Transcribed by Saikou B. Nyassi
Kebba Dibba: Your Excellency we are celebrating 5O years of nationhood
but if you look at colonialism as such, the bad side of it is too obvious to know. I just want to ask this question: Is there anything good about colonialism as a legacy?
President Jammeh: There is nothing good in any activity that leads some to surrender their freedom to others, there is nothing good in that.
Well, in the case of The Gambia, it is even very evil and very bad, nothing good has come from colonialism because one, it led to population loss, loss of earnings, starvation to death because of slavery, lack of freedom and the fact that we have to be dictated by a foreign culture that is alien to us. So there was nothing good in colonialism. And it can never be good anywhere. Colonialism was inhuman because they never came to develop, they came to exploit us.
Anybody who says there is something good about colonialism, that person is sick, it is an evil thing. Can you imagine cattle living longer than Gambians, what good can come from that, where the capital city was described as a hell hole? Nothing positive has come from colonialism. In some cases good things come from bad things but in the case of colonialism as far The Gambia was concerned most colonialists because they didn’t go there, because this place is in bad shape, and because to them it is in a bad shape, they came here because of wealth, they took all the wealth, the resources. We had chimpanzees, giraffes, tigers, lions, elephants, leopards, whatever. The last elephant was shot in 1956 in The Gambia. We have baboons but the baboons were not economic to them but they wiped out the Rhinos, they wiped out the elephants and other animals that you can think of.
So in addition to that from an elephant that resided in the country, it was turned to a little snake called The Gambia today. So there is nothing positive about colonialism.
Kebba Dibba: Your Excellency independence is not an end in itself. Probably but fifty years old in some cases probably close to sixty years now since the attainment of independence. How far have we come in terms of realising the ideals that inspired the liberation struggle, in the first place the struggle for independence?
President Jammeh: In the first place, the Europeans never came and declared that they wanted to rule Africa, if they have made that known to the Africans they wouldn’t have settled anywhere in Africa. They came as Africans have been hospitable, generous and believed that they are all of the same creation of one God the Almighty Allah and everywhere we are the children of Adam and Eve. It is still a moral obligation for Africans or any human being in the world. The Europeans came as explorers and Africans shared with what they have free of charge, despite the fact that instead of them saying, thank you, they turned around to say, Africans were primitive. They were exchanging their diamonds and gold for bottles of wine.
You can see how ungrateful they were, that was an insult. The Africans believed in giving in something valuable, and they thought because they didn’t know the value of gold they came with mirrors, wine for gold and diamonds. But if at that point in time they told them they were going to colonise them no African country would have allowed them to set foot on the African soil. They came as friends, explorers and then also their role of Christianity also paid a leading role subjugating Africans, the rule of white man. They looked at certain things and realised what Africans respect most and they chose those titles…..
Africans wouldn’t have accepted colonialism in the first place. With the effect of colonialism, the African now realised that after all everything was decided by the white man.
I remembered in those days even a Gambian was not qualified to be a secretary. There wasn’t a post that Gambians were given except that of a clerk. And the highest standard of education was standard seven. So how is it possible that everything was decided by them and not us. First, the first awakening was that of the world war when the Africans had to go and fight to liberate certain countries under the Europeans, the Germans and others.
Then the Second World War came, the British were never to be colonized, so why should Britain colonise us. And from the Second World War, now the die was cast for independence, some got it peacefully, others had to resolve it through war in order to liberate themselves, such as the Kenyans and Zimbabweans. Even streets are named after them, people that butchered Africans. If you are to fight to liberate others from Nazis Germany and Japan why didn’t they liberate us from them; and of course during the battle field they realised this treatment, even war prisoners, the European war prisoners were treated better than African soldiers who were fighting for them; those who were in the United States of America, German prisoners of war were better treated than what we called buffalos. So it came naturally.
Yes we have accepted this, as I said, in our country. If they don’t want to be dominated why should we also be dominated? So also African visionaries that saw colonialism through context, people like Kwame Nkrumah and Dubois from the Caribbean started the independence movement right inside Britain when they were scholars.
So, we were not going forward but we were going backwards. Everybody said, “Yes we should be independent” and after here we are in UK, in London. Where are the materials they are using to build the sky scrapers? Aren’t they coming from Ghana, Nigeria, whatever? And you come to The Gambia, you see how we live in a hell hole.
