumstances does not make the man, it only reveals him to himself.

As Covid-19 made its way to The Gambia, it was time for Barrow to show proactive leadership, to communicate, show imagination and empathy for his people; majority of whom live on less than 2 dollars a day. According to risk communication scholars, Adame and Miller (2014), risk communication is essential in how consumers receive information about potential risks and create an opportunity to change behavior. In order to change behavior and become informed, risk communication needs to motivate audiences for the desired behaviors.

But alas it took drama and incessant complains on social media for our “reactive” not “proactive’ president to finally muster the courage and imagination to act and address our nation on what was a rather uninspiring and poorly delivered statement. How do you explain the wisdom of our president visiting Senegal with a whole cabinet for a meeting and few days later engaging in a risk communication to curb a deadly disease after public going against WHO guideline by travelling and holding meetings in a Covid-19 positive country? According to McComas (2006),risk communication is an “exchange of information among individuals, groups, and institutions related to the assessment, characterization, and management of risk” (p. 76).Barrow having surrounded himself with uneducated political thugs like Dou Sanno and Henry Gomez failed to understand the importance of risk communication and how the message is perceived in relation to the individual and group as not only objective but subjective.

Meanwhile, as Barrow continues to sit down to wait on poor Gambians in a state of emergency to feed themselves, a young, sophisticated, educated, and dynamic mayor is at the forefront of affairs marshalling resources to feed our hungry population. He has cut on the down municipality’s travel budget to free up funds to effectively fight the pandemic. The young mayor from within UDP ranks is improving markets, instituting modern trash collection strategies throughout the municipality, and doling out small business loans initiative to the young and women. When I paid visit to the KMC offices few months ago, he ran the office of the mayor with sophistication and efficiency similar to the American white house.

Once again, take it for granted or take it as a special case, we have a slow, reactive president who instead of surrounding himself with professionals decided to recycle political hacks from Jammeh era to help him master Yahya Jammeh’s play book better than Jammeh himself. Yahya Jammeh would have been more generous, proactive, responsive, and empathetic in serious and apocalyptic times like these.

References

McComas, K.A. (2006). Defining moments in risk communication research: 1996-2005. Journal of Health Communications, 11, 75-91.

Adame, B.J., and Miller, C.H. (2014). Vested interest, disaster preparedness, and strategic campaign message design. Journal of Health communications, 1-11

Alhassan Darboe, writes in from U.S.A. He is a communication consultant and graduate student at Arizona State University’s Hugh Downs School of Human Communication.

The story of U.S. leadership in the global battle against Covid-19 is a story of days, months, and decades. Every day, new U.S. technical and material assistance arrives in hospitals and labs around the world. These efforts, in turn, build on a decades-long foundation of American expertise, generosity, and planning that is unmatched in history.

The United States provides aid for altruistic reasons, because we believe it’s the right thing to do. We also do it because pandemics don’t respect national borders. If we can help counties contain outbreaks, we’ll save lives abroad and at home in the U.S.

That generosity and pragmatism explains why United States was one of the first countries to help to the Chinese people as soon as reports emerged from Wuhan of another outbreak. In early January, the United States government offered immediate technical assistance to the Chinese Centers for Disease Control.

In the first week of February, the U.S. transported nearly 18 tons of medical supplies to Wuhan provided by Samaritan’s Purse, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and others. We also pledged $100 million in assistance to countries to fight what would become a pandemic – including an offer to China, which was declined.

Our response now far surpasses that initial pledge. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the U.S. government has committed nearly $500 million in assistance to date. This funding will improve public health education, protect healthcare facilities, and increase laboratory, disease-surveillance, and rapid-response capacity in more than 60 of the world’s most at risk countries– all in an effort to help contain outbreaks before they reach our shores.

Our aid helps people in the most dire circumstances. For instance, the U.S. government works with NGOs to deliver medicines, medical supplies, and food to the Syrian people, including those living in regime-held areas. We are helping United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations build more water, sanitation and health facilities across northern Syria to prevent the spread of the virus. We are aiding friends from Africa to Asia, and beyond.

America’s unsurpassed contributions are also felt through the many international organizations fighting Covid-19 on the front lines.

The U.S. has been the largest funder of the World Health Organization since its founding in 1948. We gave more than $400 million to the institution in 2019 – nearly double the second-largest contribution and more than the next three contributors combined.

