The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Daily Observer
8 July 2009
In Kantora; and the story here is no different from that of the rest of the places in URR where we have visited so far, except that we are poised to make more life changing revelations as regard the standards of living of the people in this part of the country. The power station in Basse supplies all the settlement in the region of URR which have benefited from the Rural Electrification Project Phase, and they include the villages of Garawol, Koina, Suduwol, Misra, Wally Kunda and Sabi. All these villages have streetlight and safe portable drinking water, all of which mean a lot to the people of this area.
In Kantora District, there is this village called Nyamanar, situated in the northern part of Fatoto. Nyamanar is the largest Fula settlement in the whole of Kantora, and it has benefited immensely from government's development since 1994 to date. Because of these and very many other reasons known to him, Alhaji Muhamadu Kandeh, Alkalo of Nyamanar, strongly believes that he and his people owe President Jammeh lifelong acclamation for his development achievements in their village and the rest of the country. Kandeh's view is shared by the Nyamanar Village Development Committee chairman, Saidu Baldeh.
"We the people of Nyamanar are even short of words in praise of the president and his government. We don't know how to thank Yahya Jammeh; we are just grateful to him for all the blessings and opportunities he has brought to us," Baldeh told the Observer crew. And according to Ali Baldeh, another resident of the same village, President Jammeh is unique for his passion and zeal to develop his country, and the people of places like Nyamanar, are determined to be with him through thick and thin. One of the most fascinating developments in this area, in the view of Ali, is the construction of a new security check point in the village, which is just a stone-throw away from the border to Southern Senegal.
And also through the Community Driven Development Project (CDDP) women from villages like Nyamanar remain ever empowered, in terms of life supporting skills ventures they are being provided with. The village has also benefited from a number of other life changing projects such as the digging of a number of wells, the renovation of its borehole and the construction of a four classroom block at the Nyamanar Lower Basic School.
According to the village Alkalo, Alhaji Muhammadu Kandeh, the people of Nyamanar have an obligation to remain supportive and grateful to President Jammeh and his government for all they have achieved within this short period. The people here believe that the best thing that ever happened to their village was the coming of the July 22nd Revolution.
"In the first republic, only a certain group of individuals or so called elites were monopolising developments that were supposed to be enjoyed by all tax payers, but the story now is a different one as Jammeh's Gambia is now a land of opportunity and self reliant people that equally belongs to every Gambian."
Mama Kumba Bah, also of Nyamanar, is also motivated and appreciative of President Jammeh and the APRC. According to her, the government has indeed empowered them a lot over the years. She cited the provision of safe and clean drinking water, access to good roads and to quality health care as well as better education as enough reasons to support the Revolution.
Misiraba Mariama is a fairly large Sarahule settlement, and with the construction of a lower basic school in that village, the government has ensured the cutting down of a hitherto alarming level of illiteracy. They also have a massive seed store constructed for them where they preserve their food stuff and other valuables.
Ebrihem Bokum, speaking on behalf of the Alkalo of Misiraba, told the Observer crew that for them, the advent of the Jammeh administration has provided some sort of an insight into what development is all about. He opined that before the emergence of the July 22nd Revolution, the people of his village and the rest of the neighbourhood were abandoned to the mercy of mere chance, but that now "more developments are in the offing."
Hassan Jawo is a native of Jawo Kunda, and he is the councillor for Koina. For him the Community Driven Development Project (CDDP) has especially brought enormous developments in the lives of the people in his ward. He also pointed to the construction of feeder roads, the provision of coos and rice milling machines as well as seed storage facilities, and the construction of teachers' quarters in various communities in the Koina Ward as some of the projects that his people are currently benefiting from. Councillor Jawo attributed these to the sound leadership and good intentions of President Jammeh for his people. The state of security in the area, according to him, constitutes a fundamental influence in the present state of development-mindedness of the people of his area.
He noted that it was an open secret that Kantora was the exit point for armed robbers, who used to cross from Senegal only to inflict terror on the people. "But now, all this is a thing of the past, thanks to the presence of the heavily armed Police Intervention Unit personnel in Fatoto," he said.
Fatoto
Fatoto, formerly a an old and forgotten settlement, is today at the heart of the educational development of the URR, housing one of the two senior secondary schools in the region, after Nasir Ahmaddiyya Senior Secondary School, which used to be the only center providing higher education in the region. Very many people have had to drop out from school in this region because they could not gain admission to Nasir, neither could they afford to go far away from home. Apart from the problems of getting guardians, there was this difficult issue of cost involved.
Fatoto Senior Secondary School was built in 1998. Demba Bah, a graduate of the University of The Gambia, is now the principle of the school. He revealed that the school has a student population of 401. It houses the entire teaching staff of the school, with electricity and pipe borne water available right around the clock. This, Bah believes, has contributed greatly to the retention of his teaching staff.
The Observer July 22nd bus crew also met work in progress at the Fatoto health center, which is under some kind of reconstruction. The staff there spoke of the services they currently provide and the facilities they have. A referral center for about 20 villages in Kantora, Fatoto Health Center then made of an old building, underwent a major expansion in 2003. Its staff quarters add to the comforting environment the center provides for its staff. The nurse on duty told the Observer crew that they receive referrals from up to a distance of 11km, which means work is around the clock. The health center also has two ambulances - one for referrals to Basse and the other one for about 11 villages in the region, taking needed medical services to the people.
