Dear Mr. Sillah,

Your response to Mr. Dibba on this important issue highlights a very serious anomaly in the way many returning Gambian professionals experience in their relations with Gambian institutions to which wish to render their services in the general national development effort.

I know a decent number of professionals who "return" home to which they describe as a reverse culture shock, from which they repack their bags and escape in deep frustration.
It is the same with returning academics as well as trained professionals wishing to start businesses.

 Concerned Gambian authorities need to pay attention to this matter. But it is my belief that unless those who suffer from such bureacratic red-tape and harassment bring up the issue we cannot hope for redressing such a tragic waste of our human resources. 
The university of the Gambia is one intitution for which the current regime should be much praised. But if such official callousness prevails there, then it has yet another unnecessary cancer to get rid off before serving the true development needs of the country.

Many many thanks for this initiative Mr. Dibba.

Momodou S Sidibeh

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: bukhari Sillah 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 12:03 PM
  Subject: Re: Intellectual Support Needed to Develop Gambia


  Dear Mr. Dibba,

  It is a good recommendation you have made; it is a good idea and well articulated. I am pursuing a PhD in quantitative economics at University of Kiel, Germany. I had your ideas two years ago when I left Malaysia to become a lecturer in the enfant university of the Gambia. The time I left Malaysia, I was already an assistant lecturer and was offered a place to to do my PhD, upon completing which I had to be a full time lecturer of the sponsoring institution. I did not like this contract, because it tied me to a foreign institution and might deny me an opportunity to serve my people. Thus, I saw my coming to the Unversity of the Gambia as a great relief and joy( you can ask my students at the faculty of economics and managemen - UniGambia -  how enthusiastic I was).

  When I came in, I was not happy with the economics and management curriculum, with 120 credit hours of graduation requirements, 50 credit hours were allocated to courses(so-called general requirements) that are unrelated to economics and management. Together with my Nigerian colleagues at the faculty, we demanded changes to the curriculum; and reply to our demand was a disappointing no. Why? The answer was because 'high calibre' scholars developed that curriculum. Due to persistent pressures, they allowed us to come up with an alternative curriculum, which we quickly did. But they did not want to hurt the feelings of the 'high Calibre' scholars by telling them look here is a better curriculum than yours; and 'high calibre' scholars too did not want to accept the existence of a better alternative - theirs is the final. The students were then drawn in to the dispute. They chose the alternative. A cofusion was created when the two curricula were to run concurrently, and students were disburbed. Because the old curriculum lacked relevant economics and management courses, no lecturer had incentive to teach the old one; so, they illegally(the authorities did not approve) shifted from the old to the new one - . Until the time I left, no approval was given. Then, came a pressure to get rid of me from the Unversity. When I signed the contract with UinGambia, I told them very clearly that I was always prepared to go for my PhD, and I liked the university to sponsor me so that I could come back again to lecture. Through my own effort, I obtained an award from Germany, but it was incomplete. The award required me to sponsor my personal expenses(food and room). I approached the authorities and asked them to sponsor that personal expenses by just putting me on study leave with salary. They rejectd my application and then stopped my salary for two months while I was still lecturing. I was shocked, really shocked. Well, this was my second experience of any time I try to leave the Gambia and further my education. The first  was  when I was forced out of PMO (personnel Management Office) in 1999 to further my master degree in Malaysia. I wonder if I should put myself in a similar situation again in the future.

  The environment for intellectuals is stiflening and suffocating. That is, if ungualified people are charged with affairs, then wait for the doomsday.

  Bukhari Sillah  



   

  >From: Bulli Dibba 
  >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list 
  >To: [log in to unmask] 
  >Subject: Intellectual Support Needed to Develop Gambia 
  >Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 01:33:02 CDT 
  > 
  >Intellectual support 
  > 
  >There is not a single country on earth that does not experience economic 
  >downtowns. Lets remember the great depression and the crash of the stock 
  >market, what Americans had to go through. The current economic situation in 
  >Gambia is not going to last forever and we would come out of it. I belief 
  >that the road to economic and social progress in the Gambia would be 
  >through greater productivity, and such productivity could be enhanced by 
  >the discipline imposed by Gambians oriented toward greater efficiency and 
  >productivity. The rise of a new and successful Gambia would be 
  >attributable not only to the Government, but to the increasing influence of 
  >our Gambian intellectuals. With the creation of a managerial class 
  >dominated by economist and those trained in economics, if large number of 
  >university-educated candidates, highly committed to a rationalized and 
  >task-oriented concept of public administration were to return home and 
  >hired into high-level positions, we could set new values in the Gambia 
  >drawn from market economics and business management. 
  > 
  >Gambian intellectuals must contribute to building a collective share notion 
  >of public interest. Our goal should not be to find a quick solution to the 
  >current economic and social problems. The process of establishing a vision 
  >for our society is not something merely to be left to elected political 
  >leaders or appointed public administrators. Instead, the activity of 
  >establishing a vision or direction, of defining shared values, is something 
  >in which widespread public dialogue and deliberation are central. 
  > 
  >I call on all Gambian intellectuals to take a vital role in the process 
  >of bringing Gambians together in settings that allow for authentic 
  >discourse concerning what we Gambians could do for our nation at the time 
  >of great need. Based on these deliberations, a broad-based vision for the 
  >nation can be established and can provide a guiding set of ideas for the 
  >future. It is less important that this process result in a single set of 
  >goals than it is to engage administrators, politicians, and citizens in a 
  >process of thinking about a desired future for our nation. 
  > 
  >I know there are many angry Gambians out there and among us, but the 
  >solution to our problems is to work together. I am therefore calling on 
  >Gambians both at home and abroad, to suspend the politics of hate, 
  >negativity and personal attacks and bring our ideas together and work as 
  >one people with a common goal to do what is best for our country.. Every 
  >Gambian most now take it upon him or herself as moral obligations, that we 
  >will work hard to generate solutions through processes that are fully 
  >consistent with the laws of our nation, our culture and tradition, our 
  >values, with norms of justice and fairness. 
  > 
  >Lets remember that the folks in Government and other administrative 
  >positions are our brothers and sisters, they too have Gambia at heart and 
  >would prefer a peaceful and prosperous Gambia for all Gambians. We can work 
  >with them, a times disagree with them and give them feed backs for a job 
  >well done. Let our intellectuals ask our government to play an important 
  >role in creating arenas in which citizens, through discourse, can 
  >articulate shared values and develop a collective sense of the public 
  >interest. Rather than simply responding to angry and disparate voices by 
  >forming a compromise, public administrators will engage citizens with one 
  >another so that they come to understand each other's interest 
  > 
  >Peace 
  > 
  >Bulli Dibba 
  > 
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