If they were mining elminite, I think the name of the company was Gambia Mineral which was under a British company; up to today, they are yet to give us the statistics of what was taken from the country and what quantity. So you can see that colonialism was naturally supposed to die.
Kebba Dibba: Your Excellency, 5O years, in the case of other countries 55 years, close to 6O years, what does it take for some one to convince me that yes, 5O years in terms of being out of colonialism which has turned us backwards in terms of our development.
President Jammeh: Well I know what I was saying. I was saying in terms of development for people not to think of being colonized for 4OO years.
There was massive looting to the extent that some big countries reduced to the size of lizard, where our flora and fauna were gone, some minerals were taken.
Over 4OO years, the cream of our society taken. Remember that in slave trade they were not taking smaller sons, people like you will not be sold. So can you imagine the type of people they took and of course if you are coughing and fall sick they will not take you, they kill you; or if you are onboard a ship and you are sick they will throw you overboard into the sea. Now the fact is that they treated us like commodities, like cattle.
Some were taken for breeding. They took some of us for breeding. Now if you sell cattle you are a commercial livestock farmer, you breed special breed.
So, from Thursday onwards you cannot blame anyone if you go forward or backwards, it is ourselves because poor countries have a lot of resources. What happened was that the colonialists were exploiting us and decided that we relinquish to them what they said they gave us as gift. The Queen Victoria Hospital, one of the worst you can think of; one of the most brutal monarchs you can think in the British history. We have the Bansang Hospital.
It was built by Gambian resources and at the time of independence they say they gave it as a gift in our country. So then what was their contribution to national development? At the time of independence also, let me characterise it better. Colonialism for the Gambia and for most countries, in the case of the Gambia we were terminally ill and chronic, and in a coma. In the first republic they have decided to leave us in a state of coma then. And in the second republic we have recuperated to walk and run.
The first republic was trying to resonate with of course assistance rejuvenated; treated with traditional medicine. But now it is healthy after 5O years. It is now supposed to compete in any major sports and become a world champion. That is what Gambia is without depending on any one, anybody. Now it is on its own.
Now we are on our own. That does not mean that we are not friends to any body. We are friends to every body, except those who do not want to be our friends. By Thursday [19 February 2015] we are going be on our own and whatever we want to build will depend on our decision and not on the availability of outside resources, by the grace of the Almighty Allah. By Thursday we are on our own. So we still have to blame them. Imagine 4OO years when they took the best of our people, and whatever is good they take it. If it is 5O years and you live another 5O years then you have independence for 5O years, yes, but it is 5O years compared to 4OO years, and in 4OO years they didn’t build a single high school. I used to mistakenly say they built only one high school, after all Armitage was not built by them it was on a tesito basis for the traditional rulers. One high way in 4OO years or it was not even a high way, it was four metres wide. So imagine how many Gambians died. Gambian drivers died on the Banjul Soma Basse highway. I think there was a hill that was synonymous to death for drivers. At Jahali Konko hill a lot of people died there. Jawara came and solved it a bit and not many people died.
One thing they didn’t tell you is that the African history written by them the Europeans is false. The African bread winners were taken and sold into slavery, they took the cream of society away.
No wonder the President of United States of America described Africans as disease infected people. Imagine that after taking the heftiest people of Africa for slavery, leaving the old ones.
If you have a herd of cattle you take the best bulls what would be the gene, so that answers the question.
So from Thursday we are on our own and it does not only mean as a country. Gambians also should graduate from dependency syndrome. From Thursday 19th February 2O15 upwards the Gambian people would benefit from your contribution, contribute what you benefit and that is national development. Your attitude towards the country, in terms of individual, individual contribution to national development, you should expect to benefit from what you have contributed.
If you are not contributing don’t expect to benefit from the contributions of others. So which means all of us are duty bound to contribute to national development.
Secondly, you should spend from what you earn and earn what you spend.
So the idea is that since Kebba of GRTS is my uncle, let me go there for lunch. You don’t belong to GRTS unless for circumstances beyond your control. So you eat what you grow and grow what you eat, either directly or indirectly. What does that mean? After the golden jubilee you will not depend on me for your food, unless in circumstances beyond your control, you will not depend on me for clothing unless under circumstances beyond your control.
And you also will not depend on me for feeding unless on circumstances beyond your control. This dependency syndrome, extended family is not bad; it is extremely excellent, but should not be negated by depending entirely on others, especially able bodied men just sitting doing nothing and expecting your uncle to give you whatever you want because they want you to go to Babylon.
