“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.’ Mandela
Children, persons below the age of 18 years, are said to form about 45 or so percent of our current population. Thus, we have a very young population. But I am tempted to ask: on the totem pole of your Government where are children placed? At the top, the middle or the bottom of the pole? Are they a priority or mere footnotes? Or because they have no votes, they matter less in the scheme of things, mere cogs in the turning wheels of the Government?
Mr. President, your always talk about the youth, reducing youth unemployment, creating jobs for youth, etc. Certainly, these initiatives are not for children. Interchanging “youth” with “children”, as if they are one and the same, will certainly do some disservice to children or rather put children’s issues in the back burner. Their aspirations may be similar but their needs and fears are certainly different.
Mr. President, adults always claim children are the future, the leaders of tomorrow. Unfortunately, policy makers and politicians go to build that future without consulting those who would live in it. What architect does that? What role, influence and contributions did children have or make during the preparation of the National Development Plan 2018-2021? And the NDP is supposed to build the future for our children.
How were their views, aspirations and fears captured in the Plan? Did the architects consult with children throughout the country, children from every background, boys and girls and children with disabilities, or mainly done through some adult representatives? Adults cannot assume they know what and how children feel without consulting with them. Children should be at the table, not on the menu. Children are not just the future, they are part of today too, leaders who can influence and proffer solutions to the problems of today.
Mr. President, it is said that the development of a country cannot be any swifter than its progress in education. Thus to develop as a country, we must invest heavily in education and ensure its availability, in numbers and quality, to all children in every part of the country.
It is a sad fact though that children in rural Gambia contend with a lot of challenges in their quest to have good education- inadequate qualified teachers, poorly equipped laboratories, workshops and libraries, poor facilities, no school buses, inadequate text books and other learning materials, etc.
These inadequacies need urgent attention if children from the rural areas are to be able to compete on equal footing with the others from urban Gambia. All things equal, life’s opportunities are easily grasped by those who have quality education than those whose are wishy-washy. Early childhood education makes the difference too and investment in this sector is a prerequisite.
Mr. President, I know the cliche in vogue is “The Gambia is open for business” and in deed it is. Many investors are coming to shop. Good for our development and progress as a nation. However, it is imperative that your Government always conducts both an environment and child impact assessments of the policies which would be put in place to drive the economy. The future we are creating is mainly for our children and it is important we create a future worth living in.
Tourism is being upped as one of the main drivers of our economy. I think we need to promote tourism, as the second foreign exchange earner and a great employer. I am worried that child protection in tourism and responsible tourism are taking the backseat. Sexual exploitation of children is a fact and growing and we cannot neglect it.
As we open our tourism, sex travellers will come along and children from vulnerable families will be easy targets. The message must be that while The Gambia is open for business, it has zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation. If we focus on the golden eggs only, we may kill the goose through neglect.
Mark Twain has advised us to concentrate on the future because that is where we are going to spend the rest of our lives. But looking into the crystal ball, it does not a great magician to predict that sexual abuse of children is a growing problem in our country, the victims as young as two years. The future is not what it used to be. Children are not safe in the places where they are supposed to have love and protection- homes and schools.
Poverty, pimps, paedophiles, police, greed, corruption and parents may be blamed. Denial, conspiracy of silence, fear of reprisal, upping of family honour against the best interests of the children, stigmatisation, police attitude, mistrust of the authorities are some of the factors which militate against reporting and successful prosecution.
The judicial process as well as police attitude must be both child-centred and child-friendly. The interest and vigour in pursuing and prosecuting car thiefs, murderers and drug dealers must be the same energy to expend in going after child molesters, rapists, child sex travellers and child sex exploiters.
Mr. President, our child protection system needs strengthening and reinvigorating. Child Protection services, especially services for recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration, are inadequate and weak; child protection professionals are in very short supply; child protection service delivery structures are mainly in the GBA.
The human, financial and technical capacities of the Department of Social Welfare need strengthening, to be able to play its leadership role, both at the centre, regions and the periphery. The Police Child Welfare Unit needs the requisite support and capacity to be able to adequately protect children. When child protection services are inadequate, structures weak, professionals inadequate in expertise and numbers, data unavailable,
Mr. President, while all children are vulnerable, children with disabilities stand out due to their special status. They are subject to discrimination, environmental and institutional; are invisible and excluded from the enjoyment of rights.
While we have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we are yet to domesticate this treaty and have a Disability Act. We do not even have a National Disability Policy. I think we should expedite the development of these two instruments and give our children with disabilities the recognition and respect they deserve.
