Ablie Njie Lekbi wrote:

 “I must also applaud you for being among the few people who feel the need to defend the status quo in view of the apparent and obvious majority of the L who vehemently oppose your views.”

 Thank you Mr. Njie. My motivation is totally selfless and most people who really know me would testify to. My only motivation is my conviction that unless some of the reports sent on the L to deliberately mislead those who heavily rely on it for information concerning our country we shall continue to be suspicious of each other and will never join hands to uplift the lives of our peoples. Anybody assuming otherwise must be living in cloud-cuckoo-land. Finally, rest assured that I would only put on the L what I believe to be the truth.

 You also wrote:

 “I must echo that there are those of us on the L who try to apply a very well balance opinion regardless of what the issue is.   You can consider us the supreme court of the Gambia L, for we do not care if one is PDOIS, UDP, NRP or APRC or sympathisers of the Gambia, as we religiously read all the postings and try to make suggestions or observation where we see fit.” 

 Mr. Njie, I shall take your word for the above and hope that, as the supreme court of the L, you shall continue to be objective.

 You also wrote:

  “Finally, I must also say that, I fail to see the parallel between the two stories you've eluded to.   What does one being ALLEGEDLY tortured by the NIA has to do with one's ALLEGED dishonesty?   They are two separate issues and must be separated.

I see APPLES and ORANGES.”

 Olly-Mboge also expressed similar sentiments and goes on to write: “Gassa, can you help us understand the relationship between the two issues here.  Just seeking enlightenment.”

 Based on the above, I shall try to give my own interpretation of the Alhagie Mbye saga based on how it was reported. I must first of all again re-iterate that I did not write the article but only posted it to the L.

 In the said article, we are told that Alhagie Mbye, a senior staff reporter of The Independent Newspaper, had been relieved of his function “for engaging in activities incompatible with his duties, thus putting the reputation of the newspaper and country at stake”.

Now, let’s revisit what the Managing Editor of the paper that Alhagie Mbye worked for as senior staff reporter, Mr. Alhagie Yorro Jallow, had to say about his sacking. In his reaction, he is quoted as having said:

1.    The Independent Newspaper stands for the truth.

2.    We cannot work with somebody who tells lies.

3.    My role is to preserve the integrity of the paper.

4.    I cannot work with him.

5.    He cannot use the paper for his own personal interest.

6.    Mbye is a criminal.

Let us now go through what Alhagie Mbye was alleged to have done. It is alleged that:

1.    He travelled to Dakar in Senegal late December 2001.

2.    Prior to his peregrination extorted D3, 300 from a Lebanese businessman, promising to help him secure official documents.

3.    It was further alleged that Alhagie Mbye named one permanent secretary in The Gambia as his close friend who was willing to help him secure some documents for the Lebanese businessman.

4.    He was also alleged that after he had succeeded in extorting the sum of D3, 300 from the said Lebanese businessman, he proceeded to Dakar without obtaining permission from the management.

5.    Sources further disclosed that upon arrival in Dakar, Alhagie Mbye sent a fax message to the management of the Independent newspaper, alleging that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had wanted to kill him.

6.    It was also disclosed that whilst in Dakar, Alhagie Mbye visited the West African Journalist Association (WAJA) offices and also granted an interview to a Senegalese newspaper La populaire, claiming to be the Editor-in-chief of the Independent newspaper.

7.    In the interview with both la populaire and WAJA officials in Dakar, Mbye painted a negative picture of the domestic politics and human rights situation, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), security operatives, among others.

8.    Furthermore, Alhagie Mbye insisted that he would be jailed if he comes back to The Gambia and would therefore appreciate assistance from international press associations like Reporters sans frontiers to help him.

The Managing editor of the paper Mbye worked for, says that he cannot work with Mbye because Mbye TELLS LIES, and the paper stands for THE TRUTH, it is his role as managing editor to PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY of the paper and that he (Mbye) cannot USE THE PAPER FOR PERSONAL REASONS. –Emphasis mine-.

From the above, one is tempted to ask what are the lies? Is it about the fib that he was the Editor-in-Chief of the paper when he was not? Was it because, in duping the Lebanese businessman, he lied about his close friend being a permanent secretary in the government? Was it about what he said about the NIA? Was it about what he said about domestic politics? Was it about what he said about the government and country?

 In trying to answer some of the above questions, one is again tempted to ask which of the above allegations were considered strongest by the management of the paper when they were deciding his fate? One may also ask why the Managing Editor felt it necessary to defend the integrity of the paper, re-iterating that the paper stood for truth and that Mbye cannot use it for personal reasons?

 It is also very easy to quote many instances where the APRC government has accused some journalists of being uncouth, unprofessional and un-patriotic and whose only objective is to file false reports to get attention. There have been many other instances also when the government has accused some of them of trying to use journalism in order to gain asylum in the West and in that endeavor they would deliberately write false stories so as to get themselves arrested in order to add more weight to their quest to gain asylum abroad.

 Now Mr. Njie and Olly-Mboge, in the light of all the above, are we comparing oranges and apples? Surely, one can see that his alleged duping of the Lebanese businessman, his claim of being a close friend to a government permanent secretary and his claim of being the Editor-In-Chief of the Independent newspaper are not particularly serious and does not affect the integrity of the Paper.

 Have a good day, Gassa.

 There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve. -Mike- Levitt-