So things have to change, attitudes have to change. You are independent in terms of what you eat. But if your clothing, your food, your everything come from somebody, then you are still not independent. If your welfare is depended on one, you are not independent. So you have to be completely independent. So if you have to be completely independent, we can only depend 1OO% on the Almighty Allah and decide ourselves to work hard.
Then the benevolence of others, generosity of others to be complementary to our own wellbeing. And it shouldn’t be our efforts complementary to the benevolence of others. That is why if you enter a system of which 98% dependent on gifts is unislamic, is ungodly and is unchristian because both the Bible and Quran say that you should live by your sweat. And we should take one thing very seriously. And for your neighbours, all the Hadis I have seen on Saudi channels and all the books I have read even in the Quran, in the Bible talk about the importance of living in harmony with your neighbours, it did not talk much about your relatives but your neighbours. And a neighbour is a neighbour, it can be anybody. So we should take care of each other as citizens or non citizens. Anybody in this country is a Gambian unless you see yourself as a foreigner because whatever happens to you like you happen to be sick, or whatever, you will be treated or taken care at our hospitals, if you commit a crime you will be tried by the laws of the Gambia, so you are a Gambian. So while in this country it is an obligation upon you to do what is in the best interest of the country, yourself the people, your neighbours and whoever is associated with you. I don’t care whether you are white, or green, yellow, or whatever, as far as I am concerned colour doesn’t matter to me; as a Muslim we judge by the fact that you are created by Allah and that is where everything stops or ends. Anything else will not be decided by your colour or handsomeness, or otherwise, or how tall or short you are, you will be judged by what you do.
Good, we encourage you, bad we discourage you. Good deeds encourage reward and bad deeds discourage you, discouraging punishment. So we will not punish you because you are Kebba Dibba an illegal immigrant in Foni, we punish Kebba Dibba because of stealing cattle, or we praise you Kebba Dibba out of somewhere in Kiang you are doing good.
So we will not judge you by your religion, as far as my administration is concerned I will not judge you by your religion because Allah has already made judgment in (Saratul Kafiring). Worship what you believe, I worship what I believe. You will not believe in what I believe in and I will also not believe in what you believe in. So follow your religion, I follow my religion, that is what the Quran says. The Quran doesn’t say, I kill you because you don’t believe in what I believe in. Now you want to believe in your religion, you want to dictate to me how my religion is, this is causing dynamite, a mind feeling, this is not acceptable. So this is the way it is. We must be not only a nation but individuals and communities, as villages and as towns. We must take our development into our own hands. Our destiny is in the Hands of Almighty Allah but we are also responsible for how we live in this country and how this country is moving. And that is why nationality is very important, stability is important. Instability will not be compromised, religion will not be compromised. Muslims and Christians will not be altered by other religious forces because no one can come to the Gambia and teach us anything new about Christianity, nobody also can come from outside to teach Gambians about Islam.
We can exchange ideas but we are not going to accept new ideas, ideas which are creating so much hardship to humanity by so called Muslim Jihadists. The so called Islamism militants kill innocent people in the name of Muslim majority.
Whatever is not in the Quran is ‘haram’. What is not in the Quran is ‘haram’. Killing innocent people!
Yesterday I was shocked to see how the ISIL in the ‘Islamic states’ slaughtered people, that is not true Islam. The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is an Islamic state. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic state and likewise all who use or introduce sharia. And you see people killing everybody, you kill children watching football. Those who kill are not Muslims, they are giving Muslims a bad image and that is exactly what they are doing. And then they attribute it to Islam, that is not Islam.
ISIL can stand for only one thing. International Sons of Insult and Lying (ISIL). They established an Islamic state. They are not Islamists. It is an insult to Islam. I saw what they did to the Jordanian pilot but before that I saw what they did in Syria. Even in conventional wars there are conventions that protect the rights of war prisoners when they are wounded to be treated. Perambulating, calling themselves Muslims, they took fifty soldiers to a sky scraper and what was shocking they dropped these people from that high top building, saying Allahou Akubarr, and dropped the fifty soldiers on to a concrete floor to their death. It is shameful and it is an insult to every Muslim. In fact they insulted our Prophet more than those who draw cartoons of the Prophet, because may be those who draw don’t know.
