Profile is back with the profile of a personage with a pioneering desire for dedication, determination and a unique expression of love for his country- The Gambia.

Determination is that requisite attribute that almost everybody willingly identifies with but actually quite a few really posses. But you can be able to tell, effortlessly, how determined some one is, by gauging the individual’s performance.

And by all indications, Lamin Manga, an emerging media mogul, has endeavoured to keep alive his dreams, with dedication, determination and a unique expression of love for his country, - these are in fact the three key words that constitutes the secrete behind his success.

My desire to explore Manga’s captivating record aroused at the wake of the inauguration of Unique FM Radio, a product of a childhood dream, a desire Manga nursed for close to 20years of preparation for it. He had conceived the vision, as it were, since childhood, as he told me during our close to an hour’s chat.

Like many of his peers, Manga has a phenomenal record to his name. He recalled that he had discovered his fascination for the media at a very early age; his first assignment as a practitioner he executed while at the age of 13 (certainly not a usual age for that kind of a thing), working with Radio 1 FM, under George Christensen, a figure he has tremendous reverence for.  

Manga simply describes himself as ‘a patriot, humble husband and father that has The Gambia at heart.’ That, he thinks, is the best way to describe him. You will have absolutely no reason to doubt the man if you take time to gauge his words against his record. To many who know him, Manga first rise to prominence as a TV presenter, in the early days of GRTS, the country’s only national television.

He went on to becoming a senior producer, rendering a total of seven years dedicated service to ‘my country,’ before making an exit to execute the things he really wanted to do. ‘I had dreams to do a few things in my life. That was when I took excuse to sort of try and pursue them independently.’

 Manga set up a company called M-formula – meaning Manga’s Formula of doing business; with the M representing Media, Marketing and Music.’ Apparently, the hectic task of a producer at an institution like GRTS wouldn’t allow him to pursue these dreams fully, so the only option at his disposal was to call it quit.

He did exactly that, starting off working on documenting indigenous Gambian music. like the Kora, the Balafon, Jembe, Tama, Fullani Rritty, etc, all music cutting across all the tribes in The Gambia. ‘I tried to document these so that in the future one can make reference to them.’ His fear was that the people who can play these instruments properly, the way they are, might not be seen in the next 20 years or so.

Manga would later venture into building talent. He has Pa Omar Jack to show for this; a young Gambian Mbalax star in the country. Music promoter Manga has a feeling of having demystified a belief that music from the Gambia, especially the Mbalx, was not good enough for the Senegambian market.

He said he thought that wasn’t true, because the brand of music itself ‘in many respect started here in The Gambia.’ I think this is something that all can attest to, because Pa Omar Jack is a house hold name today.

Still under the M-formula banner, Lamin Manga would go ahead to establish an advertising company. And it was actually along those lines that he worked towards forming the radio station which had long been his dream.

He also enjoys the experience of working with a brand marketing firm called War Room, the arrival of which resulted somehow in the closure of M-formula, apparently for unavailability of time.   Today, all Manga wants is to concentrates on prospects of developing his radio station, possibly ending up having a media empire. Government, he argues, can’t do it all alone, and that is why he is determined to break the barriers.

If all things go well, by the end of this year, Unique FM Radio, Basse Branch, would be up and running. But before all these, Manga thinks a lot needs to be done. Expertise, in the form of trained human resource, is needed to accomplish dreams of this nature.

Therefore, part of his plans accommodates training of news presenters in the local languages. ‘If you look at the likes of Serign Faye, he posited, they will soon be retiring, and there is no new breed of broadcasters available. Just recently we lost one of the veterans in broadcasting, so we have an obligation of replacing these.
 
Unique FM Radio has a whole lot of programs that you do not find with broadcasting stations in the Gambia. This, Manga said, is in line with his vision of transforming the station into an information centre that you can rely on for even the most basic of information, even for your daily market needs.