By Omar Bah
The new leadership of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the party of first president Jawara, has written an open letter to President Barrow asking him to consider renaming the July 22 Square to Jawara Square and the West Field Monument to the late Solo Sandeng.
“As the country embarks on its tedious national reconciliation it maybe helpful for the government to consider the following proposals to rename the July 22 Square Sir Dawda Jawara Square, the Kerewan-Farafenni Highway to the Sheriff Mustapha Dibba Highway and the West Field Monument, Solo Sandeng,” new PPP leader Papa Njie told journalists at a press conference yesterday.
Njie said the timing of this year’s independence celebration could not have been more ideal to pay tribute to the country’s founding fathers.
“I could not also think of a better way of doing so than to name some of the institutions and places after them or creating awards for them. The opportunities that would be driven from this exercise are numerous. But the most important among them in my view is to serve as inspiration for the future generation. There is no need to look for heroes and role models from elsewhere, we have them here and they should be celebrated,” Njie added.
The list recommended to president Barrow by the PPP is as follows:
July 22 Square, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Square, Kerewan-Farafenni Highway-Sheriff Mustapha Dibba Highway, Banjul-Serekunda Highway, Momodou MC Cham Highway, Central Bank Building-Sheriff S Ceesay building, UTG Law School-PS Njie School of Law, Finance Ministry-Garba Jahumpa building, Justice Ministry-Momodou L Saho, National Assembly-House of Representatives, NAMs to MPs, committee rooms, Sheikh Omar Faye and Ousman Jeng, school of journalism-Edward Francis Small, RVTH to be retained, UTG department of political science-Paul Macheal Baldeh, MDI-Joseph Ayo Langley, GTTI-Makaira Njie, Albert Market-Rev J.C Faye, West Field Monument-Solo Sandeng, Police Head Quarters-ex-IGP-Harry Evans, Police training school-ex-IGP Abdoulie Mboob, Quadrangle-ex-SG Erich Christensen, health institutions and Fajara Barracks, to be renamed after first Gambian doctors and soldiers; Dr Jones, Dr Palma, Dr Samba, Dr Peters, Dr Blind and Eku Mahoney.
The party also recommended that the people of Banjul, Kombos, CRR and URR should rename some of their important places after Nfamara Wassa Touray, Sanjali Bojang, Chief Touray Sanyang of Faraba, Chief Matarr Ceesay of Upper Saloum, Cherno Baldeh, Mrs Richard Palma the only woman who was at the Lancaster House independence negotiations .
