As we continue to congratulation Lamin Waa Juwara on his appointment I wonder what has changed since he last made this statement in 2001

JUWARA HITS AT JAMMEH AGAINPosted Thursday,
February 22, 2001 by Editor

The propaganda secretary of the main opposition United Democratic Party, Lamin
Waa Juwara, has said that it is "unjustifiable and unfair" for
President Yahya Jammeh to blame Gambian youths for the country's increasing
unemployment rate. 

Mr Juwara was reacting to President Jammeh's independence anniversary message
in an interview with the Daily Observer yesterday. He said President Jammeh
should have blamed his government, which, he said, could not provide jobs for
the country's youth population. The UDP propaganda secretary attributed the
current unemployment rate in the country to "poor governance and lack of
judicious management of state resources." According to Juwara, Jammeh has
lost control of the organs that should create jobs for the youths. "The
public enterprises that have been created have already run down. Everybody
knows that the GPTC is no longer functioning. Where are the buses? We know the
problem that Gamtel is facing. We know all the problems of other parastatals
that were here," Juwara argued. He cited the closure of the GGC by
government as a major contributing factor to the unemployment saga. 

Jammeh boycotted independence anniversary 
Mr Juwara also accused President Jammeh of boycotting celebrations marking the
country's National Day, saying it was "improper and wrong." He said
President Jammeh was duty-bound to attend the National Day celebrations
"because it is the most important event in the history of this nation. If
The Gambia was not independent, I can assure you that Jammeh and his people
could not have staged a coup d' etat. He cannot down-play it. The day of
independence is the most important day in our national calendar, whether he
likes it or not, this is the reality on the ground," Juwara charged. 

July 22 takeover
Juwara said the July 22 coup was not a revolution, but a classic coup d' etat
which he described as a "treasonable offence". He censured Jammeh and
his cohorts for toppling the democratically elected government of former
president Jawara, querying "How can he turn around and credit himself for
staging a coup and thinking that it is more important than another day in the
country? A democratically elected government being toppled by the barrel of the
gun? They cannot even realise the mistake they have made", Juwara charged. 
Health sector in shambles 

Mr Juwara also argued that the country's health, agricultural and educational
sectors are in shambles. He criticised the health sector for not providing
enough drugs and incubators at hospitals and dismissed President Jammeh's
statement that "significant achievements have been recorded in the health,
education and agricultural sectors." Juwara also accused the Jammeh
administration of mismanaging the country's economy which, he said, brought
hardship to citizens of the country. He said farmers' groundnuts were not
purchased and that some tour operators were planning to pull out from the
country. Juwara said all the parastatals in the country were "dead",
and that the Jammeh administration has completely failed. 

By-elections 
Talking about next month's by-elections, Mr Juwara said "We are not going
to boycott the by-elections simply because we have challenged the
constitutionality of the dismissal of former IEC chairman, Bishop Tilewa
Johnson. We are dealing with the IEC and the IEC is still there. Of course, we
did explain the view that we do not trust Gabriel Roberts due to what
transpired in the 1996 and 1997 elections. We have made our concerns abundantly
clear that we want this thing to be corrected and to be transparent".
Juwara however expressed optimism that the UDP will sweep the polls come the
by-elections on March

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