The President, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Jammeh has pledged to sustain his efforts to calm the price turbulence in the market by setting up retail outlets for members of the Green Youths in all parts of the country. Professor Jammeh who was speaking Thursday at State House during a solidarity meeting with a delegation from the Central River Region, said he will stock the shops with basic commodities such as sugar, oil, flour and cement.

The President has also offered a full mechanization programme to any administrative region with the highest votes in the upcoming elections.

Story by Abdou Njie:

Efforts to indigenize the market are gaining prominence amidst another Presidential pledge set to bring prices to their lowest. The plan as announced by the President involves the creation of one stop shop in all parts of the country, stock with most needed items for the consumers. The word here is not only about quantity but quality and reasonability, as manifested in the oil and meat currently on distribution in the various sales outlets of the Kanilai Family Farms.

The take made on the President's intervention is quite positive and may have encouraged Professor Jammeh to still push on efforts to achieve equilibrium in the market. The National Youth Mobilizer is entrusted the task of getting the project to be manned by members of the Green Youths off the ground. The President in the meantime offers to stock them up with sugar, oil, tomato paste, flour and cement. He framed the reason for his actions in simple words, noting he believes in sharing and wishes Gambians all that he wished for himself.  Nonetheless, he warned there is no going back in efforts to end the exploitation in the market but stressed the need for more youth involvement in order to register the desired results.

The pronouncement was made at the end of the first leg of solidarity meetings, which began on Monday with visits from people of the Upper River and West Coast Regions, and the Kanifing Municipality. With the remaining meetings shifted after the end of Ramadan. The President used the final face to face talks with a delegation from the Central River Region to announce various incentives for the electorates. He offered full mechanization programme for any region with the highest vote counts, within the range of 90% and above, describing the policy as a final goodbye to labour intensive agriculture. Prof. Jammeh also pledged to produce many more "Alhagies" and "Ajaratous" from that region within a set period of time and noted the plan also seeks to ease the lives of women in the rural communities in respect of their daily chores and related activities.

The pronouncement formed key part of his response to comments by members of the delegation from CRR, who were at State House to renew their political support and backing for the Gambian leader ahead of the polls. The group led by Governor Ganyi Touray, comprised party representatives and mobilizers entrusted the flag of the ruling party during the campaign leading to elections. But for them the issue is no longer about winning, but getting the job done in an explicitly different fashion, where the President will stay put  and leave the policking in the hands of the electorates. Like in all the previous visits, their request revolves around logistics which they have been promised in due course. Officials have also described the politics of tribalism being adopted by the opposing camps as nothing more than a scheme and a sign of desperation to save themselves from humiliation in the polls.

Talks between party officials in the executive and their local representatives in the Central River Region ended on a positive note, with Her Excellency the Vice President, Aja Dr. Isatou Njie- Saidy, premising support for the President on what she called 17 years of unrivaled period of socio-economic development. While the Minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure, Alhaji Cham, who is also the Liaison Officer for the Central River Region, assuring the group of every possible support to ensure the election is hitch free.