In every democratically governed country, government is said to be comprised of three arms: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. While the former tend to overshadow the running of the day-today affairs of the nation, the role of the other two are totally indispensable to the success of the entire government. In fact, the composition of these individual arms makes the saying that the government of a country includes its entire people a compelling truth.   

While the executive wing is dominated mainly by politicians, with the solid expertly backings of people at the grassroots, the legislature comprises other sets of politicians chosen by the ordinary citizens, whose views are in fact supposed to be influencing the operations of the central government. And the judiciary is by no measure different from the rest, as they are another set of experts, effectively working like some sort of a regulatory body.

The above explanation goes to stress the fact that there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to exclude themselves from the collective effort of nation building. The traditional, but wrong concept has been that government is the president and his/her cabinet members.

This has led to the wrong conclusion that only government (the president and his cabinet) and nobody else, are under the obligation of providing every need of the people.  

The fact is that, as has been said every now and again, each and every one of us has their role to play in taking the country where we want it to be. Take, for instance, the admirable move by Lawyer Jorbateh, who helped construct a police station in his home village of Bansang. His is an idea conceived out of the most beautiful of minds The Gambia currently needs.

Considering the way society regards lawyers, especially private lawyers, because of their views on the law, their stance on the application of the laws, the fact that they tend to be portrayed as defenders of criminals, Lawyer Jorbateh’s move comes with a resounding message, a message that aims at all and sundry. This makes him stands out among his peers as a genuine and patriotic lawyer.

Indeed, there are many people like him that can do a similar thing. But unfortunately many of us would want to amass wealth just to sit back and marvel at it. Sometimes we prefer using our wealth to antagonize government, all of this at the detriment of the people we claim to be fighting for.

If only each of us could think of doing something that would affect the people of our entire village, we will surely propel the country to a higher height. And of course, the Konians story on page 2 is another marvellous example we should all emulate.