Good Morning Mr President, tomorrow is the third meeting of the Council of Ministers of The Gambia and Senegal, which will be held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre in Bijilo.
Both you and President Macky Sall are expected to attend the meeting.
Mr President, The Gambia and Senegal are the same people condemned to live together. Indeed, it is in the interest of both countries to work together to promote peace and unity and be role models to Africa.
The two governments should maintain genuine and cordial relations in the interest of their people. Security personnel of the two nations should work together to effectively monitor the borders, especially the porous borders, to avert any threat of the Jihadists, drug peddlers and timber smugglers.
Mr President, the Council of Ministers should address the issue of public transports, especially buses, to promote free movement of people and goods. On re-export trade, Gambians with commercial vehicles are facing enormous problems to cross the borders when going to other neighbouring countries. The Senegalese customs officers should not apply too many restrictions at the borders. Most Gambians experience many problems when transiting from The Gambia to Mali, as so many restrictions are put in their way to prevent them from going smoothly through the Senegalese borders.
Many Gambian drivers have told The Point that Senegalese customs officials ask for many papers which are unnecessary for transit trade, especially on petroleum products from The Gambia to Mali. "Loaded tankers will spend days at the borders just waiting to have an escort from the Senegalese customs, and after many days of frustration they would let us go," some drivers lamented. This type of checks, it must be noted, is what is called in international trade non-tariffs barriers. In most cases it discourages potential investors who are interested in doing business in the region.
Secondly the transiting of cashew nuts from Guinea Bissau to The Gambia is usually blocked at the Senegalese boarders, as drivers of loaded trucks would be asked to use the sea instead of using their choice of transport or route. This has negatively affected cashew nuts business in The Gambia.
Mr President, many other related restrictions at the borders could have been avoided.
If the two countries are open to each other in terms of trade, it will be good and most of these misunderstanding can be avoided if we have constant bilateral meetings. The Senegambia secretariat, we must point out, is dormant and needs to be revamped to inject new blood and spirits in it for more productivity, which will foster fruitful relations between the two countries.
Furthermore, more collaboration is needed in the energy sector, so Senegal could reduce the cost of energy supplied to The Gambia.
Again, the two governments should ensure that there are available domestic flights to reduce high flight costs.
The two countries should further promote exchange of public information through their state media, which would reinforce the already existing bilateral cooperation. Health, education, and youth cultural exchanges can also be captured in such a cooperation, while sports competitions can be organised between the two countries to beef up their national squads both junior and senior.
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Finally Mr President, it is advisable that you seize this opportunity to discuss with President Sall about the current situation of his country, especially with regard to the opposition leaders. Since he has decided that he would not vie for power or contest the next election, it's important that he tries to foster a smooth handing over to the next President and his government.
Good day!
