On our Monday edition we captured the demise of a much admired and fascinating character, ‘the indomitable English lady’ who founded and ran the Chimps Rehab Centre at the River Gambia National Park in CRR. Stella Brewer apparently succumbed to a persistent cancer ill health.

The life story of this wonderful lady, having dedicated almost her entire life to the services of some disturbed chimps, sharply contrasts with the attitude of the consular authorities at the British Embassy here in the Gambia.

One gentleman, Momodou, had been diagnosed with the life threatening disease of elephantiasis for some time now. Having been advised to seek overseas treatment, Momodou got in touch with some qualified medical facility in the UK, which has offered to take care of his ill health. After working out all his documents, he turned up at the British High Commission only to be refused entry visa in to the UK. In effect, Momodou was condemned to sufferance.

We are quite aware of the fact that neither the Daily Observer nor any other non UK Consular official reserve the right to decide who is given a UK entry visa and who is not, and this editorial piece is by no means an attempt to dictate the operations of the British embassy in this respect. However, it is natural that we point at certain unbearable injustices being afflicted on genuine visa seekers like Momodou by these western embassies.

Imagine how much money the British embassy in Banjul makes out of the pockets of the many poor Gambian students genuinely seeking scholarship in UK universities.  This again contrasts sharply with the readily available visas for so-called dissident asylum-seeking journalists who end up becoming liabilities to the British citizens, as much as they remain forces of evil for their own countries. Is this how Britain intends to help The Gambia develop?

On a daily basis, we see how injured Iraqi civilians are being airlifted for medical treatment without even having to go through all the boredom of endless paper work. Also people that turn their backs to their countries, suddenly making themselves enemies of their home, are not only given asylum in the UK, but the country serves as sanctuary for them in their anti - development propaganda works. And now an innocent man like Momodou has, in effect, been condemned to sufferance of a disease he never bought from a shop, only because he is a genuine Gambian, genuinely seeking a visa for medical treatment.

With absolutely no intention of disrespect, we do believe that if Momodou were a chimp in the late Stella’s Rehab Centre in The River Gambia National Park, the consular section of the British Embassy would probably have spared no effort in ensuring his immediate airlifting to the UK for treatment. What a sad sense of priorities.