Dear editor,
I followed the sudden emergence of a new order in the much discredited Gambia Action Party, GAP, with great interest and curiosity.
To start with, it was quite strange that the GAP want us to believe that they have chosen a leader without his consent when the entire press conference was so elaborately painted with pictures and other paraphernalia of General Bojang.
It was obvious that GAP was not truthful in their very first introduction of their new flag bearer.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly General Bojang was in The Gambia just days before the announcement, claiming to be the negotiator between the Brufut youth community and the government over the piece of land at the Brufut height suggesting he could have been present in the entire planning of the press conference.
And why didn’t a would-be opposition leader first consider resigning his government position? Is he in cohort with President Barrow as new rumours are now having it? Could he also be a proxy for the soon-to-come Barrow’s political party as a plan to eat through the UDP base in Sanementereng and Brufut in particular? And talking about Brufut, isn’t there another presidential aspirant of the GANU? Interesting! In any case, I am not convinced by the credibility or sincerity of GAP over their dramatic turn of events in the party.
Also, after reading Gen Bojang’s acceptance letter, I concluded straight away that he has no understanding of Gambian politics and he, contrary to the GAP propaganda, cannot provide solutions to the current issues affecting this country.
In short, from my analysis he is worse than Musa Batchilly in all aspects.
Clearly he did not do his homework well because an intellectual smart young person would not venture into such a suicidal mission.
The letter itself looks like a primary school child’s write-up, filled with grammatical errors.
How can the newly nominated GAP flag-bearer vie for a position that he could not even spell correctly in his own letter. Readers can go through the letter again and see for themselves how he spelled “presidential”.
Again Bojang’s nomination could not have been done on democratic principles because it is just too prompt to nominate a standard bearer for 2021 election, when the party had not yet held its first congress.
A fact that clearly confirmed that both Bachilly and Gen.
Bojang are still living in a dream world. What type of party is GAP? Perhaps, as the name implies, they are here to fill the political gap, but not to deliver to the Gambian people.
Bojang may have denied this but rumors have it that he allegedly supported Musa Batchilly with a D100, 000 to settle his debt problems, and got rewarded with the flag bearer position. Is he so laid back or lazy that he cannot form a credible political party to join the 2021 race?
Batchilly knows very well that he has no intellectual capacity to lead the Gambia and no one takes him seriously, so he has to give way to others to lead his party to election, but the chosen candidate in the person of Gen Bojang is the greatest prank of the year!
Isn’t he a soldier who served as state guard commander under the brutal regime of dictator Jammeh? And his assertion that he never took part in any of the attempted coups that took place in the Gambia is a clear statement that he was nothing but a stooge, who hangs around the State House to wait for orders from his master.
Unfortunately credibility seems to be ever absent in GAP. Bojang is the solution and there is more to this than meets the eye.
M Sillah
University of The Gambia
Controversial DW television programme on Gambia tourism
Dear Editor,
I am cognizant of the fact that the burning issue of the day is the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook and the ramifications for destination Gambia.
Clearly, the need for source market diversification cannot be overemphasized. However allow me space in your widely read newspaper to share my thoughts on a recent programme I watched on DW – German International Television and the setting for which was the heart of the Tourism Development Area- around the Senegambia junction adjacent to the craft market.
The programme involved a DW presenter of African stock and a cross section of Gambians including tourist taxi drivers, hotel staff, ASSERT (Association of Small Scale Enterprises in Responsible Tourism) members, Rapper Killa Ace, GRTS journalist – Fatou Elika Muloshi, Lamin Bojang of the GTBoard. A wide range of issues were raised by the DW presenter and discussed at the town hall style meeting including sex tourism, issues revolving around wages for industry staff, All Inclusive Package etc.
Clearly the DW presenter had a field day and heard from the horse’s mouth some of the most contentious issues in Gambia Tourism such as sex tourism- a highly controversial issue.
Given that DW TELEVISION is an international TV with worldwide audience, it is my humble view that in terms of branding and image positioning which could be both objective and subjective this programme was not a good one for Gambia Tourism.
The issues were discussed in controversial circumstances and in my view did not reflect the best credentials of Gambia Tourism.
Such programmes could be injurious to the various efforts to reposition Gambia Tourism in this very challenging tourism environment.
In one of my tourism pieces I did point out that “according to one tourism expert we have always defined positioning not what you do to the product, but what you do to the mind. The ultimate marketing battleground is the mind”.
That DW programme, I am afraid, has the potential to pollute the minds of a wide range of potential tourists including the millennials, up market clientele including business tourists- segments clearly identified as – need to target.
Lamin Saho
Tourism consultant
