The two-day workshop on civil and Military Relationship for members of the security and journalists organised by Media Agenda last Thursday has ended at the Baobao Resort Hotel.

The aim of the meeting, which was co-funded by the American and British embassies, was to create a better relationship, mutual understanding and trust between the two partners.

At the end of the training participants came out with key recommendations, among them is for journalists to always contact the public relations officers of the respective security units for information and for the N IA and the Prisons to contact their Director General for any clarification.

It was also agreed for the journalists and security agencies not to see each other as enemies but as partners in development.

Participants call on the organisers to continue organising similar training in order to cement the relationship.

In an attempt to create a better relationship through mutual understanding and a bond of trust, the two partners, security officers and media practitioners have come together at the Baobao Resort Hotel for two-day training session. The meeting, which is being held on the 14th and 15th of May, is expected to raise concerns over the impending obstacles that will make access to information difficult for journalists and the enlightening of journalists about the ethics of journalism.

In his opening remarks, the Permanent Secretary (PS) for Work and Communication, Mr. Abdou Karim Sonko, highlighted the need to create good understanding and clear cooperation between the two institutions. PS Sonko explained that security personnel should not be seen as our enemies but our brothers who provide us with protection. Journalists are also important as they try to inform us about everything that is happening in and out of the country.

Mr. Sonko called for journalists to uphold their principles, provide balanced and accurate reports and in all ways ensure the correct distribution of information.

In a resounding speech, the President of The Gambian Press Union (GPU), Ndey Tapha Sosseh expressed delight about the course that will hopefully get rid of all of the union’s concerns and improve relations between the media and security personnel. The GPU President reckons that this opportunity will contribute more effectively than anything else to the realisation of the GPU’s aim to bridge the gap between the National Security Institution and the media. “This is a difficult task in any place but we must start somewhere,” she said.

Ambassador Barry Wells of the US Embassy in Banjul, who are co-sponsors of this workshop with the British High Commission, emphasised that the role of the media was to inform the people with the correct news and all the news to create a democratic society. Ambassador Wells pointed out the great need for journalists to be able to access quality and reliable sources. Ambassador Wells further said that by working with journalists and other civil society groups, security personnel, who are at the heart of many developing scandals, will be able to spread the true story among the public.

For his part, the Director of Media Agenda and the facilitator of the workshop, Mr. Madi Ceesay stated that the training of the twin civil society groups is a worthy cause.

He did accept that those working in security will not and cannot compromise state security while the journalist’s job is to inform the public about everything that’s going on. So they have conflicting interests and that may cause difficulties. He noted that this two-day workshop will make it easier to deal with problems such as stories that the media believe the people should know about but the security industry feel is unfit for publication. He hopes that this training session will help these two groups reach a compromise in such situations of disagreement but it is his wish that the people of The Gambia will get the true story.

Two members of the Association of Movie Practitioners Nigeria have arrived in the Gambia to enhance the capacity of this nations actors. They will also shoot a film about the slave trade during their visit.
 
Mezeako Chigozie,mo the Executive Director and Oraka Patrick, his Secretary General, arrived a few days ago to train Gambians in movie production.

Chigozie said they came to The Gambia to help because of the huge number of requests they have received to do so. He says Nigerian films are popular in The Gambia and, as a result, they are very well known here.

“We have brought a script on the slave trade which when made will attract international attention,” he said. He emphasised their eagerness to have a strong Gambian involvement in the project along with contributions from Portuguese Europeans and nationals from other African Nations.

He pointed out that Nigerian films always feature in film festivals but if Gambians are involved their names will also appear. “We are ready to help young people and we have all it takes to make it work,” Chigozie told The Point.

He said that the project will help create employment for young people because acting and filmmaking is a profession. It will, according to him, lift the country’s name and create employment for Gambian young people along the way. He says, in showing the youth of the nation how movies are made their appreciation of the art form will increase.

“We have some groups practicing and we shall meet the heads to tell them about our mission and teach.

Chigozie went on to say, “They shall inform them, train them, have auditions and then we select those suitable to shoot the movie on the slave trade. It is meant to help the youth of the country.”

Godwin Adole, the Artistic Director, said this is the time to become and artist. He said interested youths should go to their office at Tranquility Residence at Brusubi or call 9925760 or Matty Jobe on 7062948.

