He told journalists yesterday afternoon upon return from the US-Africa summit in Washington DC, USA: “I have made it clear that this is a unique opportunity to hear Africans out because the USA is having a huge influence over the UN Security Council. Having the first US-Africa leaders’ summit is historic because for the first time it has happened in the history of the United States. But it will be more historic and more meaningful if Obama should stand up for Africa to have two permanent seats and also to have the powers that other permanent powers enjoy…because if you have to have two permanent seats without a veto power, then nobody should have a veto power because this is a historic injustice. Now that we have spoken and discussed, it is a wait-and-see attitude.
“The theme [of the summit] was ‘Investing in Africa’s future’ but unfortunately some of us didn’t know and I don’t know whether it was out of ignorance or they just wanted to talk for the sake of talking. The theme of the meeting is what is important and not The Gambia or anyone. So instead of speaking as individuals we should speak on what we think should be the investment for a better future for all of Africa instead of The Gambia or Senegal or whatever. Some of us where talking in terms of say, oh my country has this and we want this. We have to work together because they wanted to know what our opinion was about and what we should do for a bright future for Africa.”
President Jammeh said the meeting produced no communiqué and as a result, African leaders do not know yet what the outcome would be.
“What is important is the fact that we were all there and we all spoke at the level of heads of states. So instead of talking about different African countries individually, we should talk about Africa’s future. We have to work together and the most important thing is making sure that there is peace and security in the continent and this is what we have discussed. We also have to make sure that we invest in education because some of the problems we have in Africa are out of ignorance. We have to invest in health because if the children are not healthy they cannot be educated and they cannot be good future leaders.
“But first we have to ensure a healthy population and two, make sure that people are educated. Third, we also have to make sure there is agricultural development because it is the foundation. You have to be educated in order to be able to improve your agricultural production and also we have what you call infrastructure. There must be infrastructure to support health, education and agriculture.
Industrialisation is also important because Europe came out of the dark ages because of its industrial revolution. So if Africa is to really change its development, we cannot do so without industrialisation and this cannot take place without infrastructure and energy.”
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