The Standard Newspaper

Speaking in an interview with The Standard on the sidelines of the recently concluded Jalsa Salana organised by the Ahmadiyaa Muslim Jama’at, he explained:

 “The school was built in 2005 by Humanity First an international charitable organization which is also under the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at. As a consequence, Masroor Senior Secondary school is independently run just like all the other Sister Ahmadiyya Mission Schools in the country such as Tahir, Nasir, and Mbullum in the North Bank Region plus basic cycle schools in Wuli (URR) and Kanfenda in Foni Kansala West Coast Region respectively.

“Everything has an advantage and a disadvantage and this misunderstanding has been happening since the school’s inception because of our working relationship with Nusrat. However, the advantages of whatever situation the school is in today will outweigh its disadvantages. This is because when one says Masroor is Nusrat annex the advantage there is people who have faith in Nusrat being a very established school with outstanding performance in all fields of education will of course be associated with Masroor. But the fact is the latter is in no way an annex of Nusrat. He pointed out that the school’s performance since it opened its doors to students has been “fantastic with a lot of our graduates either admitted into various Universities or working elsewhere to contribute their quotas to national development”. 

Further recounting his school’s litany of academic successes, he said they recently won the Qur’anic and Islamic quiz contest held at the Gambia College, the Kinkiliba Drama Competition and have also reached the semi-finals of the annual Fanta, Science and Mathematics Quiz Competition this year.

By Ousman Bojang

This was disclosed by the minister of Tourism and Culture, Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie, while speaking during salutation visit to Juffureh with a delegation comprising officials of the National Centre for Arts and Culture and the Gambia Tourism Board.

The visit was meant to formally inform the people of the community of preparations for the 11th edition of the festival. 

She said: “I guess a large chunk of the budget, should I say all, for this year’s Roots festival will be funded by the President of the republic and the government of The Gambia. We have also written to other institutions to bridge the gap, Gamtel-Gamcel are going to take care of the opening ceremony at the Arch 22 on the 11th may.

“This year we want to organise a festival with a difference. We came to Juffureh-Albreda today to meet with the alkalo, the youths and women to plan the roots pilgrimage because if you hear the word ‘roots’, it is about Kunta Kinteh and since 2006 His Excellency, President Jammeh has been advocating for us to bring the African diaspora to reconnect, reaffirm and rediscover their ancestral identity. This is what the roots have to offer.”

The governor of North Bank Region, Lamin ‘Queen’ Jammeh, is confident his region is prepared to host the bi-annual event by virtue of past experiences and support from the inhabitants.

He assured the delegation: “We are more than prepared because of several comparative advantages that we have in the Roots festival. The first advantage is that it is a fixed location. The second advantage is that it has been happening for a while now, so overtime the people have gathered some experience and thirdly is because of the people’s desire for the revival, maintenance and consolidation of the very culture which is being celebrated. So these factors put together can explain the readiness of the region and the community of Juffureh-Albreda and by extension, the Upper Niumi district in particular for the celebration of culture in diversity”.

The governor also stressed the importance of culture, saying it constitutes a very critical component of human existence as he called on the people of north bank, Juffureh-Albreda in particular, to come out in their large numbers for this year’s event.

By Essa Njie 

The exercise, according to VDF officials, is part of a series of development activities earmarked for various communities in the  Kanifing Municipality and West Coast Region, whose roads are often rendered unmotorable due to massive potholes and stagnant pools of water during the rainy season.

The roads currently under rehabilitation include Latrikunda Piccadilly road linking Wellingara Horticultural Centre and Nema Kunku Road.

Speaking to the press during the exercise,  Momodou Manta Jallow, the national coordinator of VDF, underscored their patriotic zeal and readiness to complement government’s efforts in national development. “This is part of the commitment of VDF founder to support the nation and  humanity at no cost. He believes that a good road network is an essential pillar of development and that’s what motivated the founder to embark on this laudable initiative.

“This road rehabilitation for communities is part of Turo Darboe’s efforts to ensure that people have access to better roads and clean environment free from malaria and other environmental hazards that are all linked to stagnant water. We plan to extend the gesture to Wellingara, Brikama and other parts soon before the rainy season.”

The chairman of board of directors for VDF, Mr Lamin Dibba, who led the team on an inspection of the exercise underscored the importance of  people having  access to better roads to facilitate smooth running of business. The exercise, he said, is in fulfilment of their strategic goal of improving people’s lives.

The councillor for Latrikunda ward, Pa Ousman Fatty, expressed delight and appreciation for what he described as a “patriotic endeavour” adding that the exercise has attracted  various youths and elders within the communities to also participate in the exercise.