It’s a similar story with the U.N. Refugee Agency, which the U.S. backed with nearly $1.7 billion in 2019. That’s more than all other member states combined, and more than four times the second-largest contributor, Germany.

Then there is the World Food Program, to which the U.S. gave $3.4 billion last year, or 42% of its total budget. That’s nearly four times the second-largest contributor, and more than all other member states combined. We also gave more than $700 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), more than any other donor.

We are proud that when these international organizations deliver food, medicines, and other aid all around the world, that too is largely thanks to the generosity of the American people, in partnership with donor nations.

Our country continues to be the single largest health and humanitarian donor for both long-term development and capacity building efforts with partners, and emergency response efforts in the face of recurrent crises. This money has saved lives, protected people who are most vulnerable to disease, built health institutions, and promoted the stability of communities and nations.

America funds nearly 40% of the world’s global health assistance programs, adding up to $140 billion in investments in the past 20 years – five times more than the next largest donor. Since 2009, American taxpayers have generously funded more than $100 billion in health assistance and nearly $70 billion in humanitarian assistance globally.

Through that assistance, including as the single largest contributor to the World Health Organization’s budget, the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with the people and government of The Gambia as we face – together – the threat this virus poses. I and my team at the U.S. Embassy will continue our work to coordinate assistance with other donor countries and organizations, to support the truly heroic work being done by Gambians from Kartong to Koina. United, together, we will defeat COVID-19.

Our help is much more than money and supplies. It’s the experts we have deployed worldwide, and those still conducting tutorials today via teleconference. It’s the doctors and public-health professionals trained, thanks to U.S. money and educational institutions. And it’s the supply chains that we keep open and moving for U.S. companies producing and distributing high-quality critical medical supplies around the world.

Of course, it isn’t just our government helping the world. American businesses, NGOs, and faith-based organizations have given at least $1.5 billion to fight the pandemic overseas. American companies are innovating new technologies for vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and ventilators. This is American exceptionalism at its finest.

As we have time and time again, the United States will aid others during their time of greatest need. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different. We will continue to help countries build resilient health care systems that can prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. Just as the U.S. has made the world more healthy, peaceful, and prosperous for generations, so will we lead in defeating our shared pandemic enemy, and rising stronger in its wake.

The writer, Richard Carl Paschall, is the US ambassador to The Gambia

Ostensibly he appointed the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) and it was to him the Commission submitted its Draft Constitution (the Draft) on 30 March 2020. He can neither delete nor add a word to the Draft. Absent at the point of conception, and with obviously no role as mother or father, His Excellency President Adama Barrow is restricted to the function of midwife between the CRC and the ratifying authorities, i.e., the National Assembly, and the people through the mechanism of a referendum. If the Draft passed both stages, he must assent.

When the country liberated itself from totalitarian excess routinely manifested in executive vandalism including through dubious ‘lawful’ channels, there was no serious debate that the nation needed a brand new framework document, a document stripped of the internal violence to democratic government and separation of power that pervades the structure of the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia (the Constitution).

That systemic flaw notwithstanding, it is unsound to argue that any replacement of the Constitution, regardless of blatant mediocrity, is good to go. The question of whether the CRC struck the proper balance around the structure of government, and between that structure and the people via the fundamental freedoms is a live one but with the Draft so heavily plagiarised from Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, and packed with clearly non-constitutional provisions, the jury is out on whether this document can be supported through the various stages of the ratification process.

A more unforgivable sin is the sheer prescriptive detail of this Draft.

In his seminal work, “Make No Law: the Sullivan Case and the First Amendment”, Anthony Lewis, the distinguished former legal correspondent of the New York Times submits: “Those who framed the Constitution and its most important amendments used spacious phrases … The Framers laid down principles rather that specifics, and they surely did so intentionally. They chose to avoid binding the future with a code of precise instructions. They understood that precision is the enemy of permanence. Detailed rules, which necessarily reflect the limited vision of any age, become obsolete as circumstances change. A rigidly detailed constitution would not last, so the framers gave us values to protect, in bold strokes: “no law … abridging the freedom of speech”. They wrote a document whose grandly phrased provisions can be interpreted, faithfully, to deal with new circumstances. Writing in 1819, Chief Justice Marshall put it that the Constitution was “intended to endure for ages to come, and, consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs”. The Constitution remains our fundamental law because great judges have read it in that spirit”.

