The President is back in the Gambia after addressing the 64th United Nations General Assembly.

The President is back in the Gambia after addressing the 64th United Nations General Assembly. We will rely on what is published by Daily Observer regarding his impressions on the UN and The African-Latin American Summit since the other newspapers were not invited to interview the President. In the next issue his address to the Assembly would be published verbatim which would be followed by our analysis. In this issue focus will be given to the remarks published by Daily Observer.

First and foremost we would like to draw the attention of our readers to the fact that what accords with common sense does not necessarily accord with what is scientifically valid. This is why planners and policy makers have gone beyond common sense to do feasibility studies before they initiate projects and programmes.

According to Daily Observer, The Gambian leader "has once again stressed that it is Africa's legitimate right to be represented at the United Nations, saying that the time has now come for the continent and others to be respected."

According to Daily Observer the President added that "Africa is ten times larger than Europe as a continent, and Europe has almost three permanent members; Africa does not have a permanent member. And when you look at the world today, especially the developed world, they developed as a result and at the expense of Africa - African resources, African slaves, African bloodshed and tears. And instead of respecting us, they disrespect us and call us all sorts of names," he remarked. The president went on to stress that the time has come for Africans to respect themselves and make sure that they are respected whether they like it not.

"So it is not a question of negotiating for us to be there but we are asking for and demanding our rights. We are going to make sure that any resolution concerning an African country will not be binding on Africa because we have been insulted for a very long time and we are no longer going to take it," stressed the Gambian leader.

Aaccording to Daily Observer, President Jammeh also said no South American countries is a permanent member of the Security Council.

"If you are talking about democracy, how many regions do we have? You have only five permanent members; none of them representing Africa or South America. The UN is always talking about democracy and human rights but where is the human right for the blacks. So it is not a question of being optimistic but a question of being certain that it must be given to Africa,"

This raises the question of population and territorial size, Economics and power. Does the President mean that Permanent UN Security Council seats should be granted on the basis of the size of populations or territories or the volume of Sovereign National Wealth? Foroyaa will make certain facts evident and leave others for a comprehensive analysis of the President's speech and the trend taken at the African Latin American summit.

In terms of Size of territory and population, Asia is the biggest with 4000 million people occupying 43 Million Square kilometres of territory. Africa has 933 Million people occupying 30 Million Square Kilometres of territory. Europe has 732 Million people occupying 10 Million square Kilometres of territory. Latin America and the Caribbean have 577 Million people occupying17 Million Square Kilometres of territory; North America has a population of 337 Million people occupying 24 Million Square Kilometres of territory. What proposal is President Jammeh giving for the distribution of Security Council seats, on the basis of size and population? How will each Continent fill its seats? How much will each continent contribute to the running of the UN? It is very clear that the AU is fully under the charge of the African Governments. However, it is still looking for funds from other parts of the world to maintain its peace keepers. Are we weak because of discrimination or because of the failure of successive governments on the African continent to pursue policies which could transform the continent into an economic power house? The analysis of the UN speech will give the answer.

Notwithstanding this, Foroyaa would want to conclude by indicating that the might of Africa and Latin America could either be economic or moral. Currently the economic might of the two is feeble. In short, despite their enormous resources out of a global Gross Domestic Product of 55.5 trillion (55,500,000,000,000) dollars, Asia's share is 21.504 trillion, (21,504,000,000000) dollars; Europe's share is 14.244 trillion (14,244,000,000,000) dollars; North America's share is 12.776 trillion (12,776,000,000,000) dollars; Latin American and the Caribbean's share is 4.299 trillion (4,299,000,000,000) dollars and Africa's share is 2.92 trillion (2,920,000,000,000). Africa has been impoverished by the poor planning of its leaders to a point that it has very little capacity to contribute to the economic wellbeing of the UN. Hence Africa must assert moral authority by building a system of governance which will be the envy of the world. In this way there will be no justification for spending money on arms and war, and the continent's resources would go to build up the productive base of the economy and develop economies of scale through integration.

Furthermore the Daily observer did report that

"The Gambian leader also attended the second Africa-South America summit in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which sought to strengthen south-south cooperation, as well as address common issues confronting the two regions.

"President Jammeh revealed to journalists that the summit led to the signing of a very important agreement which is the establishment of the Bank of the South.

The reason being, he said, when industrialized countries go to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, loan is made easily to them within a short period of time without conditions that will be detrimental to their economy.

"When an African country goes to the IMF or World Bank and wants a loan, it takes you almost two to three years of negotiations with conditions that you know are not conducive to the development of third world," he said.

"Ironically in the midst of food crisis, the World Bank has no funds for agriculture. Can you imagine that the World Bank which is supposed to bring about development has no funds for agriculture especially for the third world countries? So if I have a new agricultural project and go to World Bank, they will tell me we are no longer financing, this project," the president asserted; noting that a lot of things are going wrong in this world.

"The Bank of the South, he reiterated is there to ensure a new economic order and make terms flexible that one pays and in such a way that it does not make them poorer, he concluded"

Interestingly enough, the African Development Bank exists but lacks the capital base to be truly an African Bank and now we are being informed of the plan to establish a South South Bank. A bank is a bank whatever name it carries. It must have a capital base and it must preserve its capital base by giving loans and receiving interest and payment at a scale which will not make it insolvent. The issue of the development of Africa is not simply the ability to get concessionary loans. The summit did not examine the real source of the problems of African economies and had not started to provide solutions. African and Latin American countries have been kept back by emotive reactions to their predicament rather than giving scientific responses to them. We will never move forward until the former is ruled by the latter. Scientific inquiry should precede programme formulation and institution building. Otherwise many nice castles will be built in the air and would never come to fruition.