My cndolences to all the family. May god bless his soul. Lamin was a sincere and generous African brother. We will all miss him .
Oko Drammeh
A Friend

Malanding Jaiteh <[log in to unmask]> wrote: FYI
Courtesy of 
http://www.thegambiajournal.com/artman/publish/article_1533.shtml
Malanding



MOMODOU LAMIN SANNEH : A LIFE OF SPECTACULAR ACCOMPLISHMENTS.


    By KABBA M.O. NYANGADO
    Dec 10, 2007, 03:36

When I learned about the demise of Lamin Sanneh, my heart sank to the 
lowest depth of despondence in inverse proportionality to the numbness 
of my spirits. The incredible sorrow and unfathomable sadness 
concomitant with Lamin's departure can only be understood , if one has a 
modicum of insight into the life of this man, husband, father and public 
figure.
       Born in Brikama , to parents from Kaiaf; Kiang East in the Lower 
River Division of The Gambia, Lamin was raised by a father employed as 
an interpreter in the judicial service of colonial Gambia. Following his 
graduation from Armitage and Gambia High Schools , imbued with a passion 
to study civil engineering and a propensity to serve his country, Lamin 
began his career in the civi service as a Works Superintendent at the 
then Public Works Department(PWD). After a brief stint in the foregoing 
position , he won a scholarship to study civil engineering in the United 
Kingdom. It is noteworthy, that as an undergradute civil engineering 
intern, he participated in a monumental structural engineering project 
in Sweden and his subsequent phenomenal performance in that undertaking 
earned him an additional fellowship to pursue further professional 
engineering studies in the United Kingdom.
      Upon completion of his studies in the U.K, Brikama as he was 
affably refered to by contemporaries, was appointed Divisional Engineer 
Eastern ( DEE) , with jurisdiction over all infrastructural projects in 
the eastern half of the country, i.e , from Mansakonko to Basse. During 
his tenure in that position, he oversaw the planning, design and 
construction of the Soma- Basse highway which became one of the most, if 
not the most significant infrastructural endeavour in post colonial 
Gambia. One son of our beloved country who has earned what he got by 
dint of expertise, experience, sense of industry and seriousness of 
purpose is Lamin Sanneh. His unquestionable brilliance and unassailable 
integrity may not have endeared him to all , but it left no one indifferent.
      Murphy, as he  was affectionately called by his Armitage School 
mates, put the service to his country to the frontburner against a 
multiplicity of odds and adverse circumstances. By July 1994, Lamin was 
already the Director of Technical Services, following the dissolution of 
PWD as part of a restructuring of the public service mandated by the 
Structural Readjustment Programme of the IMF in the 1980's. Shortly 
after the rape on our democracy on July 22nd 1994 , he was dismissed, 
arrested and detained on charges of sabotage and subsequently released 
and reinstated. Family, friends and well wishers admonished this 
technocrat of unalloyed credentials to accept jobs he'd been offered 
while in detention by IDB and BADEA , to no avail. True to his 
convictions, Lamin felt that he owes his country so much, for it is the 
Gambian taxpayers who educated him from Kaiaf Primary School through 
Armitage to the best schools of engineering in the United Kingdom and 
that they deserve better than putting the acquired knowledge and 
expertise to just his personal aggrandisement. What a man of conscience! 
Truth be told, how many half baked educated, briefcase totting 
bereaucrats across the quadrangle would decline an international 
appointment for a salary of the Gambia Integrated Pay Scale.
      In 2004, Lamin was confirmed by the Board of World Bank as 
Director- General of Gamworks. In less than twenty four months in that 
capacity, he was recalled by our Government of academically deficient 
and intellectually inadequate miscreants to run the Department of state 
for Infrastructure as Permanent Secretary. It is true that no one is 
more equipped, experienced and prepared to discharge the  duties of that 
office than Lamin Sanneh. But the underlying intentions of such a recall 
were far more sinister. As Director- General of Gamworks, he may be 
beyond the reach of the wicked arms of Gambia Government and so it made 
sense for them to cajole this engineer of a superlative calibre and 
public servant of distinction to return to the inner core of the civil 
service in order to  be toyed and played with, at will. All of a sudden 
, sometime last year , he was arrested and detained for an inordinate 
period of time, only for the charges against him to be dropped by the 
state. Lamin has succumbed to the wickedness, apathy and callousness of 
a despotic tyrant and a kleptocratic machinery. However, he died a man 
of fairness, impeccable decency and unblemished integrity with decades 
of service to his country with a high place in its history. 
Notwithstanding the foregoing, I have lost a loving brother and a true 
friend. On a broader level, The Gambia has lost not just a public 
servant or technocrat of substance, but a rare son of integrity, purpose 
and a mission .And a mission , Lamin has indeed fulfilled with honour 
and distinction.
    May his soul rest in eternal and perfect peace. Ameen!

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