By Momodou Jarju
Banjul North law maker, Ousman Sillah, has urged President Adama Barrow-led Government to invest in research, especially on science and technology in a bid to be among game changers in the world.
The parliamentarian made the remarks while speaking at the national assembly in Banjul on Thursday during the debate on the State of the Nation Address delivered by President Adama Barrow recently.
“Let us invest in research and let us not underrate ourselves. I am not sure we have that number of scientists here, researchers, but I guess we do have even Gambians who are in the diaspora, they can come. Gambia can also be a game changer. Gambians can also be game changers,” he said.
Mr. Sillah said his main concern in the area of higher education is research, saying research takes place all over the world and that even neighboring country, Senegal, engaged in research amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the Senegalese Government mobilized funds for their scientists to engage in research and that nothing should stop the Gambia Government from doing that as well.
Speaking further, the PDIOS politician said even the scientists may not be able to proffer solutions for the deadly coronavirus- COVID-19, other difficult issues or areas can be discovered by Gambians in the near future.
“So is an area that Government should really look into; research in science and technology. I am glad to hear that the GTTI (The Gambia Technical Training Institute) is being transformed into a polytechnic- a technology institution at a higher level and we guess that they would be coming with innovations,” he said.
Mr. Sillah said he hoped that the first African star to discover how to make a car would come from the would-be-transformed GTTI to a technical university.
“I am not engage in wishful thinking but it can be a reality. We have Gambians with brains, if we give them the environment, the support, the resources even at a small scale,” he said.
