Jaliba Kuyateh and his Kumareh band are expected to kick-start his annual summer tour of Europe soon. His journey was delayed due to certain programmes like the 22 July celebrations in the country.

In an exclusive interview with The Point Entertainment boss, Njie Baldeh recently, at his Brikama residence, the Gambian kora maestro told Entertainment that his invitation to Europe is an annual event and this is the time to go. The Gambian Kora maestro said he is currently working around the clock to release another new album. He said every programme he attends he has to release two or three singles to inform the people that he is in the preparation.

According to him, the new album will be released before the end of this year. He added that since he started music, the number of albums he released has reached twelve to thirteen and each contains eight tracks on both cassette and CD format.

“I think Gambians have the sickness of complex in them and they should try and remove that complex,” he said. He added that Gambians should love each other.

In a final chat with Entertainment, the Gambian Kora musician revealed that, “we don’t have so many promising musicians because some join the music not because of they like it, but to enrich themselves or to look for a name.” He therefore called on all musicians to work harder in order to achieve the objectives that they are striving for.

The special representative of the United Nation’s secretary general Ban-Ki Moon, on Monday, called on the vice president, Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy, in her office at State House in Banjul.

Mr Said Djinnit told waiting pressmen, immediately after his audience with the vice-president, that he was on a regional tour to various countries of West Africa “for initial contact with leaders of the region”, having been appointed recently by the UN secretary general as the head of the UN office for West Africa.

Issues of current global food crisis and governance, according to the UN envoy, formed the basis of his discussion with the vice president.

He said that he was impressed with the achievement of The Gambia on education and praised the government for its support for Unicef and UN agencies in promoting girls’ education.

Mr Djinnit further told reporters that his discussion with the vice president touched on other important areas such as the threat on the stability of the region, as well as relations with other countries.

He called for unity for the common and shared prosperity and stability of the region.

On food self sufficiency, Mr Djinnit stressed the need for Africans to go back to farming.

“20 years ago”, he said, “We were consuming what we produced, but today we do not.” However, he admitted that there was strong a commitment in the region, singling out The Gambia as being a pioneering force in food production.

“Our efforts should be directed to the effort of addressing poverty,” he said.
The UN, he promised, would stand on the side of the people of Africa in this regard.

Mr Djinnit, an experienced official in the diplomatic front, both at his home country of Algeria and the rest of the continent, had most recently served as the commissioner for peace and security at the African Union.

He strongly believes that the region has attained commendable progress; a progress he said was a “tragic” one in the midst of instability in the wider continent.

As part of his promotion and development of Gambian Music, DJ Ludo of KWT Radio Station has embarked on nation-wide musical tour, which started last Tuesday July 29,2008 to August 19,2008.

Speaking in an interview with this reporter, DJ Ludo elucidated that the aims and objectives of the tour are to promote, improve and develop The Gambian music industry. The KWT radio DJ expressed optimism that the tour would enable him to know the problems affecting Gambian artists and also look at possible solutions to their problems.

He revealed that The Gambia has a lot of young talented artists who can become great artists in the future. DJ Ludo further explained that his aims are to foster unity and understanding among Gambian artists. He called on Gambian artists to be unite and work hard towards the promotion and development of The Gambian music. DJ Ludo has been accompanied by Gambian artists and DJ’s as well.

During the President’s recent Dialogue with the People Tour Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) presented a cheque to Gamworks as their counterpart contribution towards the construction of Kayupa Road in Churchills town.

Last year, a contract was awarded to Sinco Spa to the tune of D12, 504,500 for the construction of the same Kayupa Road and the rehabilitation of the Brikama Car park in Banjul.

There are three issues here. The first one is how many contracts are we talking about now?  The second question is that one of the contracts involves the Brikama car park, but the Brikama car park is left out in the other one. So which of them is Sinco Spa handling and which one is Gamworks dealing with? And the third one is why the construction of the same road is given to two organisations?

It appears to be a repetition of the Basse Mini Stadium project, in which D13 million was reported to have been spent on a contract that should have cost D6, 500,000.

That was a needless waste. These are funds that could have been judiciously spent on our poverty alleviation programmes.

Why are these things happening again and again? Who feeds fat from the lapses?

We believe that Gamworks, given its track record of project implementation in this country, has a reputation to protect. We expect only the best from this agency.

Gamworks was established as a genuine implementing agency that will serve the Gambian people endeavouring to develop The Gambia. So they must strive to correctly reflect the needs and demands of the people and fairly meet their demands; and faithfully discharge the mission of implementing government projects with credit.

If we are to advance, our implementing agencies should always maintain close ties with the people and serve their interests at all times. With a sense of responsibility, they should see to it that not even a nail or block is wasted.

“What is not good for the beehive, cannot be good for the bees.”

Marcus Aurelius