Mr. President, coordinating children’s issues, programmes and implementation of domestic legislation and ratified child related legal instruments is problematic. The issues are sectoralised and a holistic approach is difficult. Reporting to treaty bodies on time has been a challenge. Establishing a Ministry for children’s affairs or an Interministerial body will go a long way to ensuring children’s matters remain high on the priority list.
Mr. President, I urge that you do not ignore children in your presidency. They are a critical vote bank. No shrewd politician will ignore this constituency. By the next election, many children would turn 18 years and be eligible to vote. A connection or relationship not established with them now may be politically costly in the future.
All nations that have developed and advanced have invested enormously in their children, in early childhood education, in their health, protection, survival and development, in giving them a voice and building their life skills. In these lie our secret to advance too.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit it”
Sincerely yours
Njundu
Women and children welfare are joined at the hip. This administration as part of a comprehensive child walfare program: Should.
1. Focus on education and training for women
2. Develop a robust family planning infrastructure
3. Educate our men in schools, churches and mosque about domestic battery and assault
4. Encourage our fathers to take responsibility for all their children by social presssure or enforcement . Men must not father children they cannot or will not care for financially and emotionally.
5. Nobody, especially no sane man needs more than one wife. It’s idiotic and irresponsible.
It takes all our efforts and understanding to creat a stable and supportive environment for the next generation.
God Bless The Gambia
“Marrying more than one wife is (insane), idiotic and irresponsible.” Ignoring the insult, I want you to help with a practical solution to the population imbalance of humanity (between males & females) that this “idiocy, insanity and irresponsibility” seeks to address.
In our case, according to 2017 population figures of Gambia, there are more females than males, as follows:
males: 1,064, 748 (49.4%); females: 1,091,882 (50.6%), meaning there are 27,134 more females than males and this trend is unlikely to reverse, as more boys die in infancy than girls. (10% higher in 2015).
The problem that this poses, in terms of partnership (marriage) is that there will be more than 27,000 women without men, if every man is restricted to one wife.
How do you propose that the marital (bedroom) needs of these women are satisfied?
Nice one Bax, you knocked that one for 6.
If the law of the country allows it and the husband and wives are able to maintain and sustain the marriage, what is the problem?
What happened to Dr. Sarr all of a sudden?
I am here Jack. I cannot take men who are obviously sexist seriously. Justifying archaic law and and customs is not productive. Taking of multiple wife from most women point of view is disruptive to the peace and stability of the family unit. The custom sows a seed of discord and acrimony in the compound and generally result in emotional instability and disharmony. It causes loss of affection and neglect for children. The only reason for this custom is poverty, lack of opportunity and illiteracy. There are always sex discrepancy in population trends worldwide. No one in a progressive matured society will advocate and even justify this choice. There is nothing good and everything bad and disruptive about marrying more than one wife. The least of which is the sure and early demise of the male figure. The wives will find a way to kill him sooner or later. Guys don’t do it.
God Bless The Gambia.
Pheepheepheew! I married two wives and now I must be on the alert because they can be plotting my demise …? I’ll be cautious from now on for we seem to be living the last days.
Rather complicated times. But then on the other hand, imagine one third of the women are never going to have any chance of getting married in their whole life time…. What would be the impact of such a discrepancy to the Gambian society? Dr. Sarr, are you boldly insinuating that polygamous marriage is archaic?
“Taking of multiple wives from most women’s point of view is disruptive to the peace and stability of the family unit”.
May I asked the learned Dr., with all due respect, to elaborate a bit further as to what type of family unit she is referring to. Is polygamy disruptive to the peace and the stability of the nuclear or the extended family system?
Am only asking out of curiosity and because I can’t reconcile the fact that the majority of Gambian women are Muslims and they willingly practice this religion, whilst at the same time condemning polygamy which is permissible in Islam. Isn’t that a paradox? Or is Islam the archaic custom here in need of reform?
I know the learned Doctor’s time is too valuable for ordinary souls like me, yet I’ll say God bless you Doc.
A man will not allow his ‘wife’ to take multiple husbands, what makes these greedy men think their wives will be happy to have the husbands take multiple wives. This is unacceptable emotionally for most women, of course we are powerless to voice our true feelings, preference and opinion.