Added to the Draft’s prescriptive nature are some serious inconsistencies between provisions of critical importance. For example, is independent candidacy explicitly permitted or are public elections the exclusive preserve of political parties? This is a live question of great significance.

In any case, as midwife, the Executive must now travel the document and its Bill to the Solons of the Republic in line with the stipulations of several laws including the Constitution.

Section 226 (1) of the Constitution permit its alteration by “an Act of the National Assembly”. Delineating that alteration process, section 226 (8) states: “No act of the National Assembly shall be deemed to amend, add to, repeal or in any way alter any of the provisions of this Constitution unless the title of the Act clearly indicates that intention and the Act does so in express terms”. Section 226 (9) drives home the point!

In this section:-

• References to this Constitution include references to any law that amends or replaces any of the provisions of this Constitution;

• To the alteration of this Constitution include references to the amendment, modification or re-enactment with or without amendment or modification, of the Constitution or of any provision for the time being contained in this Constitution, the suspension or repeal or the making of different provision in lieu thereof, and the addition of new provisions to this Constitution.

In the Legislature, the Draft must be supported by no less than 43 National Assembly Members (NAMs). Stated differently, a mere 16 NAMs voting against the Draft is enough to permanently sink and prevent it from reaching the people through the referendum stage of ratification.

Notwithstanding its laudable proposal for independent agencies, the Draft’s volume interferes with internal coherence and is of dubious compliance with the rule of law.

It is my contention that Gambia must move away from the prescriptive form of constitutional engineering, a task achievable only through shedding the excess fat in the Draft. We must create a constitution grounded in “principles rather that specifics”, and this “to avoid binding the future with a code of precise instructions” for precision, undoubtedly, “is the enemy of permanence. Detailed rules, which necessarily reflect the limited vision of any age, become obsolete as circumstances change”.

There are universal values a democratic constitution must protect but this Draft is way short of the minimum standards a document like a national constitution must acquire to pass the requisite test of balance and neutrality, a document, so to speak, that can serve as a fitting legacy for posterity.

Subsequent contributions shall deal with specific queries against this heavily plagiarised Draft.

I shall not be joining the caravan for a “yes” campaign!

The writer, Lamin J. Darbo, is the founder of Dabanani Law Centre in Sukuta.

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A gloomy outlook indicates that countries around the world shall face steep recession by the time dust begins to settle on the virus pandemic. While concern remain globally with the high rate of infection and the ensuing body count, economic instability continues to preoccupy thought in economists & central bankers around the world

Although it may be quite some time before any clear handle on the level of battering & devastation COVID-19 has had on The Gambia, early warning signs with lockdown worries & social distancing points to a weakening economy.

With no end in sight in the near term, local area councils are extra burdened by saturated small cash collection worries from a hard pressed population quite hesitant to part ways with their few paltry dalasi.

But even amid all the darkening clouds of a little less sunlight from the capital, Banjul, a glimmer of hope still flickers over #RiverGambia, if the Barrow administration are visionary technicians worth their salt. I will come to that!

Anyone dabbled in economic policy and governance will tell you that crisis are nothing new, nor will the latest be the last of them. In a globalised and interconnected world marred by uncertainty, Gambia, get used to crisis decision making and the myriad of challenges it presents to lives and livelihoods.

It is times like these that good leaders and governments rise up to challenge, take the bull by the horn so to speak, inspire and lead their people and nation to big and best outcomes. The name of the game is bold leadership, visible, ever present to rally & lead the way as the nation’s chief patron and spokesman. That is the expectation in a democracy even without a crisis – as seen in Tanzania, Ghana, Rwanda – Macky Sall, even loud mouth Trump’s America – seen busy at it night and day.

Current economic trends in the country does NO justice to the long suffering Gambians nor the state as such per se. Thou one is often encouraged & inspired by the resilience and entrepreneurial drive of young Gambians rising up to unmitigated challengers in a most difficult environment – there is little or no technical/ financial support from their government.

