Adama Barrow proved that a ‘leader’s greatest victory is over his own ego’.
To listen and understand; to question and disagree; to treat no proposition as sacred and no objection as impious; to be willing to entertain unpopular ideas and cultivate the habits of an open mind — this is what encouraged me that President Adama Barrow should be applauded for his humility, his courage accept to be referred to “Mr. Adama Barrow, President of The Republic of The Gambia” not with long titles and insignia.
Every great idea is just a spectacular disagreement with some other great idea.
Leadership is a choice. It is independent of position; it is an inside job. It is earned by action. It is transferable, it is scalable. When we no longer feel challenged in our roles, when we find that we are big fish in small ponds, then we know that it is time to expand our leadership roles to the next level. Yes, to compromise, you need to understand your own opinion and have an ear for the opposing opinion, and when you do that you can balance it out and make the best choices.
President Adama Barrow displayed modesty, faith in his endeavors to lead – leading begins with being led. This is a clear incidence of teaching us how to pray by accepting our limitations and frailties. It takes greatness to call yourself lowly. President Barrow does not want to be seen great with long titles, with the insignia of the highest grade of the Order.
President Barrow has shown humility and acknowledges the virtues of major limitation the “know it all attitude. “Our politicians across the divide can heal our nation if they show just a little modesty and humility President Barrow manifested at the convocation at the University of The Gambia “University of the Gambia has tasked me, my government and the people of The Gambia to maintain and keep improving on our Human Rights by honoring me with the Doctor of Laws and Human Rights (Honoris Causa). Thank you for the recognition. However, I will maintain my name and would like to be simply referred to as Mr. Adama Barrow, President of the Republic of The Gambia”.
President Barrow has a unique ability to connect earthly, daily activities to aspirational dreams for a greater future, and has told countless stories to help us emotionally connect with others who are separated from us by distance and time. It’s fair to say his abilities are rare.
President Barrow has joined the extensive list of all great men and women of reputation that have been honored with several honorary doctorates and you will tell me that they don’t self-aggrandize about it. For example, Nelson Mandela had over ten honorary doctorates.
As the world bade farewell to this great son of Africa, he was still addressed as Mr. Mandela. Robert Mugabe had read for over six degrees, and has been awarded several honorary doctorates but he prefers being addressed as Mr. Mugabe. Others that have honorary doctorates but are too self-respecting to want to be called “Dr” include Barack Obama and Thabo Mbeki among others. So, drop this “Dr. Bishop, Professor, Sheikh thing, it’s eroding the integrity of our education system.
It’s a good thing that men and women in this country get recognized for their contribution to society in the fields of their choosing such as politics, health, human rights etc. Some of these are recognized through awards of honorary doctorates by different institutions. The credibility or lack thereof of such institutions is not in my place to say for now. It’s fair enough that one must be recognized for their efforts and they must be duly congratulated.
Curiously, this seems to be more rampant in Gambia, especially among political leaders, for example former President Jammeh has the longest title and insignia in history, “His Excellency, President, Colonel, Doctor, Sheikh Nasiruddin AL haji A. JJ Yahya, Babili Mansa Jammeh”. What type of self-deception is this? Look at it this way, can someone just wake up and insist on being addressed as ‘Brigadier General when he knows very well that he is a civilian without even cadet training?
What seems to be at issue however is firstly the absence of standards in such recognitions and the wide range of subjectivity involved such that an honorary doctorate accepted in one quarter may not be accepted in other quarters. Therefore, honorary doctorates are not meant to confer the title “Dr” to those awarded. These are mere decorations for contributions made to society.
In fact, if you observe, all credible institutions in the UK and the US, for instance, advice recipients of honorary doctorates to refrain from using the title ‘Dr.’ beyond their dealings with the awarding institutions. At the very least, a credible awarding institution will advise you to add, immediately after the title, that yours is an honorary doctorate.
What is disheartening in the Gambia is the indiscriminate way the public media begin addressing people with honorary doctorates as Dr. without due regard as to whether those people are really entitled to use the title. In this case, the media is in the forefront of confusing the public and cheapening academia. Tied to this is the silence by academia themselves who should know better and educate the population about this.
In addition, the recipients themselves haven’t helped matters. It beats me how someone with an honorary doctorate can insist on being addressed, as “Dr” and he or she is comfortable with it. It portrays them as being pretentious, self-aggrandizing or vain. They deserve the honorary doctorates but ladies and gentlemen, they should refrain from addressing themselves as ‘Dr.’ because they certainly have not gone through the respectable yet rigorous study for a real doctorate, which involves writing and defending a thesis before a panel of the cream of intellectuals.
