Vice President Dr. Isatou Touray has strongly urged the country’s youth not allow themselves to be used by anyone as tool for destruction and violence.
The nation’s Number 2 was speaking in Jarra Soma, Lower River Region (LRR) during their ongoing Cabinet-nationwide peace sensitization for opinion leaders, youth and women, centering on peace, peaceful coexistence and irregular migration in the Gambia.
Dr. Touray also called on the populace to change their attitudes in their dealing with the returnees, pointing out that negative attitudes such as stigmatization and discrimination against the migrant returnees have the potentials to make them act in a violent manner.
Youth and Sports Minister Bakary Badgie, informed the gathering: “The Ministry has launched a 20 million dalasi ‘Youth Revolving Loan Scheme’. It aims to provide fiscal support to the youth, especially those engaged in entrepreneurship, to be able to expand and boost their businesses.”
He exhorted young people to play a lead role in maintaining peace, stability and tranquility in the Gambia, as Badgie reminded them that they are the future leaders of the country who must not allow themselves to engage in any act that could jeopardize and threaten the peace, stability and tranquility of the country.
The Minister of Agriculture, Mrs. Amie Fabureh, for her part, informed the young people that the ROOTS Project, among others, aims to support young people in the productive sector, so as to boost their production which, she held, would be pivotal in the attainment of the country’s food security.
The Gambia’s first female Agriculture minister used the opportunity to challenge the young people to apply for the project in order to benefit from it; and she reassured people of her Ministry’s firm stance to providing the necessary inputs for the farmers to maximize their production.
Minister of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) Madam Claudiana Cole, in her remarks in Jarra Soma, said the current administration (of Adama Barrow) has so far constructed at least 3,850 new classrooms to ensure that school children access learning facilities. She stated that no nation could develop in the absence of education and peace.
She underlined: “This and other progresses have been made thanks to the peaceful atmosphere that prevails in the country; and I strongly challenge the citizenry, especially the young, to seriously help to safeguard the peace and stability in the country.”
Ms. Fanta Sey, who’s representing the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, told the meeting audience that the Women Enterprise Fund would be supporting 20 extra women groups with some funds in the tune of between D100,000 to D200,000. She urged the parents, especially mothers, to advise their children on the need to maintain peace in the country, cautioning that when there is instability in the country, ‘it is the mothers who suffer the most’.
Mrs. Fanta Bojang Samateh, Deputy Permanent Secretary (DPS) at the Ministry of Interior, noted that ensuring security is a daunting task, and she, therefore, urged that the role of the security officials should be recognized and supported by the populace.
This, she stressed, would help the officers and citizens to maintain peace in the country, with ease. The DPS disclosed that International Organization for Migration (IOM), in collaboration with the government, has developed some reintegration initiatives such as the introduction of the education scheme and satellite installation programmes for the returnees, to ensure that they are provided with job opportunities and be discouraged from taking on the perilous ‘back way’ journey to Europe.