The leadership has a long way to go to catch up & match the desire to rescue & uplift every Gambian child from poverty. That, I’m afraid starts with food security, manufacturing, entrepreneurship start-up nation ready to exploit and export to the world. A desirable state of affairs creating wealth and jobs and riches – requires visionary calibre leaders positioned to direct day-to-day state affairs in the national Interest

So How can Gambia Profit From the Crisis?

See – There is no nation state on earth able to navigate its way out of the virus pandemic unscathed. But despite the downsides, political & economic policy decisions of various governments will have a telling forbearance on outcome, or successes to be had later on.
As the number of Coronavirus cases continue to rise in Africa, governments in some countries are taking sharper measures to help poor people affected by lockdowns & social distancing restrictions.

With its strong gold reserves, manufacturing and export trade surpluses, European nations, Japan and those “First World” countries have embarked on quantitative easing measures – printing free cash worth billions, even trillions in the case of the United States, pumped into their respective economies to keep it going.

Nearer to home, BBC Africa is reporting that Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, has said, ‘food is being distributed to the most vulnerable poor across the country. Meanwhile in Kenya, ‘the ministry of agriculture has said it will distribute cereals to the poor …”

The Gambia govt needs to come up with an economic stimulus package as social (security) safety net payments to the poorest families in the country. That to include recovery measures for local businesses through tax incentives on condition that staff layoff will be reversed. By the way, the measures deployed by govt to steady inflation and price gauging at the marketplace are positive, thus welcome.

But these are short term fixes. Long term measures however should see the finance minister hold a press conference allay public concern on the value of the plummeting dalasi in these trying times. He needs to reassure people losing their job and businesses facing closure that incentives are being worked on in terms of taxation, stimulus and that. Information minister Sillah needs to be more visible in the press; Foreign minister Tangara has to come out of hiding and update the country on the status of Gambian immigrants in harms way – China, Italy, Spain, et.al.

Devolved area councils too are in dire straits, facing a mini-crisis of their own having to cope with demands to provide services to meet expectations. From Basse, Kaur, Brikama , KMC to Banjul city council – recent sittings of the local govt sub-committee at the national assembly highlighted some of those challenges.

The administration needs to be ambitious enough – Map out a vision on industrialisation with purposely designated zones in all areas of the country. That means every local area authority must comply with land reserve measures for current agriculture and future needs. Requires the application of technology and knowledge embarking on an architectural design of the entire country’s land layout. Again, central govt has to way, to filter down to local regions enable municipalities to design their own short and long term aims.

Most important, however – in the midst of unreliable global supply chains and food shortages, the administration better rush to localize domestic production on agricultural goods farm supply in an effort to substitute poor quality imports. Gambia has to grow enough of what it eats. This must be the ultimate goal!!!

A Singaporean diplomat once told me its country was willing to stand by The Gambia on the city state ambition. Involves architectural map out of the whole country with resident experts in country + town planning. The question has to be asked if the Barrow government is ambitious enough to mobilise on such an unprecedented grand scale? The search for a better Gambia continues – A country that works for all of its citizens. #Debate #Battle-of -Ideas #Leadership

By Gibril Saine, United Kingdom

The Coronavirus’ negative impact on the world economy is self-evident, in that it has a cascading effect that will affect every country in the world and every sector of the world’s economy. Once unthinkable in 2020, it is now abundantly clear that the world is in a long global recession. In an attempt to slow the process of the world economy from going into a depression central banks and governments are now scrambling to prescribe gauntlets of economic fixes like quantitative easing, interest rate cuts, loan guarantees and stimulus packages.

The United State Senate is working to finalizing a trillion dollar stimulus bill as the Coronavirus’s economic calamity grows; in a sharp contrast with the bickering that characterized Europe’s response to the financial crises a decade ago. This time around, Europe has shown a sense of urgency and unity of purpose by announcing billions of euros in economic aid.

We live in a global village with multi-national companies in all parts of the globe; dependent economies, expatriates who live and work in foreign countries. As such, no single country will be immune to the looming depression. Advance economies are far more likely to absorb the shock and managed debilitating effects of an economic depression. Weaker economies in regions like sub-Saharan countries will unfortunately not fare well. The weaker economies in regions like Sub-Sharan countries.

