President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, on Monday, received 41 students from the Republic of Guinea Bissau; members of an organisation called President Yahya Jammeh Fans Club.

The students, who were the guests of the Gambian leader, had been in Kanilai for the past few days, helping the president on his farm.

Addressing his guests, President Jammeh praised the students for a move he believes was instrumental in consolidating the already existing ties between Banjul and Bissau. “If you are my fans,” the president said, “I am also your fan”; a remark that was met with rapturous applause from the visiting students.

The president informed his guests that since he assumed the mantle of leadership of the country, he has never spent his holiday outside the country, re-emphasising his believe that as a leader, he embodies the ideals of the nation, and that opting for perceived comfort outside Africa would be the wrong message to his people.

“If European leaders do not spend their holidays in Africa, why should I spend mine in their countries?” President Jammeh asked.

“Since July 1994,” he went on, “14 years today, I have not spent my holiday outside this country.” He said that all he had been doing was farming.
On Banjul-Bissau relations, the Gambian leader told his visitors that Guinea Bissau “is important to us”, reminding them about the numerous Gambians who had taken part in the liberation struggle against the Portuguese.

He noted that while the contribution of some of these Gambian liberation heroes have been noticed such as that of the late General Ansumana Manneh, “many others have died in the struggle and their names never came out”.

President Jammeh called for unity in order to develop West Africa and recover “our lost glory”. The young generation, the president said, would be crucial in this regard. He called on the students to endeavour to move forward, warning against division.

“You have the right to belong to any political party of your choice back home,” he said, “but beware of division”.

The visiting students were evidently impressed with their host, as confirmed by one of them. “Having been told of your pan-Africanist stance”, a representative of the students told the Gambian leader, “we have seen it for ourselves”. He disclosed that they had also been told about the president’s closeness to his people, the truth of which they had also been opportuned to ascertain.

In simple terms, he said: “if 50% of African leaders were like you, the African continent would have achieved the level of development it yearns for.”

As part of the growing national food self-sufficiency drive, the Gambia Professional Photographers Association (GPPA), on Saturday, took part in a cleansing exercise, in Kanilai farm, in the home village of President Jammeh.

Members of the association, together with some three-hundred and five (305) youths from Bakoteh and Fatima Senior Secondary school in Bwiam, took part in a joint exercise, supervised by farm manager, Staff Sergeant Seedy Baldeh, assisted by Babucarr Mendy, a farm co-ordinator.

According to members of the association, as a professional body, GPPA aims at not only elevating Gambian photographers to professional level, but it also seeks active participation in nation building. They   observed that the proceeds from Kanilai farms are not only meant for Jammeh foundation for peace, but that they are pumped back into the various communities for social consumption.

The members were also grateful to his Excellency, President Jammeh, for his generosity in supporting and sponsoring some of them to cover the U-17 football world championship in Peru, in 2007.

GPPA also  express their sincere thanks to the Kanifing municipal council (KMC), who provided transportation, and to Gamcel, one of the country’s GSM operator, for providing them with T-shirts.

Mr Joao Gomez Cardoso, the minister and director of the Cabinet and a special envoy of President Nino Vieira of Guinea Bissau, yesterday paid a courtesy call on President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh in Kanilai.

Mr Cardoso told reporters that the visit was meant to further consolidate relations between Banju and Bissau. He described the recent visit of President Vieira as a positive move, considering the fact that Bissau has just emerged from a difficult past and needed the collaboration of The Gambia to build a brighter future.

Mr Cardoso said The Gambia and Guinea Bissau were sister countries, adding that The Gambia has played a crucial role in the rebuilding of Guinea Bissau. He also thanked President Jammeh for the warm welcome.

The HIV/AIDS treatment of President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh has again recorded a great success, with another batch of patients released on Sunday in Kanilai.

The patients released were Lenson Issile a Malawian national, Sonna Sonko, Ebrima Gassama and Amie Badjie. They were among the 3rd and 4th batch of the treatment programme.

Formally releasing the patients at a well attended ceremony in Kanilai, President Yahya Jammeh thanked Allah who made the day possible as well as the people of the Gambia and the entire treatment team.

He then announced the release saying “these four people are now free from the HIV virus. As from now, you are  discharged from my treatment programme and you can go home”.

The Gambian leader then confirmed that his treatment was true and 100 per cent certain, that he can cure HIV/AIDS, but he was quick to say that the availability of the cure did not mean that young people should be careless of their sexual behaviour. “The treatment is not an immunization against HI/AIDs. If you have no virus it does not mean that you cannot be re-infected. Put it at the back of your minds that the world is three days - yesterday what you went through and get the virus, today you are free from the virus and tomorrow lies entirely in your hands. If you did not protect yourselves and you are re-infected, I would not treat you because thousands are on the line to have first opportunity for the treatment”, he said.