We call ourselves Muslims and do something that our Prophet doesn’t want. Allah says don’t kill anybody, any innocent person, if you do, it’s like you have killed the whole of humanity or mankind. The Churches were there before the Mosques, before Prophet Muhammad. Jesus Christ came before him. The Prophet said the Pyramids in Egypt, the Churches before the time of Hijra, Abysinia, Africa, Ethiopia, go to that land of Abysinia the rulers there believe in the same God. So you can see the difference. As far as I am concerned, as far as I know there has never been a battle at the Kabba. Tell me during his time, where did they demolish a Church. So, here are these ignorant sons of infamy, lying calling themselves Muslims, killing people and then saying Allahu Akbarr.
That is how they kill people and call themselves muslims. Today every Friday a mosque is bombed and they say Allahu Akbarr. So we should wipe them out.
In fact they are more offensive than those who drew cartons because they are ignorant. But the people we should wipe out are those who took guns against people, instead of taking guns against the ISIL people and others that are defaming Islam, disgracing Islam in the name of Prophet and disgracing the Prophet and making the name of Allah a joke and a licence to commit murder.
Kebba Dibba: Your Excellency, looking at this so-called Islamists, their provocations in the decade and a half is alarming. Your Excellency, you talk about the Bokoharam, you talk about Al-shabab, the numbers go on and no body seems to be able to defeat them, yet everybody is fighting them.
President Jammeh: Not everybody is fighting them and they are not invincible. You see the same person created by them, pretending to be fighting them and at the same time arming them. Now the International Sons of Infamy and Lying (ISIL) have tanks, artillery, whatever. Who supplies them? Who is training and sponsoring them?
In the first place also the West knew but they waited till three of four Westerners were killed. When they were in Syria, when they created and trained people to fight Assad, Assad also told them something. He said to them that, “you are arming terrorists,” and they said, “Oh, Assad’s days are numbered, he is scared.” Assad said to them that, “these terrorists will end up fighting you,” and this is exactly what has happened. The late Ayatollah Khomeini told the Americans, “you are arming Saddam Hussein to fight me, after me he will fight you,” and that prediction has come to pass. Assad said to them, “these are terrorists,” but they ignored him and when they have meetings they will not invite him as if he is a terrorist. So criminal elements that they have trained to get rid of him were more legitimate than a government that has ruled for more than 3O years.
Imagine, they can hate Assad for whatever reasons but the reality also is that they didn’t hate him because he was maltreating his people. Do they care about the welfare of the Syrians? No. Why are the Syrians starving? Lebanon is full of refugees and their countries are ten times bigger than Lebanon, why can’t they take Syrian refugees since they are friends of Syria? In fact Syrian it is more difficult refugees to go to their countries because they are talking about Islamisation of Europe. You don’t even know whether you are member of the ISIL when they created all these troubles and problems.
They created the AL-Qaeda. They used to create the People’s Mujahidin, an Islamic revolutionary [movement]. The same in the case of Afghanistan, they also created the people’s Mujahidin that gave rise to AL-Qaeda and the Taliban. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan the only country that recognised them in the West was America.
And they forced other countries to recognise them. The Taliban government in Afganistan was only recognised by not more than four countries in the whole world, because they were there for a purpose. Some countries were caused to recognise them to give them semblance of reality. But just like the Khmer Rouge in Souh East Asia which was created to give communism a very nasty image, so also is the creation of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and others. The whole reality of the situation is war against Islam.
Am I afraid of those fighting against Islam, no, they are going to fail in my presence. They will crawl before Islam no matter how powerful they are and it is very soon. If you train hyenas to hunt my cattle and they come around and bite you, should I cry for you? No, I will not.
Kebba Dibba: Your Excellency, what is your stake on the future of Africa? I was watching television, your interview was aired and then at the end of the interview you made this remark: You said, “Oh God! There are not many like me, that is the unfortunate side of the story.” Is leadership Africa’s problem?
When you stand and look around yourself, among your contemporaries, do you feel lonely in respect of the views and ideas that you stand for?
