(Jollofnews) – I am indeed delighted and honoured to participate in the 10th Convocation Ceremony of the University of The Gambia. As you are aware, this is my maiden address to Convocation since I assumed the mantle of leadership of this country almost a year ago. From the outset, I congratulate all graduates and their families for the achievement and success being celebrated today.
Convocation is an important milestone in the educational journey of a student as it marks the end of one stage in the journey through life, and the beginning of another.
It is also an important occasion for society, because the stock of educated and qualified human resources on whom it relies for its development and transformation is increased and strengthened by that number of graduating young men and women. Thus, Convocation provides not only an opportunity for celebration, but also an occasion for reflection and for us to reason together.
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, the focus of this maiden address on this special day is the all-important theme of Human Rights and Development. As we witness and celebrate the dawn of a new era in Gambian history, we renew our determination in pursuit of human rights and development across our nation. We are conscious of the opportunity and responsibility to promote and uphold the fundamental dignity and equality of all people.
It is with extreme gratitude to our new Government and the great and beautiful people of The Gambia that I make this brief statement today.
With thanks to Allah the Almighty, the New Gambia has the energy and determination to promote and protect freedom, peace and stability, and enact the highest level of human rights. As a fundamental priority of our Government, Gambians will increasingly enjoy the rights and freedom that enhance their development across all spheres.
The right to development itself is a basic human right, and entitles all people in our country to contribute to the economic, social, cultural and political advancement of The Gambia, whereby our fundamental freedoms can be fully respected and realised.
While our Government is entrusted to exercise power, so too it is assigned to ensure the basic needs of its people. I therefore, wish to reaffirm our Government’s commitment to meeting these needs.
The importance of human rights education cannot be over-emphasised. Through meaningful education as undertaken by our new graduates, we hope to encourage the graduates to work with society to promote, protect and advance human rights, justice and dignity for every Gambian in keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Our Government is committed to ensure and sustain the right to education for all, as education will certainly facilitate our nation’s economic, social, cultural and political development. Our conviction here is that respect for human rights and the rule of law coupled with strong and accountable institutions will strengthen our democracy and enhance the full enjoyment of its benefits.
Hosting the flagship of human rights in the African continent, The Gambia is grateful for the confidence and commitment of the African Commission, and a Government that has totally recognised its mandate.
The Banjul Charter continues to be a living testimony to The Gambia’s historic and traditional commitment to the principles and core values of human rights and development. You will agree that New Gambia is no less committed to Human Rights than the Founding Fathers of this great nation.
Since its inauguration last January, this new Government has set free hundreds of prisoners and signed several International Treaties and Protocols including the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Abolition of the Death Penalty and the Convention against Enforced Disappearances.
A new Constitution steeped in the respect for human rights and a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission are in the final stages of development. These concrete steps designed to strengthen human rights and facilitate national development are further aided by the creation of a legal, political and social architecture aligned with the highest standards of human rights, freedom and justice.
Our Government has produced a holistic National Development Plan as a blueprint for the advancement and mainstreaming of human rights across all sectors of Government particularly in the security, justice, health and education sectors.
It is my belief that our graduates here today can and will assist in this process as the New Gambia grows and develops into a vibrant and sustainable democracy.
It is no doubt, it is an exciting and interesting time to live and work in this nation. With new freedoms and levels of peace and stability ushered in by our new Government, Gambians and residents in The Gambia will experience the unprecedented full enjoyment of fundamental human rights.
Through the interdependence of rights, education and development, I am convinced that our students can and will assist government in progressive processes that will not only align The Gambia with international best practices in human rights, but also re-claim our nation’s traditional position as champion for values that were first codified in the Banjul Charter.
The Gambia, until recently, has been recognised as a haven of peace, human rights, justice and democracy within the continent.
I therefore challenge, with sincere hope, gratitude and anticipation, all Gambians including the graduates here today to pursue our basic human right with dignity, equality, freedom, peace and stability for the sake of our common progress and prosperity.
To the graduates, Today is your day!!
You have every reason to feel proud of yourselves, and to celebrate your well-earned success.
As you can tell from the reaction of all of us who have come to support you this morning, we are extremely happy that you are now ready to join the world of work which is very different from your life as a student. You will need to keep your integrity and humility.
As Ambassadors of University of The Gambia, you need to remember that the three things that can make you a man or woman and which will differentiate between success and failure in life are your hard work, sincerity and commitment.
Remember that three things that may never be lost on you are peace, hope and honesty. Make the best use of your time and opportunities that come your way. Always remember that in the real world, you should always expect the best, prepare for the worst, capitalize on every opportunity and always cultivate and maintain a positive mindset.