Many of our careerist politicians and businessmen were given the honorary title of “Doctor” of the letters when they never even attended formal community college or earned any academic degrees from university. Such honorary degrees are still being conferred by our universities today to honor men & women, politicians, businessman or those who have not contributed significantly to society. By doing so, political sycophancy & intellectual prostitutions in our universities are implicitly admitting that knowledge does not only come from study or arduous work, practical performances but from politics.
Alagi Yoro Jallow ,
Honorary Dr of Laws and Human Rights. LOL. Ridiculous.
He shunned the Hajj title because he knew it was illicitly acquired. He shunned the honorary doctorate degree because he knew he was unqualified and unfit for such an honour. A high school misfit, whose only public engagements were keeping the doors of Argos supermarket in the UK and “dealing” in real estate to cheat from the poor landowners. I’m sure he couldn’t paraphrase the contents of the speech prepared by his secretaries.
Here Mr Jallow, I won’t agree with you. It was not a sign of humility, but a clear manifestation of IGNORANCE. He should have undressed to sit in one of the classes to read again. Then it would be a sign of humility!
Babu, so you just want to be seen to be sitting on the other side of the fence stoking your ego and wallowing in misplaced glee? There’s a word for that in Wollof. It’s called KANYAAN. What is also called ANYAAN!
You’re clearly starting to ring hollow and rumbling like an empty barrel.
Please dwell on tangibles!!
Andrés Pjalo,
I’m glad to be ANYAAN about Barrow because he is illicitly mismanaging what belongs to every Gambian, our shared national resources which do not emanate from his Mankamang Kunda alone. When he was a layman, I never knew he existes though we share the same region.
I’m glad not to ANYAAN Andrew Pjalo who is not (mis) managing our shared Gambian resources. But be aware, any day you hold our shared national resources, Babu will ANYAAN you. I will never allow you to enjoy alone what belongs to all. That’s why I am ANYAAN of the CORRUPT, SELFISH and INCOMPETENT administration.
Good night.
Andrew, sorry for the error in typing your name.
Natty Dread and Jack
The Duo. You are either DEMOCRATIC FOOLS or just UNDEMOCRATIC. I don’t know how long it will take you to digest divergent views and opinions. Why do you have to try to convince me to accept your thoughts, views and opinions? That would rather be very simplistic and childish of me after living with democratic tendencies and dispensation for many years.
Natty, aren’t you getting late in burning your books, not only your books,l but your mind/brain because Babu is on the other side of the coin? Accept my views and opinions as I express them, give your own version of your thoughts and leave everyone (including myself) to examine and choose. Then you’ll live in peace of mind and stay at peace with others. These are the virtues of DEMOCRACY. Stop vilifying Babu because he is a diehard President Jammeh supporter!
Jack, I learnt Wollof presumably when you were a toddler. I lived with a purely Wollof family, a good family. My guardian was among the most elocuent Wollof speakers in Banjul who had no touch or intrusion of the English Language in her Wollof syntax, lexis and structure. So I learnt excellent Wollof during my stay with her and family.
Yes, I know the semantic connotation of ANYAAN and I am of course ANYAAN of the present bitty CORRUPT, SELFISH, TRIBALIST, INEFFICIENT administration in the Gambia. Simply because they hold what belongs to all Gambians.
Natty Dread and Jack,
The Duo. You are either DEMOCRATIC FOOLS or just UNDEMOCRATIC. I don’t know how long it will take you to digest divergent views and opinions. Why do you have to try to convince me to accept your thoughts, views and opinions? That would rather be very simplistic and childish of me after living with democratic tendencies and dispensation for many years.
Natty, aren’t you getting late in burning your books, not only your books,l but your mind/brain because Babu is on the other side of the coin? Accept my views and opinions as I express them, give your own version of your thoughts and leave everyone (including myself) to examine and choose. Then you’ll live in peace of mind and stay at peace with others. These are the virtues of DEMOCRACY. Stop vilifying Babu because he is a diehard President Jammeh supporter!
Jack, I learnt Wollof presumably when you were a toddler. I lived with a purely Wollof family, a good family. My guardian was among the most elocuent Wollof speakers in Banjul who had no touch or intrusion of the English Language in her Wollof syntax, lexis and structure. So I learnt excellent Wollof during my stay with her and family.