The immediate direct negative effect of the Coronavirus’ financial crisis on regions in Sub Saharan Africa will be a reduction of aggregate remittances. Case in point, remittances account for approximately 25 percent of the Gross Domestics Product of The Gambia. These remittances help families cater for their daily bread. If migrants reduce remittances, families back home who are dependent on these remittance will be unable to afford necessities

Economic crises are a constant in life, therefore using remittances to create well to ensure crises in the West do not have a debilitating effect on weaker economies should be a topic of interest. While the effect of remittances on poverty is evident, there is no agreement on the effect on the broader concept of development and wealth creation.

There is no doubt that remittances reduce poverty, but the effect on wealth creation depends on how remittances are used by the receivers. For example, if the remittances are untouched under the mattress, then they produce no effect whatsoever. If used for expenses in relation to health, education or are invested, or refurbish a home, then net effect will be positive.

Based on the analysis above, the effect of remittances on development in sub-Saharan Africa is very limited.

Remittances alone cannot pull sub-Sahara Africa from poverty. A radical new wave of thinking is required today more than ever. What sub-Saharan Africa needs during this global financial crisis is credit based system to create wealth; developed countries with mature economies depend on credit to create wealth. If credit is available, wealth can be easily generated through entrepreneurial ventures, these ventures will eventually lead to job creation and better living for everyone.

Credit is a Wealth Multiplier

In Adam Smith’s book An Inquiry into the nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, he imagined a system for creating wealth and a better livelihood for everyone. Poor nations especially sub Sahara Africa should take this ideas further by encouraging the Diaspora to begin saving some portion of the remittances they send in local banks. If the Sub Saharan Diaspora saves in local banks, those savings have the potential to create more wealth, create more jobs and hence a better living for all.

Entrepreneurs in developed nations with mature economies use credit to expand business,poor nations should to do the same.

As long as market women, farmers, laborers, and businesspeople see an economic reward for their efforts the whole economy will prosper. According to Adam Smith as people try to improve their own situation in life, their efforts serve as an invisible hand that helps the economy grow and prosper through production of needed good, services, and ideas.

If given loans and empowered; farmers, market women, builders, laborers and business people working in their own self-interest will produce goods, services, and wealth. To become wealthier, these entrepreneurs would have to expand their businesses to produce more goods. As businesses expand, more people will have job opportunities.

As a result of saving in local banks, entrepreneurs will have access to capital crate more wealth and grow the economy. The premise of my theory is, if managed effectively the impact of remittances from Sub Saharan Migrants have a greater dimension and can be used as a powerful force to reduce poverty because the invisible hand will turn self directed gain into social and economic benefit for all.

By Ebrima Conteh, Lamin Village

Good Morning Mr President,

I greet with you neither cheers nor jeers; I approach you on this matter with a sombre disposition given the urgency of our situation regarding the subject of this epistle. This is the fourth week since I released the first of these letters and the situation has actually worsened partly due to your own ineffectiveness in leading us as a nation.

I must admit that I am aware of some recent improvements in the way your government is handling this coronavirus pandemic but why did you have to wait till things go deadly before you take the most recent moves you have made. I still want to congratulate you for the recent steps you have taken albeit the public is not in the know, thanks to your comatose Public Relations Department at State House. I wish to thank you for taking some of my advice on this matter and I pray that Allah continues to guide and strengthen you and the office you hold now and until the day you pack and leave, hopefully in less than 21 months.

Your Excellency, we have a problem! At a time when this country is faced with our most deadly challenge, the man heading efforts to ward off the menace does not have the personality, sense of clarity and persuasiveness to #lead us to safety.

Your health Minister is a colleague of mine; I worked with Dr. Samateh from 2013 to 2014 when I served our country as Presidential Affairs Minister and Head of the Civil Service with keen interest in the health sector. This man actually did help me a lot with his services as personal physician for close relatives of mine and so I hold no grudge or ill feeling against him.

But the fact is that Dr. Samateh may be a good surgeon but he is not blessed with the requisite leadership qualities to lead a whole Ministry of Health at any time; talk less of a scary period like this when the marauding Coronavirus seeks to snuff the very life force out of our bodies.

Your Excellency, it is in view of the forgoing that I made a Facebook post as follows:

And surely one of the most effective moves that could help us contain this corona pandemic is for President Barrow to fire his Health Minister.