In conclusion, let me also emphasize that the degree you have earned is not a badge of exclusiveness, nor is it something that should create in you a superiority complex. Remember that you are and will still be part and parcel of society.
As a matter of fact your graduation has created a new obligation for each of you – an obligation to prepare to give back to society some of the privileges that society had bestowed on you and what you have derived from higher education.
Once again, on behalf of New Gambia and on my own behalf, I congratulate you and wish you every success in your future endeavours.
After years of shameful display, hypocrisy and consistent, nonsensical rambling by Yahya Jammeh, finally the graduates – young men and women who are about to start a bright and productive life can hear from a voice of reason, hope and maturity. Well done Mr President.
God Bless The Gambia.
Nonesense Isatou. With his ramblings, President Jammeh built that august institution which your learned Jawara couldn’t do in 30 years. Plain undeniable truth.
Sometimes, I wonder whether your credentials are genuine.
Common folks, like women gardeners, cattle herdsmen and groundnut farmers (no disrespect to all these noble professions) can be excused for talking about what a particular public official built during their term in office, but highly educated individuals don’t talk like that; certainly, genuine professors don’t interrogate the legacy of a political leader in terms of what physical structures were built under their administration.
Such enlightened minds assess the success of leaders through the impact of their policies on the lives of the citizens; their influence on the governance situation through the workings of institutions and structures of government that they created or inherited and/or improved upon, and the reputation and standing of their countries amongst the International Community at their (the leader’s) point of departure.
Bax,
Not to you but to others. That’s life anyway. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. I’m not the least worried about your evaluation.
Genuine and enlightened people assess, evaluate and judge before appointing. Nothing of such was done in the appointment of your men at State House. They are incompetent.
Babu soli
You must have had your head buried in a mule’s ass for realizing that trend just now. All Yahya Jammeh’s appointees were based on either tribal lines or those he deemed corruptible. Why do you think his rein was characterized by appointing, firing, killings, stealing, disappearing of opponents? Because he was an incompetent heartless brute, and that brutish behavior is also inhibited by you in all your contributions to the various online forums with your unrestrained dishing out of insults, false accusations, innuendos and empty propaganda. For 22 years, Jammeh subjugated our people to the worst human right abuses in the history of our nation and you have no qualms about that but praised him for the so called lofty achievements of his. Undemocratic elements like you can’t accept democratic progress of a nation that is why you are hellbent on creating chaos, undermining the progress achieved in all areas of governance.
May Almighty God saves us from the evil of men like you,Jammeh and his bunch of killers.
Natty Dread,
So the same Yahya Jammeh trend of appointing should continue? Is that what you are asserting? These INCOMPETENT people who were mistakenly given the highest honours in our country are mishandling the affairs of state, yet you blind-folded surrogates continue to levy blames on President Jammeh. What a bunch of fools!
If there should be any democratic change, it should be for the best, not the good or the better! We are witnessing the worst, when everything is tumbling into ashes in our country with outages/shortages in electricity, water, hiking food and commodity prices, high education bills, spiking insecurity and banditry, covert pillaging of public funds, irresponsible appointments of unqualified elements……………………the list continues
The blame for such a situation (power/water shortages, rising food prices & insecurity) should be shared between Barrow and Jammeh, with the latter (Jammeh) bearing the greatest blame. Barrow did not suddenly go to NAWEC and break all the “working” generators that he inherited. The generators were in such a terrible state that they had to be serviced immediately or risk permanent damage, but without a butut left, funds have to be secured to carry out the essential work. That takes time, as some are so old that special orders have to be placed for the necessary spare parts, as manufacturers have long ceased producing them.
Rising food prices is the result of 22 years of destroying the economy, thus rendering the national currency (Dalasi) almost valueless. Why do you think Jammeh used to intervene to distort the value of the Dalasi, through Executive Orders, thereby stealing from hardworking diaspora Gambians. Barrow hasn’t got a magic wand to fix that rot overnight, nor would he want to impose his unfair prices on businesses which have to import expensive goods, with a weak Dalasi.
Obviously, there are signs of incompetence and unwillingness to change direction from the practice of the old, but you are the least morally qualified person to indict this administration, as the one you shamelessly yearn for, was far more destructive to our country and her citizens than any that we experienced in independent Gambia.
Insecurity is the result of the irresponsible proliferation of small arms in the return ravaged region of Cassamance by non other than Yaya Jammeh. This criminal behaviour, which has been confirmed by surviving and reformed former member of the Jungulers, is the result of all the armed banditry we see in our country today.
