Gainako has confirmed that President Jammeh and his large entourage have arrived in New York in the United States early Monday morning to attend the 68th UN General Assembly. The President is accompanied by high profile government officials including the New Secretary General and head of the Civil Service Momodou Sabally who also doubles as Minister of Presidential affairs. Foreign minister Momodou Tangara is also reported to be among the delegation.
The Gambian President’s visit will last for about a week reportedly until next weekend when the UN General Assembly meeting will officially end. The Gambian President is scheduled to address the assembly on Friday September 27, 2013.
This has been President Jammeh’s first visit in several months putting down rumors that the President is afraid to travel outside of the country due to security issues. This visit effectively sets the stage for a confrontation between the President and his fiercest critiques in the United States. The United States is the home to several thousand Gambians and houses several online media houses and radios who continue to challenge the President on his governing policies and human rights records. As a result Gambian dissidents in New York and neighboring states vow to visit New York and express their frustration against President Jammeh a right they are denied in their native country the Gambia. It remains to be seen how President Jammeh will respond to this apparent confrontation.
The Gambian delegation’s visit to New York came amid reports that Gambia’s most popular and TV icon Fatou Camara was arrested last week and still in detention past her constitutional rights of 72 hours without charge. Fatou’s fans numbering over 18,000 on her face book page are muted on her arrest and instead it is Gambian dissidents who she labelled as “Jealous” of the administration who appears to be standing up for her rights to be released.
As Gambian’s monitor the President’s visit they remain puzzled that the President and his delegation will visit the United States with the largest number of Gambians including supporters of the APRC without a schedule event to address his citizens. All decent and democratic nations who visits countries hosting large amount of their citizens often communicate either via the press or schedule a town hall meeting with citizens to listen to their concerns. This is yet another opportunity for President Jammeh and his delegation to open the much needed dialogue between his government and Gambian citizens. This is the right thing to do and hopefully decency will dictate that the President and or his New Secretary General who was one time part of the online media will communicate to Gambians by at least issuing a communique through the online media. This may begin the ground work of opening dialogue between government officials and citizens. It is a fact that several thousand Gambians now rely on the online media for their news and information including those on the ground. It would therefore be a miss opportunity for the President to ignore this reality and return to Gambia without communicating with Gambians regardless of their political or partisan leanings.