I am a woman and a proud practicing moslem. In 2018 this is not about religion, it is about human rights, it is about choices and opportunities. Polygamy is a tool of oppression, control and sexual exploitation. It obviously relegate our women to second class citizenship and our children, our ward our future generation suffer benign neglect. No Lamin, you won’t drag me into that paradox, I will say that as we women get better education and opportunity, there is bound to be a paradigm shift about our thinking concerning religion, family, marriage and choice.
God Bless The Gambia.
We are boardering on Feminism now?
Don’t get me wrong! I’m not against feminism I just love to hear their opinions, most of the ones I know are financially independent in high powered jobs and single, sometimes I tease them and ask them why not, they tell me that they don’t need a man, my reply, is ok!
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Your characterization is wrong. Most if not all women want equality. Across the spectrum, poor, rich, single or married, makes no difference. I don’t believe any father will be happy to see their daughter not treated equally in any society. Do you? Having said that, unfortunately for mankind, it’s a man’s world. And what a disgusting mess you have made of it.
I believe women deserve a fairer deal than the one they are being currently handed. I mean they are equals and even made to sustain our existence at a very high cost to their freedoms and rights. Their struggle against patriarchal domination is bitter and it sometimes feel as if results will never come. I won’t be rubbing salt into the wounds.
Doc you (plural) have an ally in me. I was not trying to draw you into the obvious paradox (es) that exist between the teachings of Islam on the one hand and the problems that exist In polygamous societies and of course in “monogamous societies” too.
So my intention was to have us all delve a bit deeper into the meta discursive level. Leaving the topic open can be everyone’s prerogative. That, however, has the potential to create suspicions and down right ignorance about women’s course.
I wasn’t teasing with my questions or baiting anyone to have drawn out fruitless conversations. Far from it!
In the service of The Gambia and Africa, I remain.
Regarding gender equality, I believe in any relationship, gay or straight whoever is the male or playing the male role will make the final decisions, most female or whoever is playing the female role, would like their man to be a man, from what I understand women don’t want a man that is weak and indecisive, they want a man that is strong mentally and physically, well at least when it suits them.
Men, ruling the world,
I can not argue about that one, but one thing I can tell you, it’s a woman that heads/runs/manages the country that I am living in (UK), and she also runs/heads/manges the commonwealth countries and other overseas territories.
Women’s rights is not about gender roles that are performed in a relationship. These roles are fluid and very unstable. That’s what many men have not yet come to grips with.
It just occurred to me that I’ll have to take a break here till Dr. Isatou herself responds (if she so desire) to the points Grim reaper raised before I continue.
In the service of The Gambia and Africa, I hold out.
That is precisely the underbelly of the problem. Guys can’t think of women past the tip of their tiny pennis. Majority don’t understand the difference between gender roles and our rights. Lamin it’s obvious you do, please educate them, it will be better received, from me a woman, they will be impervious and reject my position outright. Welcome to a woman and frankly a child’s world. Inconsequential as it were.
But what the hell is gone wrong with you dear good Doctor Isatou Sarr? The …. the … the … what? Oh my god! I’ve never guessed it will come down to this. This debate isn’t looking like good anymore. I can’t take one more bit of it. This is absolutely outrageously explicit!
I think Dr Sarr has side stepped the original question I asked about the practical solution(s) she can suggest to address the “bedroom” (and other) needs of women that gender imbalance creates, which polygamy seeks to address. She hides behind sexism but there’s nothing sexist about the question and I can assure her that I’m not a sexist.
Of course, no sane person would defend or justify abuse, oppression and inequality but these are not a consequence of polygamy, nor can they be attributed solely to the institution of polygamy. Abuse ( including violence) can occur in any setting (not just in a marriage setting) and one will find, amongst places with the worst records for violence against women, countries where polygamy is not practised. So really, linking abuse to polygamy is sidestepping the question.
Moreover, though women may be the most victims from spousal abuse, that is not always the case, as they can also be the abusers, where men or fellow women become the victims.
“Guys can’t think of women past the tip of their tiny pennis.” Ah, who’s been sexist now? This is definitely from a prejudiced mind.
Well, if the debate is side stepping to general equality blackmen are at the bottom of that list, black women and gays are higher than us in the rankings, more black women are in higher paid jobs than blackmen, more black women are in full employment than blackmen, if a blackman commit the same crime as a white man, you can guarantee the blackman is going to get a heavier sentence than the white man, especially in America and the Uk,
if a blackman and a white man is running from a American policeman, you can guarantee the blackman is going to get shot dead in the back with rounds fully discharged and one shot in the white mans leg to disable him and keep him alive, the list goes on and on.