Yes, I know the semantic connotation of ANYAAN and I am of course ANYAAN of the present bitty CORRUPT, SELFISH, TRIBALIST, INEFFICIENT Yes, I know the semantic connotation of ANYAAN and I am of course ANYAAN of the present bitty CORRUPT, SELFISH, TRIBALIST, INEFFICIENT administration in the Gambia. Simply because they hold what belongs to all Gambians.
But NYE WU MA LENG, because KU LA NYE DU LA DOLI. They have absolutely nothing for me to NYE them. Their salaries are theirs. NYE WU MA LO LU. Their families are theirs, NYE WU MA LO LU, because I have my salaries and my excellent family.
But there is something common we all share as Gambians, that’s our resources which they are charged with to guard. That’s my point of ANYAAN!
This is the Manswanko man writing to Jack in Wollof. Please don’t ever try my Wollof!
Babu Soli
A diehard supporter of dictatorship and autocracy can’t be a wise and thriving democrat. You are either cognitively impaired or outright foolish to bombard us in this forum with assertions that are unverifiable, irrational, one sided and sometimes damn right contradictory. I am not trying to convince you to accept my thoughts, views or opinions but rather want to highlight your many double standard and partisan views, views contrary to what any civilized, enlightened or educated elite would inseminate. Enlightened people would rather live their lives in freedom, peace and justice to living in fear of death, fear of arbitrary arrest and detention, fear of leaving home in the morning not knowing whether they will ever return, denial of freedom, denial of free speech and the denial of the freedom of assembly. Our people were subjugated under those harsh conditions for 22 long years by Yahya Jammeh and his coward henchmen. Many of our brothers and sisters fell victim to Jammeh’s cruelty, so it is imperative for me and all patriotic citizens to live with unease at people who tried to justify the barbarity our people endured in the hands of Jammeh and his cohorts.. What lofty achievements was there to celebrate when our fellow brothers and sisters are still unaccounted for, buried in unmarked graves, denied a decent religious burial, or the acceptance of their deaths. What lofty achievements was there to celebrate when our country is infrastructurally destroyed, morally and financially bankrupt because our wealth siphoned away to off shore accounts or transferred to individual ownership.
I wonder if you will brag about your salaries and your excellent family if you were the father of the late chief Ebrima Manneh(May his soul rest in peace). Babu, you are bankrupt morally, in thoughts, actions and your views.
May Allah bless our great nation.
Sorry for the duplicity!
Babu, as self-acknowledged ‘diehard’ Devil disciple, what happened between your two Murderous Idols Thieves Satan Samba Kufing Ibliza & the kanilai yaya Pharaoh(aun) devils that Devil Samba was recklessly sought after at all costs, to be killed by all means possible; only to die a runaway in destitution & denied burial rites in the homeland….?
Bajaw,
Gambians are longer interested in your banal rhetoric about President Jammeh and the late renegade Kukoi Samba.
They want electricity, water, stable and affordable commodity prices, affordable education bills and no patronage in official appointments and a halt to CORRUPT practices. Not Bajaw’s ill-fated words that will not feed them.
Yes, surely Babu; divergently, we (as a people) are all together on progressive projects & development but we can’t afford to wipe the past out, brush away ignoramusly without rightful redress necessary to the kanilai Murderdom humanity crimes (if not for anything else) & the deserved justice for the direct victims in particular…
The current social, political & economic climate (situation) are as result of your kanilai Thief-Murderer’s deliberate making by design for the past 22 years; otherwise, if things were done averagely at least, if not as totally required from the July 1994, we surely won’t be where we currently are but ‘it’s all the current transition government’s fault’ in Babu & equally like-minded kanilai lucifer disciple-sycophants’ world; isn’t it…?
We can only make headway through realistically, from taking stock from the recent past, to regulate the present & plan to shape the future in unison as required…
Sure; together, we can…
God bless Gambia; Ameen…
That’s your Gambia under the Argos Watchman in presidential attire.
READ ON!
GAMBIAN POLICE DETAINED FORMER RULING APRC SUPPORTER OVER WHATSAPP AUDIO RECORDING!
January 17, 2018 1816
Landing Manneh, a resident of Talinding in the Kanifing municipality is still in police custody according to eye witnesses. Manneh, believed to be in his 30s was reportedly arrested on Tuesday, January 16th around 11am for what authorities allegedly tied to audio messages he released about UDP’s Ousainou Darboe.
