The president of The Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC), Mr. Abdou Dandeh Njie, on Tuesday formally announced his retirement from office at a special press briefing at Olympic House, Bakau. At the briefing which was attended by members of the print and electronic media as well as GNOC Bureau members, the retired prexy expressed his firm wish to give an opportunity to others with competence and experience to assume the GNOC leadership and its management responsibilities. He revealed that he has been GNOC president for almost 20 years a fact which accounts for his decision not to run for any office on the executive Bureau of the organization, come the elections slated for 6th June 2009.

Meanwhile it is observed that this decision came from his own volition and without any pressure from colleagues, work, or from any form of disenchantment or discontentment with affairs. As far as we know, the decision comes even at a time when things have been sailing remarkably well at the GNOC, and sterling achievements continued to be either registered or consolidated. A little bit behind in time, the GNOC hosted in 2008 the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly, Gambia being only the 2nd country in Africa to host this prestigious 72 – Country organization. It is recorded that it was also the first time in the federation’s history that all 72 countries attended the General Assembly. A little bit ahead, the GNOC is again to stage in May the highly successful and popular May Day Sports and Awards Banquet.

So it seems everything is in excellent form for the GNOC under President Dandeh Njie’s leadership. What is his decision based on then? We would say it is based on a gentlemanly honour and sense of consideration for things and for others. In other words, Mr. Njie could easily have been there as president for another term or even more, given the great successes he has achieved for the organization in the areas of sports infrastructure, support to sports associations and programmes, representation on international bodies, and general sports promotion. In spite of all this, his decision is to step aside for others to also try their muscle and influence in this great endeavour of sports promotion and development.

What happens next at the Organisation, nobody knows, but we can always say with all certainty that Mr. Njie’s decision was an honourable one.