In what many see as another bout of criticism against NEPAD and Western governments, President Jammeh has expressed dismay over the formation of NEPAD, asserting that he saved The Gambia from humiliation by refusing to accept what the constituent states were doing because, according to him, they were not sincere.

Speaking in a televised interview as part of activities marking the advent of the New Year, President Jammeh said rather than building an institution that will dignify and give Africans the economic independence they need, NEPAD was instead transformed into a bigger begging cap.

“I said at the outset that NEPAD is going to fail and that was why I was never a party to it. The problem in Africa is that instead of being honest with Africa they sold Africa to the West and now they stand and complain about something that they were never in charge of and try to blame others”, said President Jammeh.

According to the Gambian leader, when they met in Chad some years ago, they decided to have a fund that was richer, better than the World Bank and IMF put together to create a rapid socio-economic development trust fund but, unfortunately, they transformed that into NEPAD and after six years NEPAD is dead and buried.

“Now G7 and G8 or whatever they are called say they cannot distribute the one billion dollars they promised to Africans for NEPAD when they spend billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan”, he fumed.

He added, “Unfortunately those working for them (the West) destroyed an initiative which would have dignified Africans, where we would have developed without anybody putting conditions”.