The current government, without doubt, deserves to be criticised by genuine Gambians for not rising up to every aspect of the security challenges we face, but apologists and enablers of Yaya Jammeh should do us all a favour and end these crocodile tears. He is as responsible for this state of affairs as anyone failing us today.
Bax,
So Barrow was right in squandering our resources in Mecca, the UN General Assembly, the hotel cum office at Senegambia, the Marabouts in Senegal, his wife’s wedding ceremony in Dakar, her spending spree at a football match, her spending spree at Wally Chone Secka’s show, his shuttles to the Congo, France, Europe. ..the list goes on while Gambians lack basic essential commodities.
You are naive for your blame game. Your men at State House are corrupt, incompetent and very selfish.
Babu, no one is right to squander our resources and I am not one to pretend that everything the Barrow Administration did was right. In my view, embarking on the Hajj in the first year of his presidency, even if all expenses were paid for by the Saudis, was not a very good idea.
Also, in as much as I recognise the open “throwing” of money on griots, praise singers and artists as part of our culture, I do not think it is appropriate for public officials or their spouses to be engaged in the practice. Speaking against these practices is not a problem, when done in good faith.
My problem with you is that you have no moral grounds to stand on and criticise President Barrow, until you repudiate Jammeh and his inept, corrupt, volatile, unstable, clueless and brutal regime: for whatever criticism you label against President Barrow, you will find that in Yaya Jammeh ten fold.
Bax, if I was the one who is blind to seeing the reasons behind the frequent power outages in the Gambia, your pertinent insights above would have urged me to say; thank you Bax, I have seen the “light in the current darkness”.
But however, it takes a real good professor’s intelligence and integrity to reason good and learn more from others, not a Professor Pompous Farce who keeps kind of reproducing the same irrelevant and hateful comments. I think such comments are/were never intended to contribute in reasoning with one and another as you can notice the particular type of comments have become an off-market kind of trademark.
Jack,
Your comments contrast seriously with the situation in the Gambia. People are suffering from the lack of basic essential commodities yet you keep on fooling yourself with the Jammeh allegations. Gambians want positive actions for a better livelihood not the continously vilification of Jammeh who is no longer their problem. Their problem is the USELESS administration that is not delivering with their blind-folded surrogates.
Aha! good Babu, because you are the only Gambian in the diaspora who makes frequent visits to the Gambia in recent times. But I’m telling you that, a year ago, way from the airport to home, one will bet you are in some kind of a guerilla war zone. Many fools go about in either a military cap, a T or pants. You don’t know who is who because you either see a terrorised look on a face or a pair of wicked prying eyes of an uneducated, hypocritic, sycophantic snitch. Some will jump start diatribes against Gambians in the diaspora until your blood will run cold. People in public transports or here and there will be screaming ethnocentric rhetorics or throwing creepy jokes at even people unknown to them. You can notice it straight from landing at the airport that the Gambia is carelessly and unaccountably ruled by a hallmark of some kind of a family and friends Ltd.
Though am very much opposed to certain moves and policies of the Barrow government, that doesn’t mean I have to forget about that big bad mouthed Yayah Jammeh who proved his bravery and took joy in the everyday terrorising and spilling the blood of defenceless, resourceful and honest citizens of the small population. I even wonder if he(Jammeh) and his cohorts haven’t sabotaged the Nawec generators on his escape to E.G when I hear certain people like you Babu, run your baseless marathon defence of the coldblooded viper, with bitterness and disgruntlement. Where exactly is the relevance of One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison in matters of a nation of people? I guess there are no policies taken by democratic governments or positions of politicians of the democratic dispensation, that could become poisonous to people of the country, other than opposable by them. Babu you have a problem that no one can help you solve but yourself. You can do it when you sit in the quietness of your room and force your brain to meditate. If you are as devout as you sometimes insinuate, that should even help you to find your lost senses much easily.
Brother Jack
There is no redemption for Babu Soli’s conditions. He is just a hateful bigot blinded by arrogance and self importance. His insinuation of devoutness is a smokescreen to masquerade his true intentions, intention to lie, falsify, deride and manipulate rationality into irrationality. If he is as he purported to be, then Natty dread is proud of not ever been inside a classroom. If this is what higher education does to our brethren, then lets close down our schools and burn all our books in the name of sanity.
Brother Natty Dread, please don’t be hopeless that the man could be rescued from his world of wilderness. Please be patient, for when there is life the is hope. Surely for Babu too.
Smile!
Bax,
I’ll talk to you t’morrow. I understand you and hope you’ll take my points.
Till t’morrow. It’s late here.