Dear Editor,
My name is Mr. Batch Samba Jallow, a Gambian residing in Atlanta Georgia, USA. Please, allow me space in your widely read newspaper to make my contribution on your publication dated April 19th,2024 and caption: “King Colley, NRA Director disagrees on using speed bumps to curve accidents”. The number of fatal accidents in the country has drawn the attention of everyone living in and outside the country. In my opinion, placing speed bumps on some major roads across the country is not a good approach to curve accidents. The NRA Director has stated that educating the Drivers is the best approach to fix the problem but this is not necessarily fact. The only form of education the drivers need is to go through the right channel in getting their licenses and going through the right channel, means, learning how to drive through the right way, from a qualified driver or institution. Acquiring a Driver’s license in The Gambia these days, is as easy as eating bananas. Hundreds of Drivers on the road do not even know where the Driver’s license office is. An eighteen(18) year old young man can now comfortably sit in Basse and sends three thousand dalasi (D3000) to Kombo and his driver’s license will be ready within three days. If the NRA Director doesn’t know that corruption is the leading cause of fatal accidents in The Gambia, then he doesn’t need to be in that position. The only solution to this nightmare is to have all Drivers under the age of forty (40) be retested for a free of charge, and Strick measures be put in place to control how these licenses are being smuggled into the hands of our youths. This will significantly reduce the number accidents in the country, saving hundreds of lives annually.
Batch Jallow, USA
678-847-8640.
Dear editor,
King Colley needs to provide those investigation reports publicly because we have seen accidents happen between speed bumps. Secondly one cannot place speed bumps on each and every road. Thirdly, King Colley needs to interrogate why and what kind of drivers are the perpetrators of reckless driving, over speeding or intoxication leading to accidents.
Since he mentioned questionable issuance of driver’s license, he needs to tell us who issues such licenses and why? Furthermore, King Colley must be aware that speed bumps also have an impact on movement of people and goods, ambulances and other emergencies and security in general.
Therefore, King Kolley and the traffic police may need to embark on a study tour around the world to learn about motor traffic and roads. He would have realized that before speaking about speed bumps, there are uncountable measures and tools that are required on our roads, vehicles and with the traffic police that are absent which may be responsible for the high accident rate.
For example, road markings are absent in the Gambia. Road signs are absent. Traffic lights are not available. Vehicle testing is weak or absent. Traffic police have almost no gadgets to check speed, monitor traffic, check alcohol use of drivers or the road worthiness of vehicles.
Above all, even though there are traffic laws and rules, they are hardly enforced by his officers due to lack of knowledge and technical capacity and corruption. One evidence of this is that the Motor Traffic Act (s.27) says driver’s license lasts for 3 years yet the traffic police require people to renew every year as if they don’t know the law.
Thus, King Colley may look into these issues first before embarking on a study tour so that he can overhaul and improve the entire traffic management in this country.
Madi Jobarteh
Kembujeh
Re: 7 media houses contracted about D40m to promote gov’t agenda
Dear editor,
The explanation by Yankuba Saidy PS, Ministry of Information, regarding the 7 media houses benefiting from the D40M for media houses to bring government policies, programs, and activities closer to the populace, was not only flawed but improper, whacked, and not transparent at all, especially in the ‘restricted independent bidding process’, and contract approvals were granted by the Gambia Public Procurement Authority.
The fact that anything restricted is considered not open to all media houses make it biased and grossly untransparent. The mere fact that it was initiated at a meeting at the Office of the President, where specific media groups were identified and approved for such money, makes it obvious for mediocrity and cronyism.
I strongly believe that whatever information was disseminated by these four was crafted for, the others can equally do the same job more or on the same equal footing.
The criteria or yardstick was not plausible but based on biases and cronyism, flavoring a few media houses in a so-called restricted independent bidding process, at the expense of the rest, shows how selective they really have been.
Ensa A.B Ceesay
USA