President Jammeh: If you believe in the Almighty Allah you can never be lonely. You can never be pessimistic; it is just a closing chapter. Because after the Almighty Allah, today more Africans are conscious than before. You remember 1994, twenty years ago when I talked about it people would say, “Hey, antagonising the white man would make us suffer. We have prospered without them. So I am not pessimistic, it is just a closing chapter of Africa’s history. The future of Africa is very bright. Those leaders are going, most of them will not even win elections, they will not be elected even if they rig the election, that would be a bigger catastrophe. The butchers like Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso and Charles Taylor. I told him[Charles Taylor], you followed these butchers and butchered people in Sierra Leone, you will end up in prison. It was felt that this man will not go to prison because he is been backed by the West since he is serving their interest. Today Blaise is no longer president, but not a prisoner. One thing is he may face the ICC [International Criminal Court] and go to jail for what he did in Sierra Leone and Liberia. By the time he may not live long enough for Charles Taylor to leave prison, he will be an old sorry man of himself. Gaddafi is one who was the author of all this, who thought that Africa can be ruled by him. They started to attack Liberia and others for the interest of the West.
I know Gaddafi more than any person close to him. He created the war in Sierra Leone, the Quran is here. What ended the war in Sierra Leone is not the UN. Yes, Gaddafi is gone but the living witnesses know that I ended the war in Sierra Leone. I told Gaddafi, “if you don’t stop supplying arms to the RUF, not only would we not support you with regard to resolving the crisis openly but it will be my turn to campaign against you, including what you are doing.” I told him, I went to Sierra Leone and I have seen how hands were cut, “you better put an end to it.”
I called Charles Taylor. His wife who is still alive, is my witness. I told him, “Charles Taylor, stop the war because Gaddafi is no longer going to give you arms.” He said to me, “Even the brother leader?” I said yes. I said to him, “if you don’t disassociate yourself from these people you will be next, the war will come back to you, you will lose and will go to prison; that would even better for you, otherwise you are going to be a dead man.” A Gambian who was deputy ADC to Charles Taylor when I was talking was present. He called Gaddafi and told him. He called me and threatened me but I stopped supplying weapons.
The weapons supply dried up. As for the consignment of weapons, they had arrears and decided to wipe out people like Mosquito and others. Paul Koroma was here, when he came he was wearing a T-shirt of the University of Liberia, where is he? When Obasanjo, Alpha Omar Konare and I went to meet the RUF [Revolutionary United Front] I was the only one who spent the night at the Executive Mansion where Charles Taylor. Obasanjo is my witness. We have seen the Gambians who were there guarding Charles Taylor and Charles Taylor would not want me to see them because if I see them they will go home. I could have gone to the UN Security Council, where Gambia was then a member and claim that they are mercenaries. They listened to me. Now, Essa Sisay, his ADC was so arrogant that whilst Obasanjo and others were talking he was also talking to somebody else. I told him that, you are very arrogant, I told him that, “you are younger than me and if it comes to bravery, I am braver than you. What you are doing is just killing innocent people and you are going to die like a dog.” When his trial started, he wanted me to defend him because he knows I was the only one that can defend him. All of them were listening to him. I said to him, “you want me to go and testify for you and you were so arrogant.” The Sierra Leonian tribunal wanted me to testify, I said “I will never testify to save you, the truth will hang you.”
Gaddafi is gone by divine intervention. Charles Taylor in jail, Blaise Campoare in asylum. They destroyed West Africa. How many people died in Ivory Coast before Alasan Watara could step into the Presidential Palace, does it worth it? The Americans had a problem, did they fight, they ended up in court for the court to decide. Did a dog die? So, why should Africans die on who won the election?
Kebba Dibba: What is your take on the future of the African continent, how do you see it?
President Jammeh: It is very bright, Africans know their leaders now.
In different countries they know what their leaders stand for and when it is time to safeguard their interest no matter what, they can do anything to safeguard their interest. You know, when they invented the internet and then started to back it with the social website thinking that is way they can use them to spy on countries and bring mayhem and regime change. They didn’t know that it was going to backfire into their face. So every body knows that the West were not telling truth, because the truth can never be hidden, the lies can never be masked the truth. So, what they created is coming back to them. Africans are no longer fools.
In the past, it would take ten years to know the price of gold in the world market. Today you can sit in a remote place or in a cave and know about the price of gold. And you can also know how much goods your country is producing and exporting. So you can put everything together and can tell how much your country will have; then you can ask yourself where that money is going to.