Koina
Koina is at the extreme end of The Gambia, on the border with Senegal. The current level of development of this village is a perfect depiction of how fast The Gambia has evolved, but the account of the people also reveals how timely the July 22nd Revolution was. More so, the responsiveness of the architect of the Revolution to the needs of the people of this country is an even more telling scenario. Koina used to be cut off from the rest of The Gambia thanks to a totally nonexistent road into the village. "We barely had a road before 1994," Alkalo Alhaji Bakini Gumani told the Observer July 22nd Bus crew in his living room in Koina.
The octogenarian village head recalled that vehicles then only stopped at Fatoto, and that their only way of reaching the village was by donkey or horse carts. "Now, we can drive up to our doorsteps," he said. "If not for the law," he added in a rather unmistakable tone, "I will gather all the votes here and put them in his [President Jammeh's] ballot box." The Rural Electrification Project, thanks to which Koina has been transformed into a modern settlement, is at the core of the extraordinarily transformative status its people are experiencing. A town which was clearly once afflicted by the effects of rural-urban drift is today as lively as any other settlement in urban Gambia. You do not need to go to Basse to buy a modern metal door, for instance, as some of the youths are surely taking advantage of the electricity supply in this regard.
Koina used to have only one well, but immediately after taking over, the AFPRC government constructed some hand pumps, and, today, the village is littered with taps everywhere, making accessible safe and clean drinking water to a people who had been accustomed drawing water from the well.
The village's school also received a boost in the form of the construction of solid buildings, replacing the old mud house which was rebuilt every rainy season. The village people also have the services of well trained medical personnel thanks to the intervention of government.
In the words of Alkalo Gumani, "not to believe in the truth means that one has never experienced it." The meaning of this rather philosophical assertion is clearly that one can never have an opinion as to whether a thing exists or not if you have never experienced it. To him, and as far as the people of Koina are concerned, the Revolution, President Jammeh and his government are a blessing. Summing up his point in a rather blunt but frank tone, Alkalo Gumani said: "Our peace is no longer disturbed by problems of arm robbery or the many anxieties that filled our lives before July 22nd, 1994. Today, whatever Banjulians enjoy, we enjoy in our little Koina. We have electricity and pipe-borne water supply, good roads and good telephone network. President Jammeh's coming to power marks a turning point in salvaging not only the people of Koina but the entire URR in all aspects, ranging from the rural electrification project, to the building of schools, health centres and health posts, to name but a few."
Also speaking to the Observer July 22 Bus crew, the head chief of Kantora, Alhaji Bacho Ceesay said his district was the first to benefit from the Jammeh administration. "After the July 22 Revolution, the president came on a tour and visited Kantora. We appealed to him then that we had a serious water shortage. Two weeks after his visit, the first bore hole was dug. As I speak to you now, the villages of Garawol, Koina, Sudulwol, Misra and Wally Kunda have all benefited from the rural electrification project, with street lights, water and telephone lines all over."
In Garawol, we engaged a young, but clearly energetic and ambitious man, Saikou Barry, who is making good use of the availability of electricity supply. Saikou has a metal workshop.
He told the Observer crew that the coming of electricity has given them extra zeal to work effectively. Citing the cost of electricity compared to the use of a generator, he said that the business is more profitable now. "The availability of electricity has definitely improved our livelihoods, both economically and socially. We feel just like [those] in the urban area - what the people in the urban area enjoy, as far as electricity is concerned, is what we are enjoying, in a village 100s of kilometres away from urban Gambia," he said.
Jimara
Jimara district borders the Upper Fulladu District of the Central River Region (CRR). If anything, the outlook of the settlements in this area provides one with an initial idea of what they will meet ahead. And thankfully, there is hardly a disappointment in terms of expectation.
As the chief of the district, Alhaji Haji Kunle Camara, put it, the developments are uncountable, citing the upgrading of Gambisara Health Centre, the construction of the Sotuma-Gambisara Road, the Bakadagie Police and the Immigration posts, the building of the Hella Kunda Community Training Center, and the various basic cycle schools scattered within the district. "The July 22nd Revolution has librated Gambians," the chief posited, adding: "The Gambia yesterday and The Gambia today are totally different." Chief Camara also pointed out that farmers in his district have been empowered by the CDDP with the provision of seeders, fertilizers, storage facilities and other relevant farming aids essential towards achieving food self-sufficiency.
Babucarr Camara, an elderly figure of the village of Numuyel, echoed the words of the chief of the district. He described the period from July 22, 1994 to now as a period of emancipation for the Gambian people. His reasons are the rapid socio-economic and infrastructural development registered by government under President Jammeh, which he said have improved the living standards of the people of the country. Camara expressed a firm belief that there are very little differences, if any, between his native Numuyel and Banjul.
The Observer July 22nd Bus crew will had its last night's rest in Basse .Today We shall be in the Lower River Region on tomorrow.
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