I love Dr Samateh but he doesn’t have what it takes to provide us with the proactive #leadership that we need to survive this menace…

I am not saying that Samateh should be kicked out…

But Barrow can #relieve him of his appointment and redeploy him elsewhere with the same salary and benefits to protect our health/lives.

Tonyaa kesso yeh execute.

#CantCageMe

This post went viral with lots of debate surrounding it. Those who do not agree with me actually went beyond the subject matter to even attack me personally with intent to silence me. But they made the biggest mistake because criticism only emboldens me and I have vowed to live my hashtag #CantCageMe. I am a pure descendant of the ancestors of the late Mama Tamba Jammeh from the Confederacy called Badibu Bijankerr so I can never be intimidated into silence.

Subsequently I made another post, not merely out of defiance but with a view to further clarify my line of thinking for those honest critics of my opinion who wished to further understand my line of thinking. The following was the follow up post:

If you know the level of internal wrangling, turf wars and down right lethargy @ the Ministry of Health, then you would understand why I am calling for the removal of the Minister…

The timing is just perfect for Samateh to either resign or be fired. My stance on this holds with or without the #coronavirus pandemic.

The guy, very nice and cool, is not fit for the #leadership job he has been entrusted with.

I love and respect Dr. Samateh but Gambia is bigger and dearer to me.

This is not the time to be nice and diplomatic. Coronavirus is deadly and our Ministry of

Health is not ready to handle this under their current leadership…

#CantCageMe

A few days after the above post, media reports emerged that a young man lost his life after he was rushed to the Serrekunda General Hospital, from where he was referred to Banjul due to lack of oxygen; but the ambulance that was supposed to ferry him to the referral hospital could not be started due to a flat battery.

Am I not right that your Health Minister should be replaced? Gambian activists and social media made no noise about this loss of life but if the young man was a prominent member of our society or famous social media celebrity, the noise would have been deafening. I am yet to see or hear an apology from your Health Ministry regarding this act of negligence. Is this the kind of society we want to build and sustain?

Mr President, I am not asking for any malicious or vindictive axing of your health Supremo. All I ask for is a replacement and you are going to replace this man anyway no matter how long it takes.

But why do you have to wait till a whole country suffers irreparable loss under these circumstances?I believe Dr Samateh could still be useful as a surgeon at the EFSTH.
You can even elevate him to the position of Special Presidential Adviser on Health matters but he cannot be the guy to lead the health sector and execute policies and programmes in these dangerous moments.

And truly Dr. Samateh has proven to be a good adviser. On one of our many tours of the hospital in Banjul, He advised me to construct a shed at the children’s wing and we did it. He was very emotional when he told me about a situation when he saw some women with their sick children stand in the rain waiting to be attended to by doctors. He spoke about how he was in tears that day.

His advice started a construction and rehabilitation spree at the children’s wing, the theatre and other units, under my watch.

Dr. Samateh advised me to send a team of young doctors for specialization in Ghana and I went straight to President Jammeh’s office and got approval to fund that programme.
The nice Black Ford cars currently being used by doctors with the EFSTH number plate came into being with advice I got from Dr Samateh to help ameliorate working conditions for doctors and I went straight to retrieve those cars from Yahya Jammeh’s car lot at State House and hand them over to Dr Samateh and his staff. I saw the truth in what Samateh said and I humbly went forward to execute the necessary steps to improve the situation.So this man can be an excellent adviser.

However, leadership is not a gift that God bestows on everyone. And it is my view that your Health Minister does not have the natural disposition to manage, inspire and motivate a team that already had its own complications well before he assumed leadership of their organisation.

Mr President, knowing quite well how you run things at State House, I don’t see you replacing Dr. Samateh anytime soon. And if that is going to be the case, then I hereby suggest the following to reduce the risk of thousands of Gambians dying because of his ineffective handing of the current pandemic:

Please call Dr Samateh and send him to see your irascible Vice President. Let her address the Health Minister with the anger and temerity she did when she addressed our National Assembly Members when they showed courage and decisiveness in rejecting your nominee for the position of Ombudsman. Let Dr. Touray prick our Health Minister’s conscience with some powerful words of admonition. Perhaps that will inject some adrenaline into his system for better performance.