On the disease, President Jammeh said no one could understand it completely, but quickly confirmed his gift in the treatment, saying, “I can raise my hands and say that no professor in the world today has more knowledge of AIDs than me. If they dispute it, let anyone of them cure the virus. I am different from them for the fact that I know the symptoms and I can identify the virus by looking at the individual. But this again, does not mean that I know everything about AIDs because something new comes up everyday” he said.

New piles cure discovery

President Jammeh then announced that in addition to the several already existing treatments, he would now start the treatment of pile and that it would take only one week to get it out of the patient’s body. He then announced that the period for the treatment of HIV 2 patients have now been reduced to 2 weeks instead of two to three months to allow others to have a first chance.

He then wished the discharged patients and the patients undergoing the treatment all the best, assuring them that they would also be released one day. He also hailed Lenson Issile, a foreigner-patient from Malawi, for been very unique and the first foreigner to have joined the treatment and complete it. He said Lenson had integrated and had no problem, and was a peace maker. Then the President engaged Lenson in various Gambian language tests in which Lenson did well, to the delight of the crowd.

Then Daily Observer’s East African MD interviewed Lenson in his local Swahili - and some Gambian soldiers pipped in with their own Swahili words too!

For his part, Dr Tamsir Mbowe, director of the Presidential treatment Programme and director of Health Services  described the  day as yet another milestone in the history of The Gambia. According to him, over the past 25 to 30 years, the genetical code, morphological structure and mode of survival of the virus have given researchers, scientist, and medical practitioners, endless nights but noted that, the longest night has now come to an end.

He added that based on modern scientific methods, President Jammeh’s medical herbs have proven to have the potency to eliminate the HIV/AIDS virus from the human system and treat and cure patients infected with the virus. He then observed that this remarkable success registered in today's medical world, had already been noted in the medical history books, and that generations to come would commend President Jammeh for that.

“Your belief in the Islamic faith, determination, love for humanity and your God-gifted talents and knowledge have made it possible for you to be the first medical practitioner to have overcome the formidable HIV/AIDS virus”, he said.

He then reminded Gambians of the famous phrase by one gynaecology lecturer who said ‘the beauty of medicine is the restoration of the sick to health’. He added that medicine, be it in any form, kind or type, its primary aim was to treat and cure the sick. “To be a good medical practitioner does not depend on the number of years you spend in a learning institution or the name of the institution you attended, or the number of certificates you received, but it depends on the medical knowledge you have acquired and your capability and ability to restore the sick to health” he said.

Dr Mbowe then stated that life itself was not eternal and that no medical procedure can make life to be eternal, noting that medical procedures, herbs and other medicinal products, were here to relief psychological and pathological problems and to prolong life. He then extolled President Jammeh’s contribution to present day medicine,  which he said had not only proven the powers of traditional, indigenous medicine and knowledge, but had helped to save thousands of lives as it would millions in the future.

He, on behalf of the Presidential Medical Team, the patients undergoing and those that have undergone the treatment programme and the entire medical family as well as the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare, saluted President Jammeh for the breakthrough.

He further wished the discharged patients all the best and implored the patients undergoing the treatment to keep to the rules and regulations of the treatment program.

Other Speakers included Tarku Gibba, Ebrima Gassama and Fatou Sanyang, who all saluted President Jammeh for the treatment and further confirmed the reality of the treatment. They disclosed their status before the treatment and the numerous changes after the treatment. They also lauded the free treatment, saying, “If it was in another country, people would have paid before been treated, but President Jammeh’s treatment is free”.To them, the herbal medicine is completely different from the Western medicine. They called on Gambians to support President Jammeh in his endeavours.

Dr Mariatou Jallow, Chief Medical Director, RVTH, who chaired the ceremony, called on all to go for voluntary counselling and testing to ascertain their status and enable the rapid eradication of the virus. According to her, President Jammeh is fully committed to the fight against the disease , saying, “why not all of us. Lets participate effectively by going for voluntary counselling and testing”. She then urged families of the patients to receive the patients and expressed hope that they would not be discriminated or stigmatised.

Present at the occasion where, Vice President Njie-Saidy, Speaker Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay, secretaries of state, Paramount Chief Ahagie Demba Sanyang, Hon. Abba Sanyang, NAM for Foni Kansala, managing directors, security chiefs, members of the president’s medical team and cultural troops.

At the end of the ceremony, the Serrekunda Central Red Cross link presented a drama performance before the Gambian leader, entitled: ‘Jammeh got the HIV/AIDS cure’.

Similarly, the Saint Anthony Basic Cycle School also sang before President Jammeh a song entitled ‘we are proud of you’.