In an interview with The Standard over the weekend, she asserted: “I feel that every Gambian should go into military service for at least one year after high school before going to the university or even after university. I mean every single Gambian. The reason for that is that it will instill discipline in the youths which is the road to success. When I look at the children of today, all running about, it is like you planted a tree but the tree is not nurtured to grow and left in the wilderness and this is how these children are growing. When they want to speak to you; they have no respect to say hello. They do not know how to speak to people. Indiscipline is ruining our country and people have to be more disciplined. The bible says ‘respect your mother and father before your days are numbered in this world’. This means that if you respect adults, you will live a long time here.
“However, if you have discipline, focus, and religion you will see that your life is guided in the right direction. But if you do not have a framework for development and cultivating your life, you will go off the radar and that is why so many young people go off the radar. As Gambian citizens, we should be patriotic to our country. We should stop criticising our country and dwell on its positives. You cannot go to another country and claim it is better than yours. There is no better place than where your placenta is buried; that’s your homeland and you shouldn’t stand and criticise it. We should be more patriotic.”
The philanthropist who was awarded an MRG in 2003 for her patriotic gestures after donating a sum of 140,000 pounds sterling and four ambulances to the RVTH maintained: “If we do not have a leader like President Jammeh, The Gamba would not have been a stable country. It is only Jammeh that can lead this country. Jawara’s regime has come and gone. We are moving in the 21st century. Jammeh has done a lot in terms of infrastructural development. We have to remember that The Gambia has no natural resources, so he is doing a lot with the little resources we have. We only get revenues from corporate, sales and income taxes and our population is growing so the money being generated from that revenue is very little. We cannot keep hanging on the government and expect the government to do everything for us. We have to get up and work. We have abundant land and rain. We have the sea with fishes and foreigners are coming to get our fishes and selling it abroad. Moreover, we Gambias would say ‘Yala bahna’ meaning God is great. Why don’t we go to Tanji, Bakau and other places and fish.
“Senegalese are fishing our waters while we Gambians say ‘Yalabahna’. This is a very wrong attitude for Gambians. People should not expect the government to finance them because they should be able to get up and go farm the land, fish the sea, grow up and climb the stairs, and insh’Allah they shall be there one fine day. However, if you sit and expect money to drop from the sky, and say ‘I have faith in God’ you won’t get there. Gambians should wake up from this long sleep and realise that they can also do it. Let them stop thinking about quick money. Nevertheless, if you put your energy and focus, and drive you will get there with the help of the God.”
]]>