Police, observers say, have not specifically mentioned which particular audio, among many by Manneh has triggered yesterday’s arrest. Mr. Manneh is held at the Kotu Police Station as developments to his ordeal still unfold.
Some eye witnesses concluding visits at the Kotu station said Manneh was still writing a statement with the police. He had spent one night in custody, so far. Earlier, similar arrests were made of Modou Jammeh of Tanji, who was accused of releasing an audio message. Another arrest was made of Omar Sanneh of Foni Arankon who spent twelve days in detention for releasing a whatsapp audio.
Ansu Badjie and Gibril Badjie were similarly nabbed by police for producing whatsapp audios, according to reports. Omar Sanneh is still going to court and witnesses added, “He’s usually asked to climb unto the witnesses box, only to be asked to come down, each day of appearance.” Released after each segment of what has become habitual, if not ritual, Mr. Sanneh is usually asked to leave and is not allowed to make whatsapp audios. “He’s not also allowed to stay with more than five people in The Gambia,” witnesses say.
Observers have lamented an ethnic cleansing spree by police and the Barrow administration with a common denominator loudly spoken of the detainees’ ethnic background. “Now Jolas aren’t allowed to make whatsapp audios when some UDP fundamentalists are violently attacking others with machetes,” an observer marked.
Babu Soli
Scavenging for unverifiable,twisted and fabricated news piece to beat your opponents with is not a sign of intelligence or honesty. The author on quote ” Now Jolas aren’t allowed to make whatsapp audios when some UDP fundamentals are violently attacking others with machetes” A disgruntle tribalist like yourself with a bile of hate out to discredit the good work of repairing the tribal disharmony that Yahya Jammeh created before he fled with his tail between his skinny legs. Your opus operandi of false reporting of anything anti Barrow, anti Mandinka is also not a sign of a progressive mind. Yes our nation is facing challenges, but none worst than we had already faced and if we can defeat that, i firmly believe we can succeed as a nation when hypocrites, liars and undemocratic elements like you cease your dark art of setting tribe against tribe.
May Allah bless our great nation.
If I scavenge for information to raise truth, I wonder where you get your information from. Sincere people scavenge for diverse views, opinions and information to set better standards. But LIARS like Natty Dread who are hellbent on keeping and maintaing a USELESS, CORRUPT, SELFISH, TRIBALIST, INCOMPETENT administration would NEVER like to hear from other sources/quarters. What a clique of fellows who refer to themselves as the “intelligent” cadre
Jack,
I would say your are STUPID but would rather refer to you as DONKEY-HEADED. Who has written about Ethnic Cleansing? You see when a fool like you is cronically obssessed and heartached about someone s/he doesn’t search for realities/ truth about the person in question. That’s your envious obssession about Babu. Did you properly read the article I copied and pasted? You are a real fool who is learning very little. Read the article again and come up with a realistic analysis. Your foolish and hopeless rhetorics can NEVER mar the will and wisdom of Babu.
Corregendum
I wouldn’t say you are STUPID…..
Good night.
I know how you can be easily agitated and jittery, you IDIOT. I’ve told you that our people are no longer reading your STUPIDITY. They want electricity, water affordable and equitable commodity prices and a better livelihood from your CORRUPT, INEFFICIENT, SELFISH, TRIBALIST and INCOMPETENT administration. PERIOD
What lack of respect are you refering to? You are used to insulting me, which I no longer heed to neither care. Insults will never move me an inch!
Babu. you surely know that one year is too short a time to turn 22 years of decadence around. The poor energy situation of the country, rising food prices (due to a near valueless currency) and poor livelihoods are not the creation of the Barrow Administration. This situation was inherited from your corrupt, inept, clueless, nepotistic and deadly criminal syndicate that masqueraded as a Military ruling council for 2 years and a political party for 20 years.
The Barrow Administration hasn’t got a magic wand to fix these problems within a year, but you may not have failed to notice that they are trying to find lasting solutions: new power station in Brikama; new generators at Kotu; a stable Dalasi that can only regain in value, as the situation becomes stable and the country is engaged by “development partners”, which will lead to lower commodity prices; and most importantly, a Gambia FREE of FEAR, midnight KIDNAPPINGS, arbitrary ARRESTS, unexplained DISAPPEARANCES, EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS and constant DEATHS of our children from Presidential motorcades.
This stable and conducive environment for the health of our nation is a “priceless commodity” that Gambians have not enjoyed for 22 years. It is an achievement of the new dispensation that cannot be quantified and one the government and people deserve great credit for, despite the many yet to be fulfilled expectations.