They intend to visit SoS for information and all media houses. Plans are underway to bring Patience (Mama G) Aki and Paw Paw along with other stars to come and perform in The Gambia. 

Competent sources close to the judiciary yesterday informed this paper that two female members of the bar, namely Lawyers Sainabou Wadda-Ceesay and Mrs. Kumba Camara, have been called to the bench as magistrates. The two, who were formerly private legal practitioners, are currently undergoing a training attachment, as well as being trained at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court.

On the one hand Mrs. Kumba Camara, who was recently inducted by Principal Magistrate Moses Richards, has already started presiding over hearings as magistrate at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court, sources further disclosed.

Mrs. Sainabou Wadda-Ceesay is, on the other hand, currently being trained at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court under Magistrate Moses Richards.

Our sources believe that this is an indication that an earlier call made by the judicial authorities for Gambian legal practitioners to join the bench is yielding positive results.

Gambia traditional medicine practitioners have honoured President Yahya Jammeh for promoting health, culture, peace, tranquillity and traditional medicine. The practitioners also named the Gambian leader ‘father of traditional medicine’ for his achievement in the field of health and medicine.

In a citation presented to the Gambian leader by Baboucarr BS Sillah, Programme Manager of the National Traditional Medicine Programme at the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare, the Gambian traditional medicine practitioners acknowledged numerous achievements under the leadership of President Jammeh.

The full text of the citation reads:

It is indispensable to state that the President’s interest and promotion of culture has rekindled the spirit of cultural awareness in all Gambians, Africans, as well as the diaspora, which invariably has made our country a shining example of cultural revivalism.

Traditional medicine, being an integral component of our cultural heritage and health system which inadvertently are priorities of His Excellency, has promoted the urgency in traditional healers to bestow on him the honour of fatherhood of the medical discipline: since his assumption to power in 1994, Gambians and non-Gambians alike can bear testimony to the gigantic strides his government has taken directly or indirectly in sustaining and promoting traditional medicine. Notable among His Excellency’s contribution to this noble, old-age-cultural heritage and intrinsic value of the Gambian society are as follows:

• His Excellency’s government rapid respond initiative in the control of the infestation of locust in The Gambia by aerial spraying, which in effect has saved flora and fauna from wanton destruction and our populace from unprecedented famine.

• The establishment of the National Traditional Medicine Programme, with an operational budget line in the recurrent budget, to serve as the government for the promotion, regulation and coordination of traditional medicine and traditional medicine practitioners.

• The controlling of mental health and alleviation of the suffering of mental patients by providing annual allotment through the Department of Social Welfare to renown traditional mental healers for the maintenance of their resident patients.

• Through this ingenuity, love of nature, and the zeal to rejuvenate our landscape and combat deforestation, His Excellency the President, imported adopted and restored in his zoo park local and alien plants, and animal species, threatened with extinction despite the climatic and environmental variance between The Gambia and their places of origin.

• The construction and funding of the first traditional medicine clinic by the Social Development Fund in Berending in North Bank Region, construction of traditional medicine clinic in Kanilai and the laying of the foundation of the Academy of Science and Technology are some of the edifice symbolic of His Excellency the President’s promotion of health and cultural heritage.

• In the year 2003, the National Assembly members accented to the enactment of Copyright Bill, an indication of his government’s recognition and guarantee of the intellectual property rights of all creative Gambians, of which traditional healers are no exception.

• Most recently, His Excellency’s invention of medicament for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, asthma and hypertension with traditional means has once again vindicated the potency of traditional medicine in medical science.

Notably, His Excellency’s cure, compassion and intimacy with patients has grossly destigmatised AIDS in our community.

• To crown his contribution to health, His Excellency introduced a university to upgrade the standard of education of Gambians and improve their health and well being with the inclusion of a faculty of medicine in his great citadel of learning.

Your Excellency, President Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh, with due honour, respect and appreciation of your government’s effort in promoting traditional medicine, we the traditional healers of the Gambia hereby implore you to grant this certificate of merit and adoption as the father of traditional healers of the Republic of The Gambia.

Signed on behalf of the Traditional Healers of the Republic of The Gambia 30th Day of

August 2007 by:
Babakar BS Sillah, Programme Manager, National Traditional Medicine Programme, Department of State for Health and Social Welfare.