Can you imagine the Gulf states, how they started, Dubai and others. They started producing petroleum and gas not more than twenty years ago. Some Africans countries have been producing oil and gas for the past twenty years, compare them to these countries. Compare Qatar to the African oil producing countries. Look at Dubai, compared it to Africa’s largest producers of oil and gas. When did they start, where they are today and those who started decades ago? Africans are no longer sleeping. Do not be pessimistic about Africa, you should be proud or happy that their leaders, their regimes all are going, and better leaders would come. Africans are no longer going to suffer; they run away from Africa and go to Europe, only to die at the coast, if they enter the coast, or die in the sea or end up in prison called ‘asylum seekers camp’. I challenge the West to send the independent television to go and film those camps, they are the worst for asylum seekers. They tell you about human rights. Africans have not committed any crime to warrant being kept in such camps. The good French people are complaining about the way asylum seekers are been treated in France. It is so inhuman. In Europe they are talking about democracy and human rights; you think people will live like that, and you don’t allow cameras in.
So, now Africans know that all what they tell us is a lie. All they think about Africa is our wealth and how they can have it cheaply to make sure their industries process them.
Secondly, they make sure that we are unstable. Most of the rebels that are in mineral rich countries, their first target is to occupy where you have the mineral resources; and become even more powerful than the national army of that country. Where do they come from and where do they get the arms from?
Kebba Dibba: Your Excellency, I would like to bring this interview to an end but my final question is, no doubt you are you are compassionate, you are generous.
President Jammeh: Am I?
Kebba Dibba: Yes, there is no doubt about that. Your Excellency you have demonstrated this many times, you have Gambians outside, some might have wronged you, some might have failed you, they are outside, some perhaps must have realised their mistakes, they want to make amends, they want to come back, they want to join your band wagon to develop this country, what message do you have for people like those who are outside this country?
President Jammeh: I am not pretentious. I am a real muslim and as I say if you are not grateful to the people, people cannot be grateful to you. And if you are not forgiving I also may not forgive. I have nothing personal against them. I turned a new page against a nasty book that was full of lies when the author realised that it was a bunch of lies, that all he said is not true. All these people that are talking as far as I am concerned, I don’t have personal grievances against them but because they belong to a decadent system that we overthrew, they say that is not going to happen. And that means what Allah says they said that is not going to happen and that is why they are where they are.
Well if it is a question of pardon, I have nothing against any one of them.
But for some of them, a few of them, I will not forgive [them] for obvious reasons. The rest are free to come home. They are not coming to support me; that is not my business that is their business. If they come and be on their own it is not a problem but if they come and think of, “Oh, we are being pardoned and want to destabilize the country,” I will wipe them out. Anybody who wants to use any means to come and destroy this country, I will destroy you, even if the sky is going to explode. I am not afraid of anybody. This Falai Baldeh, he insulted my mum. He said or explained to the Americans that this is not a demonstration, they were intending to assault. They say all sorts of bad things about me, that is their business. They are free to come back home to this country but [they should] come back and be decent citizens of this country, and work for the interest of peace and security of this country. Anything other than that, I will wipe them out. I am not against them they can come, they are free. For some of them I will not, they know themselves, but for the rest they can come home. Those who personalize everything, I will not allow them, if they come they are going to jail. We will take them before a court of law and deal with them.
Those who want to come and say hey; he has pardon us let us go, before we were far away, now we are close by, we can destabilize the country within, I will wipe them out. So if they want the peace and security of this country and for the development of the country, you are welcome. But for those few people I will not forgive, they know themselves,
And Gambians know who they are because they don’t think anything good for this country. Those people who are not for me because of my government. And today everything is piled on the Gambia about Yahya Jammeh. Enough is enough, and how many of them are safe where they are. Wait until the 5Oth anniversary, if they think there is no God they are making a grave mistake, but otherwise I swear to God they can come. The ones I am talking about they are lest than ten, those ones I will not forgive them, but the rest I don’t care what they are saying. I want reconciliation, not fake but true reconciliation.
Some of them may say now that they are back what job are they going to be given or offered, “Oh; I am a graduate I have this and that, I want to be a minister, I want to be paid this amount.” I am not going to do that. Before I give consideration to them, I will give Gambians who suffered with us; who despite their qualifications they decide to stay in this country; that is my first priority. You cannot wait until everything is fine, when it is harvest time you tell me you want to harvest the best part of it. What about the Gambians who toiled. I will let them go and apply like any other Gambian. Even if they have jobs, Allah decides what you get, but nobody should tell me his qualification and thinks that I will give him a job. I will give jobs to Gambians that have been here.
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Home Governance and Democracy PRESIDENT JAMMEH ON GAMBIA’S 5O YEAR ANNIVERSARY Interview aired on GRTS, Friday...