The Latrikunda APRC ward chairman,  Yerro Njie, said that the latest move by  by VDF was not a surprise to many residents within Latrikunda Sabiji and Piccadilly because Turo Darboe has been very supportive not only to the community of Latrikunda but to the entire Gambian nation. “He has been supporting mosques, churches, Muslims and Christians, institutions, individuals, poor and  needy.”

He said the many efforts being made by Mr Darboe to support  the nation and humanity as a whole  is something that he inherited from his father, whom he described as “very generous”. He challenged Gambian people particularly the youths to give their unalloyed support to the initiative, and emulate him.

Talibo Konjira, secretary general of Latrikunda Sabiji Ward Development Committee said the road rehabilitation initiative could not have come at a better time given the fact that during the rainy season commuters, drivers and road users are enormously encumbered in movement  due to potholes and stagnated water on the roads.

Mr Salifu Dampha, a resident of Latrikunda Piccadilly said: “This road has invariably  created a nightmare for  us especially during the rainy season but thanks to Turo’s intervention, we can breathe a sigh of relief.

.“This place used to be a waterway, so we are grateful to Turo for considering us among a host of other communities. National development can only be achieved through collective efforts as the government cannot do everything alone. I call on others to emulate Turo and I thank the youths for coming out to support the exercise”.

Meanwhile, VDF took the opportunity to appeal to the government to do more in creating the enabling environment for them to operate and further contribute towards national development. This came following the holding of some VDF trucks loaded with gravel en-route to the rehabilitation site  causing delay.

By Sainey Marenah

Addressing Sierra Leoneans, Daramy confirmed that The Gambia transport minister four days ago ordered  airlines operating in The Gambia “not to pick up passengers in Freetown, Liberia and Conakry as bound passengers to Banjul” due to what they referred to as suspected cases of the deadly Ebola virus in these neighbouring countries.

Acting on the suspension of the airlines from Freetown to Banjul, High Commissioner Daramy, wrote a letter to the Gambian authorities supported with “practical and technical evidence” denying the existence of any confirmed cases of the Ebola virus anywhere in Sierra Leone.

The chief medical officer in the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Dr Brima Kargbo, wrote a letter to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on April 12 stating that there is no laboratory confirmed case of Ebola in his country. The report added that so far, rumoured suspected cases have been tested using RT- PCR and ELISA and all proven to be negative for Ebola.

“However,” Dr Brima Kargbo said, “the country remains to be vigilant with epidemiological surveillance and increased awareness raising activities on the risks factors of Ebola and for individual personal protection around the borders of Sierra Leone.”

The chief medical officer, further added that the country has Metaboita Inc and Tulane University (A US-based research institute) supporting the effort of the country in addition to WHO. The supporting technical documents validating the High Commission’s stance of no known cases of the Ebola virus existing in Sierra Leone at this moment were attached and forwarded to the Gambian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for ease of reference

“High Commissioner Daramy as a result of these overwhelming facts wishes the Gambian government and authorities to be apprised of the embarrassment and discomfort the action and inactions of The Gambia airlines has caused on the free movement of Sierra Leoneans to The Gambia and international visitors travelling out of Sierra Leone through The Gambia Bird,” the Sierra Leone Express Media stated.

Deputy Ambassador Haja Saidata Sesay said her government will highly appreciate revisiting of the decision taken by the airlines to further harmonise the longstanding relationship between the two sisterly countries.

The executive director of Rlg Gambia, Papa Yusupha Njie, told Ghana’s The General Telegraph newspaper in Accra, where he recently paid a two-day working visit, that the creation of the solar-powered kiosks was just an extension of a job-creation strategy.

Mr Njie, who is also the chief executive officer of Unique Solutions in The Gambia, said both Rlg and Unique Solutions have a common vision of creating one million jobs in Africa.

“We are tired of our young people crossing the Atlantic Ocean and getting killed for trying to get their families out of poverty.  Africa must be innovative because we cannot allow the outside world to think for us and make it different from what we think we know. By God’s grace, in Rlg’s desire to create more jobs, the solar-powered kiosks and chargers that are going to be used for Rlg and other devices will be in Ghana,” he revealed.

“The good thing about being a group is that when ideas come, they first germinate in one country like how Rlg did in Ghana with the assembling plant, which came to Ghana first before it went to The Gambia and now Nigeria. Ghana and The Gambia are the same in so many different ways so at the end of the day, what is good for The Gambia should be good for Ghana,” he added.

According to Mr Njie, there is no better way for change in Africa than public-private partnership and noted that governments alone could not create all the jobs that Africa needs so they must create the conducive environment for the private sector to do so.He posited that the time had come for Africa to be innovative and believe in itself that it could also make products that could compete with the western world.

