The Gambia has within a period of three months hosted three presidential visitors from the sub-region. It was first Mohammed Ould Bin Abdallahi, the president of The Islamic republic of Mauritania, February 29 to March 4, 2008, then Sierrraleone’s Dr.Ernest B Koroma. April 10-13, 2008 and lastly Joao Bernardo Vieira Nino from Guinea Bissau.The visits were in line with strengthening bilateral relations, and in the sprite of pan Africanism. This is a move that is welcome but should not be at the disadvantage of the state. It must be in a way and manner that state money be wisely spend. There is no point in doing it in such a way that will ruin our economies.

African leaders have a lot in common and sharing it can do a lot more good to us in many ways. One way of sharing, is exchange visits whether it is at ministerial levels or Presidential levels. It’s another way of peer review mechanism. How ever it should be done in a cost effective manner. It’s not as easy and cheap as one may think. Here the point I am driving home is how much has it cost the Gambia to host three presidents with their high powered delegations within a short period of time? Is it really necessary to host three Presidents at this point in time when our economy is weak? What do we stand to gain from these visits? Is it of an economic gain or what? Or were the visits at our disadvantage? These and many more questions are matter of concern for us.

What more ties do we want between us and these three countries? Taking a close look at the three presidents programmes whiles they were visiting the country I have seen much of our President taking his colleagues around development sites mostly around the greater Banjul area. In most of these visits it looks like our president teaches or preaches his colleagues to do like he has done in terms of development projects.

He told both Koroma and Mohammed Ould Bin Abdullah that if a country likes his Gambia can reach to such a level of development without any endowments why not countries like theirs which are blessed with natural resources. He warns them of not giving promises they cannot fulfill and that they must be mindful of corruptions. To me is like we the host have nothing to learn from our visitors but rather we are better off and can offer.So if that is the case why are we inviting a whole three presidents just to show off what we can at our own cost?

Here are we not draining our economy? How much are we to spend on food, fuel, and hotel accommodations not to talk about other expenses that will just come our way without expectations? I think days are gone when state monies should be spend onsuch statevisits where big parties are thrown, with much of state resources spend, also during such visits other states assetsdepreciate.

It did not only end there but even human resources were not wisely put into use. The schools for example have lost much time with children and teachers standing for long hours on the street sides waiting for the arrival of one visiting head or the other. During these times no learning takes place and not only there is lost of time for the children but also their healths are open to dangers as they stand too long under the sun. They are not provided with food nor are they given water.

The case in point was the visit of Bissau President, on that Friday the school children were standing together with their teachers for hours from morning to 4pm. How much valuable time is wasted? One cannot imagine that can happen to a poor little country like ours all in the name of bilateral relations and pan Africanism.

Yes to bilateral relationships and pan Africanism but we should be very mindful of our priorities. For us in the Gambia I think we should concentrate on maximizing time on education and on the agriculture as food and other basic are exorbitantly expensive. The ordinary man will not be able to meet the rocketing prize of rice which is our stable food. What should be done now is to concentrate increasing production capacity of our economy rather spending fortune on visiting heads of states and entourage.