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  By Alagie Saidy-Barrow  Let me begin by saying I am a huge advocate for holding people accountable for their work. If people are being paid to deliver services to the public, they should be held accountable for the services they deliver, good or bad. So I am all for realistic performance evaluations. If I had my way, every single government civil or public servant would be on a contract that is tethered to their performance!  I don’t think anyone should be in the service of the people as a public or civil servant when they somehow manage to serve themselves while the people they claim to be serving remain destitute. Serving in government should never be a vehicle for any public or civil servant to get rich when the majority of those they serve are poor!  Imagine if my Bandam established performance evaluations for himself and all his ministers and made it all public! We will all know what each minister is required to deliver and can easily hold them to account.  That thought brings m

Team Outpost  Hon. Seedy SK Njie, Deputy Speaker of The National Assembly addressed a workshop on "Constitutionalising Rights in the 21st Century – A Comparative Workshop for Constitution Makers, Gender Perspectives in The Gambia." The workshop was held in Oxford from June 19th to 21st, 2024. Deputy Speaker Njie emphasised The Gambia's strong commitment to gender equality, citing efforts undertaken since independence and under the current leadership of President Adama Barrow to create a just and equitable society. He outlined these efforts from constitutional, parliamentary, policy, and international perspectives. The Gambian Constitution of 1997 enshrines gender equality as a fundamental right, with Section 28 specifically prohibiting discrimination based on gender. Other provisions reinforce this principle, while directive principles of state policy call for the eradication of all forms of discrimination and the prohibition of harmful cultural practices. Hon Njie pledge

  By Amadou Manjang   This time tomorrow I will leave the newsroom for good. The testimony of the moment is the stories of the society which pressure is felt by all [I’m not speaking of the wealthy]. As a reporter, I am always in the service of nursing my agony when telling people what is wrong when they already knew what is wrong in a country where everything seems wrong. Our job is terrible one and I think we often need some therapy sessions to muse our sanity since we are daily bombarded by the bleeding wounds of the society: pain, hunger, poverty, death, and crime of the ordinary people. We have double dose of these things. Firstly, we have our own dose of it as individuals living with it. Secondly, we have the dose as individual who daily collected these stories from the people. This surplus pain will eke our mental health out before we knew what is happening. And there isn’t any support to avert it as I write. We listen to people’s stories of sickness and unpaid medical bills, hu

      Team Outpost  Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa has been sworn in for second term in office, at a ceremony held in Pretoria on Wednesday. His party, the Africa National Congress (ANC) fall short to secure 50% in the last month general election. The ANC agreed to struck an agreement deal with the Democratic Alliance to form a coalition government. The event saw the attendance of African Head of States, and leaders of Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, a bloc of 11 countries. Cyril Ramaphosa promised to dutifully uphold the constitution, without fear, favor or ill will. “I, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, swear that I will be faithful to the Republic of South Africa, and will obey, observe, uphold, and maintain the Constitution and all law of the Republic,” the 66-year-old said in his oath of office. He further thanked African leaders across the continent who attended the ceremony. “As South Africa, we are honored and deeply humbled by the presence here

Team Outpost  The MP for Serrekunda West Constituency have dismissed the redeployment of governor's to various ministries. The recent redeployment of the Deputy Permanent Secretaries and the movement of the Deputy Permanent Secretaries to various regions as governor's, have sparked a nationwide debate in the country. Madi MK Ceesay said the appointment of these governor's is baseless and lack legal grounds. “Is all really baseless and has no legal bases” he said  The appointment of these governor's he said, should be in line with the constitution.  “Once the constitution is flouted then everything is flouted,”.  He further cautioned the government of President Adama Barrow to seek legal advice from legal experts. “I think the government should really be realistic, and also seek legal advice from legal experts” he advised.  He added: “The cabinet ministers are the primary advicers to the President. The minister of education is the technical advicer on educational matters

             | Writer Shares His Views On Human Need For Survival Over Freedom | By Alagie Saidy-Barrow  I came across a quote by Paulos Tesfagiorgis, an Eritrean human rights campaigner, who was speaking of their President in Eritrea. He said:  “Isaias will be in power for a long time. He lets people fight for their survival so that they do not fight for their freedom.” I found this quote profound on so many levels. Though Tesfagiorgis was speaking specifically about how Isaias Afwerki controls his people to maintain a firm grip on power, he could have been talking about any other dictator, specifically, Yaya Jammeh and those who addressed themselves as his “humble servants.” He could have been talking about the many spineless Gambians who simply prostitute themselves to any paying politician.  How many times have you heard Gambians maintain that they have a family to feed and so they acquiesced to evil or closed their eyes to abuse? And these are usually people who will bombard you

  The Essau District Hospital in collaboration with the Ghanaian Ecomig soldiers and media support from Niumi FM, would on Friday 14 June, 2024 join hands together to commemorate World Blood Donor Day 2024. Officials of the Essau District Hospital (EDH), is calling on the staff and presenters of Niumi FM, together with the general public particularly the suburbs of Barra, Mayamba, Kanuma, Sami, etc to show up in their large numbers to participate in the blood donation to save life.

  By Demba A. Jawo Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the Minister of Lands and Regional Governments, Hamat Bah accused me of going against a cabinet recommendation to issue broadcast licenses to a GSM company. I guess he was referring to the licenses issued to the QGroup for QTV and QRadio while I was minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure. While I do not have all the details with me right now, but the fact is that all the applications for licenses to operate both Tv and radio were extensively discussed in cabinet and approval given for the process to go ahead. It is therefore not true to say that I went against a cabinet recommendation not to issue a license to the QGroup.  While I agree that it may not be quite ideal to issue broadcast licenses to GSM companies, but there were some mitigating factors that warranted the issuing of those licenses. In the first place, it was not QCell which applied for the licenses but the QGroup created a separate company (C

  Team Outpost                                Acting under Section 123 (1) of the Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2006, His Excellency, President Adama Barrow has effective immediately, appointed the following Government officials as Governors: Mrs. Fanta Bojang Njie Samateh Manneh, current Deputy Permanent Secretary (DPS), Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources as Governor of West Coast Region (WCR); Ms. Fatou Jammeh Touray, DPS, Ministry of Agriculture is new Governor, North Bank Region (NBR); Ms. Ramou Sarr, DPS, Ministry of Transport, Works & Infrastructure as Governor, Lower River Region (LRR); Mr. Musa Mbye, DPS, Ministry of Youths & Sports as Governor, Central River Region (CRR);  and Mr. Abdoulie Kah, DPS, Ministry of Defence as Governor, Upper River Region (URR). Meanwhile, President Barrow has redeployed the following Governors: Mr. Lamin Saidykhan, Governor, NBR, as DPS Ministry of Agriculture; Mr. Samba Bah, Governor, URR, as DPS Ministry of Fisheries; Mr. Ousm

Team Outpost  The National Nutrition Agency (NANA) in partnership with the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) have today concluded a three day capacity building training for stakeholders on the Fortification Monitoring and Surveillance (FORTIMAS) Data Collection on Large-Scale Food Fortification (LSFF) at Foni, Bwaim.  Participants were also equipped with the technical know how to test fortify food through the use of lab equipments. Malang Fofona, acting ED of NaNA acknowledged that the Gambia is doing well in terms of reducing micronutrient deficiencies. “Besides Nigeria and Senegal I must say the Gambia is third in terms of ranking.”  he said. He challenged participants to take the training seriously and share the knowledge acquired from the training. Cherno Omar Bobb, a participant said the training has enhanced his knowledge on Gambia's Large-Scale Food Fortification. He added that the training will enhance his reporting skill.