“I can sell most of Rlg products on Oxford Street in London and people will buy. We can talk about the smart charger; we can talk about the fusion; we can talk about the Bluetooth speakers; we can talk about the Uhuru. But, Rlg has revolutionized ICT not only in The Gambia, but also in Ghana, Nigeria and wherever we have our footprints,” he added.

Mr Njie then rallied for support for Rlg, which he said is a people-centred brand.“Give us the chance. We must promote what we own. Yes, we may make mistakes but tell us how we can do it better, rather than castigate us. We are saying pray for us but we are also saying promote us so that in the next few years we would all be proud of something that belongs to all of us, just as our motto says: “Proudly Yours,” he appealed.

The Rlg/Unique Solutions solar kiosks initiative is a public-private partnership between the government of The Gambia, and Rlg Communications Group and Unique Solutions.

The campaign will be carried out by the National Malaria Control Programme (NCMP) of the Ministry of Health in collaboration with Roll Back Malaria Partnership, a global framework for coordinated action against malaria.

Speaking at a news conference, Adam Jagne-Sonko, head of NMCP said the one million long-lasting insecticides treated nets to be distributed is in response to Gambia’s target of eliminating malaria by 2020. “Malaria must be viewed as a development priority and must be tackled at every level and at every opportunity. The Malaria Control Strategic Plan (2014-2020) has already been developed with the goal to reduce the incidence of infection caused by malaria parasites to zero in The Gambia by 2020,” she outlined. 

“Our policy outlines seven core intervention areas, including malaria case management, prevention and control of malaria during pregnancy, seasonal malaria chemoprevention, integrated vector management, BCC/IEC, advocacy partnership and social mobilisation.” 

According to her, malaria remains a major public health problem globally, despite it being both preventable and curable.

“In 2012, malaria caused an estimated 627,000 deaths (mostly among African children). In 2012, malaria cases were estimated at 207 million globally; vast majority of cases and deaths occur in Africa (90%),” she added. Malaria, she lamented, is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children and pregnant women in The Gambia. 

Ms Jagne-Sonko said World Malaria Day offers a chance to shine the spotlight on the global efforts to malaria control as well as a call to attention to the need to meet the 2015 MDGs and defeat malaria.

Also speaking at the news conference, the World Health Organisation Banjul representative, Dr Charles Sages Moses, who read the joint statement issued by WHO and UNICEF, in support of the World Malaria Day, said: “Leadership, partnership and commitment are critical to maintaining the gains made against malaria in the Gambia as well as other parts of the world.”

Dr Moses said the battle against malaria is not yet over despite significant strides against the disease over the years. He reiterated UN system’s commitment to supporting The Gambia in consolidating and expanding the gains made against malaria. 

Chief public health officer, Sanna Jawara, said: “With significant increase in access to malaria control interventions, overall mortality rates [in Gambia] have fallen by 32% in 2013. Malaria incidence has been reduced by 85.5%; admission due to malaria has dropped by 74% and malaria attributed death dropped by 90%.”

The Gambia will join the world to celebrate World Malaria Day on April 25. This year’s national commemoration will be held in the Upper River Region village of Taibatou.

By Sainey Marenah

The matter was adjourned for continuation of cross- examination of state witness, former state counsel Anna Dibba by Borry Touray, lawyer for Mr Jobarteh but the case could not proceed due to the absence of the defence lawyer which prompted the state counsel, Maurice Agiah to lambast the defence lawyer for unnecessary absence and adjournment of the case on a series of occasions.

When the case was called yesterday, the magistrate handed a copy of a letter filed by counsel for Mr Jobarteh. After going through the contents of the letter, the state counsel stood up and said: “We have cited the letter filed by the counsel asking for an adjournment of the case. But we have not seen any reason for the absence of the defence counsel. We know that counsel was present on the last adjourned date and the adjournment was made at the insistence of the state. This case has suffered a series of adjournments all at the insistence of the defence even though our witness is always available in court in order to make progress.”

Mr Agiah urged the court to foreclose the cross-examination by the defence and discharge the witness if they failed to proceed with the cross-examination of the witness on the next adjourned date.

Mr Jobarteh at that point stood up to counter a submission made by the state counsel. He contended that as an accused, he has right to speak in the absence of his barrister. Magistrate Abeke however adjourned the matter while upholding the application made by the state counsel. Hearing resumes April 28.

By Baba Sillah

The Bank said the competitively selected beneficiaries would receive funding for advanced specialized studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM-related disciplines, as well as in agriculture and health. The Africa Centers of Excellence, ACE, project is to be financed through International Development Agency, IDA, credits to the governments of the affected institutions to equip young Africans with new scientific and technical skills.

