Musa Jeng:

This topic is a timely and an important one as well.  Thanks for the
memories.

Regards

Abdoulaye

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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