Excellent and timely point brother Musa
without sucessful businesses there is no hope for the rest of the government as the revenues come from such
business activites as you have mentioned.
this should be another wake up call
I remember those days well in Kuntaur Wharf Town too
Habib Diab Ghanim

Musa Jeng wrote:

> Government plays a major and vital role in the developmental process of
> a country’s economy, and also participates fully in reinforcing peace,
> justice and the rights of its citizenry. Not too long ago, I wrote a
> piece about how impressed we were in Atlanta when we received business
> presentation from one Mustapha Njie----Taf. Mr. Njie left Atlanta a
> buzz, not necessarily the attractiveness of his business proposals, but
> rather gave us a glimpse to the new breed of Gambian entrepreneurs,
> smart, very intelligent, global in thinking and have the potential to
> play a crucial role in the future economy of our country.
>
> Clearly, Gambia economic future is in the hands of the Sankung Sillah’s,
> Amadou Samba’s, and Taf Njie’s and to many other Gambian businessmen.
> The successes of these businesses will have a direct impact to the
> economy and lives of our people.  And this reminds me of Kaur Dandimayo
> in the seventies. Most of us kids in the Primary school learned our
> numbers by counting the groundnut trucks waiting to disembark at the
> GPMB factory plant, and in the middle of the trade season these trucks
> had to wait for days. Kaur was a booming town, not because of government
> businesses or programs but because of the Yusupha Najibs, Brian Najibs,
> the Fawse’s and the Mass Mbye’s. These were businessmen driven by their
> own business interests. They build businesses, created employment,
> brought in goods and services and all other economic linkages that made
> our Town to be the economic attraction of the region, attracting people
> from Senegal, Guinea to Mauritania. These businessmen brought to Kaur, a
> town in the middle of nowhere, closer to the twentieth century, whether
> it was having a movie theatre, variety of shops, accessed to good and
> services, medicine and even electricity. Yes, they brought in their
> generators and electrification of their shops and houses, and as kids we
> were at least contented with having electricity in the business center,
> which became the attraction to our nightly programs, which also included
> schoolwork. This down town area became the business center and
> contributed immensely to the socio-economic development of our little
> town.
>
> The above excerpt clearly indicates how important it is to have
> successful businessmen, and the kind of role they can play in our search
> for economic development. It is not to down play the role of government,
> but to illuminate how important it is for government to assist,
> participate and create the ideal environment for more businesses to
> flourish. And that involvement should not be intrusive to the part of
> interference or taking sides but rather in a regulatory capacity.
>
> And this brings me to the issue at hand, the Taf construction
> situation.  The Gambia government should always uphold the law,
> intervene to protect rights of individuals, and should never get involve
> in targeting and excluding certain businesses as a method of political
> expediency.  It is not only unwise but also counter productive to
> President Jammeh’s original litany to the commitment of helping
> indigenous Gambian businesses. –
> The Jammeh’s government cannot allow itself to be seen in deciding which
> businesses to lend a hand, or even participate in the competitions of
> the different businesses. The successes of all businesses can only help
> the country in creating employment, infrastructure development and
> investments in other areas of the economy. Take for instance the Hajj
> industry, which I have been personally involved in, instead of
> government taking a regulatory role and allow the different agencies to
> compete, the Jammeh government exploits it and play politics with people
> who have work hard to build their own businesses. He has been accused of
> taking sides and directly getting involved and sacrificing the successes
> of some businesses at the expense of others. Instead of creating
> regulations to protect the rights of its citizens, allowing and
> enforcing the law of the land, the Jammeh government is in the business
> of promoting and taking sides with a particular agency or businessman at
> the expense of everyone else.
> Finally, I am not fully acquainted with the details with the Taf
> construction situation, but seeing the business plan, and the impact
> such a project will have in the Gambia, these are the kind of projects
> that most serious governments will encourage. In the final analysis,
> successful Gambian owned business can be the beginning to economic
> prosperity, whether is in terms creating employment, infrstructural
> development, access to goods and services, and in the final analysis
> create the nexus to peace and prosperity. I am appealing to Mr. Jammeh
> to revisit the situation with a mindset of upholding the law, an
> important issue to our developmental process, but also the economic
> dynamics to our economic development. If a law was broken that led to
> the firing of Mr.Bajo, instead of holding him responsible for his
> actions, he was only removed from his post. Sir, it will not be
> illogical to have doubts to your commitment to upholding the law. You
> are absolutely engaged in sending mix messages that ran counter to the
> very allegation you leveled against President Jawara in the hay days of
> the coup. I will admit that I have absolutely no detailed information of
> the issue, no relationship with Mr. Njie, but I have seen his plans,
> business proposal and fully convinced that this is the kind of
> developmental projects that is good for Gambia. Taf’s situation should
> be judged, bearing in mine did he break the law and how will such a
> project impact the development activities of the country. Gambia
> definitely needs more of Taf construction, and not less of them. Backing
> one businessman or businesses at the expense of other entrepreneur is
> not the role of a government of all the people. Neither is it smart to
> help foreign business at the expense of our own entrepreneurs because
> our economic survival is with them.(Gambian Businesspersons)
> “It is the economy stupid”(Campaign slogan of the Clinton’s)
>
> Musa Jeng
>
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