The Bank said Nigeria would receive about US$70 million (N11.2 billion), Ghana (US$24 million), Senegal (US$16 million), while Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Togo would receive US$8 million each. The Gambia would receive US$2 million credit and a US$1 million grant to provide higher education, including short-term training, to students, faculty and civil servants through the 19 ACEs.

Under the Agriculture category, the benefitting institutions include Federal University of Agriculture, Nigeria for Agricultural Development and Sustainable Environment; University of Ghana for training Plant Breeders, Seed Scientists and Technologists; University of Lome, Togo for the Poultry Sciences; Bayero University, Nigeria, for Dryland Agriculture, and Benue State University, Nigeria, for Food Technology and Research.

The health category has as beneficiaries Redeemers University, Nigeria, for Genomics of Infectious Diseases; University of Ghana for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens; University of Jos, Nigeria, for Phytomedicine Research and Development; Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology; University of Benin, Nigeria, for Reproductive Health and Innovation, and Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal for Maternal and infant Health.

Those in the STEM category include African University of Science and Technology, Nigeria, for Materials; Université d’Abomey – Calavi, Bénin for Applied Mathematics; Université de Yaoundé I, Cameroon for Information and Communication Technologies; Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement (2iE) for Water, Energy, and Environment Sciences and Technologies.

Others include University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, for Oil Field Chemicals; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, for Water and Environmental Sanitation; Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria for Science, Technology and Knowledge; and University of Gaston Berger, St Louis, Senegal for Mathematics, Informatics, and ICT.

The World Bank vice-president for Africa, Makhtar Diop, said the Bank was excited to support these pioneering centers of excellence, as they would be another step in building and nurturing specialized “I can think of no better way to grow African economies, create jobs, and support research in Africa, than educating young graduates with expertise in high-demand areas such as chemical engineering, crop science, and the control of infectious diseases,” Mr Diop said.

He said the continent was facing a serious shortage of skilled workers in fast-growing sectors, including extractive industries, energy, water, and infrastructure and fields of health and telecommunications. The result of having too few skilled workers in Africa’s extractive industries, he noted, was that oil and minerals are extracted in Africa, but processed elsewhere in the world, to the detriment of African industries and jobs.

Africa, the World Bank Vice President said, also suffers from a shortage of trained health workers capable of providing high quality maternal health services, pointing out that this may partially explain why Africa’s maternal mortality rate has remained so tragically high at 500 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

Africa, he pointed out, needs its own research and innovative solutions to tackle its development challenges, including climate change, which calls for urgent measures to increase yields in agriculture, while infectious diseases continue to exact a heavy toll on families and economies.

Regrettably, he said, the researcher-to-population ratio remains very low in African countries, citing the example of Burkina Faso, which has 45 research and development, R&D specialists per million people, and Nigeria with 38, in comparison to an average of 481 in Latin America and 1,714 in East Asia.

World Bank education manager for West & Central Africa, Peter Materu, said the new Bank-financed ACEs offer a regionally integrated way to increase high-quality R&D services that would help meet the above challenges.

“Students in West and Central Africa urgently need high-quality science and technology programmes to compete in their own regional job market as well as the global economy, but not a single university from this part of Africa features in rankings of the world’s top 500 universities,” Mr Materu said “The African Centers of Excellence project is a win-win initiative—it will help these young people achieve their aspirations without leaving Africa, and it will help firms to find advanced skills and knowledge domestically and to compete more effectively in international markets.”

He said the coordination and knowledge-sharing among the 19 ACEs would be managed through the Association of African Universities (AAU), an important regional partner, which has received a US$5 million grant for this purpose.

The investment, the Bank’s first private-sector operation in the health sector and the first private-sector project in The Gambia, will provide diagnostic, surgical, and medical in-patient and outpatient services for patients both privately funded and charitably funded. It also comprises an outreach delivery service and a training centre for local health service capacity-building.

It will address the growing demand for high quality health services in The Gambia. It is estimated that at least 70,000-100,000 people including expatriates either have access to private medical insurance, pre-payment schemes and/or are able to afford to pay for the services out-of-pocket. The dividends to the Trust will be paid to the Clinic for its charity services to the poor.

In addition, the project will help alleviate the burden arising from the country’s underfunded public healthcare system. It will generate over 200 stable and temporary jobs. It also provides for significant training and capacity-building activities through the Trust as well as put programs in place for continued professional development for mid-level health workers in The Gambia and the West Africa.

The project is aligned with the development priorities of The Gambia, including its long-term strategy, Vision 2020, which highlights provision of better health infrastructure as its objective in health, among other instruments. It is also in line with the Bank’s Strategy 2013-2022 in terms of inclusive growth objectives by extending medical services to the poor and providing training for the local health professionals.