Tonia KUMOO

Mawlid Al-Nabi (Gamo) Declared Public Holiday

The Office of the President informs the public that His Excellency, President Adama Barrow has declared Thursday 28th September 2023, as Public Holiday throughout the country, in observance of Mawlid Al-Nabi commonly known as “Gamo”.

The Office of the President wishes all Gambians and friends of The Gambia celebrating at home and abroad, a blessed celebration.

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DEPUTY SPEAKER OPENS A TWO DAY CAPACITY BUILDING TRAINING FOR NAMS ON POPULATION, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH - --

MODOU SARR

Hon Seedy SK Njie deputy speaker of the National Assembly on Friday morning opened a two day capacity building training for National Assembly members on population and development issues including sexual and reproductive health, gender based violence, demographic dividend among others geared towards enhancing the oversight role of honorable members.
Deputy speaker Njie emphasis the importance of the training noting that it will enhance their awareness of population and development issues leading to increase support and commitment to advocate for emerging population and development problems both at the level of the National Assembly and at the constituency level.

The training he went on , is relevant and timely as the Gambia continues to grabble with challenges of reproductive health, gender based violence, FGM, child marriages and other population and development issues. Hon Njie extols National Assembly members to seize the opportunity and engage in productive discussions and by doing so we will be strengthening our commitment to the wellbeing and progress of our nation and its people.

The permanent secretary at the office of the Vice President Mrs Cordu Jabang L Senghore said it is imperative that our national assembly members have a very thorough understanding of the profound impact population dynamics have on our collective progress and development as a country. The two day training will equip and explore of the interconnections between population trends, sustainable development and the wellbeing of individuals and communities.

Mrs Ndey Rose Sarr UNFPA Country representative in her remarks equally emphasize the importance of the capacity building training as it seeks to broaden their knowledge on population, reproductive health and gender based related issues. She challenge the law makers to utilize the opportunity accorded to them.

HUMANITY FIRST UK, SUPPORTED GAMBIAN COLLEAGUES IN HEALTH.

MODOU SARR

A team of paediatric surgeons and anaesthetists from Humanity First UK supported Gambian colleagues to perform complex surgeries on children in dire need in the Gambia. The team also used the opportunity to provide training and skills transfer to sla number of doctors and nurses.

Speaking to this reporter, Dr Hammad Khan a consultant at the New Born Intensive care and medical director Humanity First UK who heads the team said their purpose of visiting was to perform complex surgeries and teaching Gambian colleagues on other surgical techniques and by extension provide direct care to the children in dire need of medical attention. He said his team composed of specialist nurses and doctors from New Born Care who provided support directly to children at the hospital..

Humanity First Dr Hammad revealed, has been coming to the Gambia to provide help in medical services for the past ten years. Our main focus is Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) where we supported different departments but our main concentration is supporting children services. We provide direct teaching to doctors and nurses by way of capacity building and also supplied equipment and training for the use of those devices. Our training is not only limited to EFSTH but rather elsewhere too, example last Wednesday we trained some nurses at the Bwiam Hospital in provincial Gambia.

Humanity First Dr Hammad continued, is an international organization which was founded 25 years ago by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. It came in to being as a result of the conflicts in the Balkans and the former Yugoslavia in which both Muslims and Christians were innocent victims of the war and needs help. After that many disasters happened around the world and Humanity First always intervened to assist humanity wherever it is necessary as the name implies. We have intervened in Sub Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Asia as well.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE GRACIOUS THE MERCIFUL.

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ASSALAMO ALAIKUM WA RAHMATULLAH WA BARAKATUHU.

By the grace of Allah Almighty, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat the Gambia will be holding its 45th Jalsa Salana ( National annual religious convention) starting on Friday 26th May 2023 at 5:30pm at Masroor Senior Secondary grounds, Old Yundum. The Jalsa Salana will be concluded on Sunday 28th May 2023 at 7;45pm.

ISSUES AND TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED.

1. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) as mercy for mankind.

2. Truthfulness of the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi (as).

3. Khilafat! A beacon of guidance and hope.

4. Islam and global peace.

5. Exemplary character of female companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw).

6. Raising children according to Islamic teachings and responsibilities of women.

7. How to achieve the love of religion in this globalized world.

8. Qualities of believing woman and how to achieve them in this contemporary world.

9. Congregational tahajjud prayers ( late night prayer).

All brothers and sisters are cordially invited. May Allah Almighty bless you all and our dear and beloved motherland ( Ameen)

Wassalam.

PRESIDENT BARROW APPOINTS 5TH VICE PRESIDENT IN SIX YEARS.

PA MALICK SAIDY

President Adama Barrow acting in line with the constitution has Friday afternoon appointed. Muhammad BS Jallow as vice president of the Republic of the Gambia. The office of the vice president remains vacant for more than a month now after the former holder Badara Alieu Joof succumbed to death in mid January at New Delhi, the capital city of India.He was buried on the 23rd January 2023 at his hometown of Banjulinding almost 30 kilometers from the capital Banjul.
The new vice president Muhammed BS Jallow was the fourth Secretary General appointed by the Barrow administration and was removed on May 26th and replaced by the veteran Nuha Touray. Mr BS Jallow was the permanent secretary at the ministry of Basic and Secondary Education before his elevation as Secretary General in late 2022

It could be recalled that when president Adama Barrow took over the reigns of the country, he appointed Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang as his first Number 2. Mrs Jallow Tambajang was later replaced by Ousainou Darboe and in 2019 , Darboe was also fired and replaced by Dr Isatou Touray who served until last May when she was removed in a major cabinet reshuffle and was replaced by the late Badara Alieu Joof.

GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO TACKLE BURNING ISSUES TO AVOID FUTURE UPRISINGS.

EMKAY SARR

The situations in this country requires a thorough examination by the State and other critical actors. I just want to remind the authorities that public disgruntlement can have far reaching consequences. The government as of now is highly resented by the public. If public disgruntlement were not addressed adequately and the authorities keeps brushing them under the carpet or they just carried out some kind of window dressing, it doesn't help anybody at all.

Public resentment and grievances against the State often have root causes, so a sensitive responsible administration should remain alert and sensitive to the root causes of public outcry, grievances and resentment.

In this country, if I may itemize some of the burning issues that I feel tend to fuel resentment against the State. First and foremost, couple of months ago, 70 innocent children died. Why did they die? A drug was administered on them that cause kidney failure, and nothing concrete seems to be happening. Certainly, there were culprits. The people responsible for importing that drug in to the country should be held accountable, killing 70 innocent children and nothing is happening to address the issue and get to the bottom of the story and address the issue is a serious crime.

Secondly, we were all aware that commissions has been setup in this country and those commissions have worked extremely hard. The Janneh Commission, TRRC you name it and the recommendations of those commissions were never implemented to the letter.
For instance, people who committed heinous crimes and atrocities in this country including killings and disappearances were walking in the streets scot-free as if they had done nothing and this kind of thing fuels sense of impunity among the citizens. How on Earth can we have people who committed serious crimes, killings, r**e and disappearances and all kinds of capital offences and they were draining salaries from the state, infact poor tax payers money. It is like adding salt to the injury of the citizenry.

The third point I want to highlight as responsible citizens is the rampant corruption in the country. The writing is on the wall for all to see. We have a very hard working National Audit Department. Few years ago, they've carried out very quality audit exercise and submitted report to the authorities concerned and those reports includes recommendations. People know why the report of the NAO was not implemented and thrown under the bin. So really in this kind of situation, you are creating space for corruption to take root in society, anyway corruption has already taken root in society but the roots will become deeper and deeper. And what is this kind of society, this is a very serious matter and all this can culminate in to public grievances and resentment and public resentment and grievances can have far reaching consequences like popular uprisings, military coups etc etc. We don't pray to have any uprising in this country but peace and tranquility depends on certain factors. Unless government cost of chaos and violence are addressed, we became a very vulnerable society interns of peace and tranquility..

Another area of concern is the rising cost of living. In a country where the average salary is less than $100 dollars. Poverty is rampant and the cost of living is rising by the hour and not by day. Many households were struggling to cater for the normal three meals a day and yet the government is doing nothing to improve the living conditions of her citizens. Many people are living in a miserable condition, there's lots of stress in the country. Adverse and social condition are a root cause of stress and stress can easily aggravated in to mental and behavioral disorders. So this are few of the many points I want to highlight in which nobody can denied it's importance if really we care about the country we all called Gambia our home to move forward for the better.

Finally, I urged the authorities to take seriously every point highlighted here and addressed it head on.

Let justice guide our actions towards our common good.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Modou Sarr is a senior international journalist with emphasis in law and human rights. He started his journalism career at the then Independent Newspaper. He later worked for Today and Standard Newspaper were he was production manager.
In 2017 , Sarr opened his owned blogger called Nabanko. He briefly work at Progress as Editor before creating another platform dubbed Tonia Kumoo. He's also the Editor of Inside Saaba. Sarr is also a talkshow host at popular radio station King FM. The talkshow is called Checks and Balances.

VIEWPOINT. WAS THERE ANY COUP ATTEMPT?

It was on Tuesday around 11pm when I first saw on poplar online platform "what's on Gambia that a coup attempt has been cooked. Before sunrise on Wednesday morning, this allegations was thwarted by the government saying it was the military who were carrying drills thus prompting the movement of personnel from Yundum to Fajara Barracks. To my surprise, only a few hours later, a statement from the government spokesperson was sent to my inbox which reads " Government announces alleged coup attempt in which four were arrested and three others are on the run.
After accessing the names and ranks of the profile soldiers, i came to the conclusion that, they were all junior rankers and not even a single officer was involved. A Lance corporal, corporal or sergeant has no command role in any military setup in the world. In military, officer starts from the rank of 2nd lieutenant. How dare a junior rankers like those seven mentioned to stage a coup in our volatile and fragile situation we are faced with.
We have seen recently that there has been numerous calls for the withdrawal of ECOMIG troops in the country and we all can attest that government wants to keep the troops for more years to come. Aside from the five members of Parliament from the Foni region who a fortnight ago renewed their calls for the immediate removal of the ECOMIG troops from their region, the general citizenry were also not happy about the continued presence of the foreign troops in our land.

Last week former president Yahya Jammeh also renewed his threat that he's coming sooner rather than later and no one can stop it. Few years ago, we have seen some soldiers who were arrested after accusing them of forming a WhatsApp group with sole intention of toppling the government of Adama Barrow. They were taken to court marshall and were all later acquitted and discharged after failing to prove them guilty.

Government needs to be very careful whenever to make decisions, a negative decision may be catastrophic in the end. Analyse things very well before coming up with a bogus statement that it was an alleged coup plot. If you want the extension of the ECOMIG troops, you must go the front door not through back door that there was a coup attempt and the country is not safe for the troops to leave, so we are demanding an extension and funding from EU and World Bank.
Frankly we cannot afford to have another military government, military has no place in politics but we are seeking for the truth and the truth actually will set us all free.

For the Gambia, Our Homeland
And let justice guide our actions.