But little do you and a lot of people know, that, this is all engineered to suppress the blackman keep him weak and having low esteem, if anyone should be crying for equality, is the black man, look at Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby sexual allegations are coming from ladies (some paid to give evidence) of the night, and Harvey Weinstein allegations are coming from reputable women (Angelina Jolie), now out of the two men, who is being protected by the system please? Definitely not the blackman, infact Bill Cosby has been tried already and the jury could not find him guilty, so the system did not like that, so they now want a retrial, Harvey he was in the news for 3/4 weeks max, now it’s all gone quiet, he’s in rehabilitation(get out of jail card) Classic.
Well Doc I guess we will have to leave profanities out if we want to “educate” our compatriots on this platform about women’s rights and the need for total emancipation from normative-patriarchal hegemonies. I have until now encountered decent fellows here who engage in useful discussions.
Bax has asked a very legitimate question that needs not to be ignored. His argument is premised on a statistical data, that, he claims, comes from a population census. I very much doubt the veracity of the data in question. But let’s assume, for arguments sake, it’s verifiable. That leads me to the questions @Bax: What if all those men are to be entitled to two wives? 27,000 won’t make a dent.
Polygamy is not entirely to blame for all the woes that many might like to ascribe to it. Nevertheless, it’s central in the competition for resources (very limited) in many families in the Senegambia region. It’s getting worse by the day because of lack of institutionalized cultural methods of conflict prevention and resolution.
The demographic discrepancy alone, in my mind, won’t be sufficient ground why polygamy is permitted in Islam. Having said that, I believe we as Africans should hold onto our extended family structures and practices for dear life.
Doc, I think guys (just a few) on this platform need reorientation to actively embrace the course of women. The majority are attuned with progressive phenomena. So please work just a little harder in your explanations.
In the service of The Gambia and Africa, I remain.
Humans are given the talent by his creator to improve their lot through search of knowledge/education – progressive knowledge. However, the talent the creator endowed humans has got limitations (imperfection). He then gave guide lines (just as some notes are put down whenever any professional engineer ‘the maker’ created (say a a cell phone, watch, radio, car, aeroplane, etc. This notes explains how to use it, what to use it for, what it can take and what it can’take’, this is often refereed to as ‘operation manual’, or plainly an instruction manual/guide for the proper operation/functioning of the unit, machine etc. that has been produced. I believe we can can all agree that we humans are not perfect, I have never seen or heard of any sane person questioning why the engineer (the maker’ f the plane,radio, cellphone,etc bother to write such a note? Or argue that the engineer (‘maker’) should rather just produce and let everyone to use the product just as one please with whatever, for whatever, etc. We humans follow such instructions whenever we are in doubt or whenever the unit/machine fail to perform as expected without complain for the right and simple reason that the ‘maker said so’, even though we acknowledge the fact that that ‘maker’ is far from perfection.
Now, in our own case as created beings, ‘the Maker’ has provided guide lines for our proper functioning/operation, while this creator is faultless, perfect, omnipotent, all knowing, all wise, we don’t just question but attack those who freely choose to follow the instruction manual by the faultless creator (‘perfect maker’) of human beings! Can someone help me, Is there or can’t there be an inexplicable under lying issue for such questioning? Our nature clearly shows us enough difference that permit one section of our human family to perform certain tasks better and certain tasks better by the other section of our human family.And I see it as a sort of misnomer/misleading for one to take any injustices any section of the human family suffers from as the calculated plan/operation manual of the ‘the perfect maker’!!! The injustices/imbalance are down to our own imperfect qualities that we should collaboratively work together to minimise (wish we can say eliminate) and nothing to do with the perfect maker’.
If we can amazed by the power of the brain of the inventor of the computer, how about the inventor of the maker of the computer?
To sincerely identify what brought us to the ground while working, I believe we should we should look for that from where we slip or trip!
Grim reaper true to his name, is reaping everything apart with his analogy of who is at the bottom of the social ladder and who not, based of the categories of race and gender. I must say I love your passion on arguing what you believe to be factual circumstances.
Unfortunately, your assertions are typical of the notions held by many people (both men and women) whose primary position in dealing with questions of gender and race is one of fear. Fear of upsetting the status quo in the power equation that exist in societies.
I won’t like to attack what you say (that black men have it harder than black women), as a fabrication, but am sure if you would be a little bit diligent with research in this case, you would easily find out why the opposite of what you say is more factual.
In the service of The Gambia and Africa, I remain.