I would also suggest that you send the Imam Ratib of Banjul and the Catholic Bishop to call the Minister and his management and professional staff; let these venerable shepherds appeal to Samateh and his team, for the sake of God, to set aside their personal differences and suspend the turf wars at that Ministry in the interest of saving lives. Let them advise your minister to let go of the past and break the habit of keeping malice with his subordinates and let them vow to unite and work together as a team “towards the common good.”

Your Excellency, I Believe that if the foregoing suggestions are taken into consideration, our situation as a country would improve regarding our management of the coronavirus pandemic.

Once again, I pray that Allah guides and protects you, your Health Minister and his entire team as you forge ahead in trying to contain the current realities of our situation.

Yours,

Momodou Sabally

Former Presidential Affairs Minister and Head of the Civil Service

Founder-President, Sabally Leadership Academy

Coronavirus is not of this world. It’s a hugely strange disease – and almost everyone is now beginning to know about it.

Let’s point out one fact: at no point in the history of the world has there been a disease that has overwhelmed the whole world and has stopped it from moving.

Coronavirus caught the world by surprise. Nobody really paid much attention to it back it December when it was just freshly emerging. It was a virus the Chinese were going to find an answer to. They didn’t.

I am not an expert on coronavirus but this infection is fast, furious, and lethal. In a matter of three months, this disease has spread to all corners of world killing thousands of people.

In China where it started, at least 80,000 people got infected with at least 3,200 people succumbing to the virus. There is currently no well-founded cure for it.

There is one thing this virus hates the most. It’s called dithering.

In the case of The Gambia, some declared the only one way to stop it from getting into our territory was to close our borders. This was as soon as it got to Senegal. We didn’t and we paid a price. We now have three cases. One died.

There is now complete bedlam over the disease. Schools, mosques and churches have all been asked to close. Gambians love shaking each other’s hand. We don’t do that anymore. We now elbow-bump.

The World Health Organisation has come up with a number of preventive measures such as good personal hygiene and social distancing. These, according to experts, can help one from catching the virus.

But coronavirus is a disease, and just like any other disease there will come a solution. By this time, it would have lived out its time.

Lamin Njie is the editor-in-chief of The Fatu Network. He has previously edited The Standard and The Voice. 

Gambia is a sad case! My heart bleeds for my people! They have no one to look up to when in dilemma despite running after air conditioned convoys on foot, the unending drumming and dancing under the heat with probably empty stomachs! Fighting anyone who is critical of their beliefs. Some will go to the extent of sitting on top of geleh gelehs just to cheer politicians who are sitting in their air conditioned vehicles with their seatbelts safely fasten and waving at them through the windows.

When shock-stricken nations are taking comfort in hearing from their leaders my people are crying on Facebook trying to find theirs! I feel your pain! I hope next time you’ll put your money where your mouth is? The endless gofundme on social media has led to donor fatigue when we have a whole budget that should be used on citizens instead it is for personal use. I feel your pain because we share the pain but the sad reality is I know this won’t change anytime soon because it’s a mindset. We will continue to jump from the frying pan to the fire each time we select our leaders because we do not measure them on what they can do for us to change the dire situation we are in but we choose them for dominance hence when they take that comfortable seat they dominate and rule us like their element!

Since we have no reassurance from the politicians we once ran after, the ones we placed in air conditioned cars, offices and homes, the ones we feed with the best meats and fishes while we struggle to even find bonga we’re now left with no choice but to embrace and comfort each other. Let’s be each other’s keepers since this COVID-19 is not slowing down anytime soon. Let’s put all our political differences aside and tackle this highly contagious virus! We mustn’t forget that we do not have the help, the leadership and support required to tackle this head on so we (the citizens) must do it ourselves for if we don’t we’ll be the very ones dying on the streets with our poor families! Let’s not be negligent! Let’s pay heed to all the precautionary measures put in place by WHO to protect our little Gambia!

I know it’s hard to achieve much without a leader in place but we MUST do this even without one because we do not have a choice and time is not on our side. I haven’t been sleeping, I’ve been thinking about my people back home knowing that if Covid-19 should get out of hand we will be doomed! We literally do not have anything and any means of controlling it! I have seen the efforts the UK government is doing to control this yet they’re already struggling with logistics, protective gears for NHS staff and lots more talk less of a leaderless country like my poor little Gambia. I am sad! Very sad in fact.

By Yaf, in UK