Professor Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, president of The Republic of The Gambia, early Saturday morning, arrived in Banjul, at the end of a two-day sub regional meeting in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

President Jammeh was met on arrival at the Banjul International Airport by a host of dignitaries, among them Vice President Aja Dr Isatou Njie Saidy; Speaker of the National Assembly, Fatoumata Jahumpa Ceesay; secretaries of state; permanent secretaries; service chiefs; and a cross section of the community.
 
Speaking to the press, after the usual formal arrival ceremonies, The Gambian leader pointed at the unavailability of infrastructure and the existence of too many custom barriers as responsible for failure to consolidate trade prospects among countries of the sub region, thereby drastically reducing the prospect of regional integration. This, he indicated, is something that African leaders have come to accept as reality.

‘We can not have effective integration if the infrastructure is not there,’ Professor Jammeh argued, calling for harmonization of customs tariff by member countries to ease the burden of the citizens of the region.

Making reference to a typical protocol of the sub regional body, which calls for the free movement of goods and persons, President Jammeh wondered how the region could achieve such objective if a country like Senegal, for instance, could not allow a country like The Gambia to transport its goods to Mali.

He pointed further at the existence of multitude of checkpoints across the region as well as the endless transit points involved in travelling even within the sub region. For President Jammeh, the most important thing is for member countries to exhibit respect ‘for the protocols that we have signed.’

Most countries, he said, have violated all those protocols. He singled out transportation problem as especially key in slowing down the progress of integration, saying that West Africa remains the worst region compared to Eastern and Southern Africa which boast of remarkably reputable airlines like the South African Airline, the Ethiopian Airline and the Kenyan Airline, well known for their reliable services.

Another factor attributable to all the problems surrounding the chances of effective integration is the fact that francophone African countries are still operating as a block. And according to President Jammeh, only until such a time when these countries are independent and think African, would the sub regional body have a ‘smooth sail,’ and then we would be able to achieve the objectives for which the sub regional body had been formed.

Other than that, the president added, we are not going to make headway.
Also making reference to the European Union, which maintains one monetary unit, the Gambian leader queried why a small region like West Africa could entertain two monetary zones (UEMOA & WAMZ).

He said: ‘We have forgotten that the countries that divided us during the colonial days have now formed the European Union and still some countries are stuck to the francophone zone.’

Expressing dissatisfaction at the lacklustre level of cooperation among individual ECOWAS member countries, the president observed that while you can find Senegalese goods in abundance in Gambian markets, hardly can one locate Gambian made goods in Senegal. ‘Even with a single cup of sugar, they will not allow you to pass,’ he said. ‘Pan-Africanism,’ he went on, ‘is not what you say but what you do,’ and he added, ‘it is not a slogan that you sing. What we need are deeds, not words.’

On trading with the West, the president believes that instead of calling for Europe to open up its market, countries in the sub region should look into the true causes of the obstacles. ECOWAS, he said, has more than 250 million people - a market as enormous as it is - but that the region is not making use of it as ‘we are not trading amongst ourselves. That is the problem.’ And he went on: ‘But now I think we have realized that really for us to survive we have to work together.’

And his analogy: ‘If you rely on a grand father who feeds you and tells you to fight against your brothers, and then now you realise that that grand father no longer have enough to feed himself, then you realise that you have to work with your brothers. And this is the reality now.’

The only way out, according to Professor Jammeh, is for Africans to work together. He acknowledged however that this is the first ECOWAS summit he has attended where there were no problems at all.

‘They say necessity is the mother of invention. So the food crisis may be bad, but it is very important. It has awakened Gambians to go back to the farm. I told Gambians so many years ago; they didn’t listen to me. I have been telling ECOWAS also that we should work together; that we should develop infrastructure, especially transportation and communication.

Now they realized that yes, we have to do so,’ President Jammeh said. Jammeh also called for the region to harness its water resources, saying that West Africa is endowed with more water falls than any part of Africa, a blessing which, according to him, could afford it the opportunity to enhance its energy supply.

The financial crisis, the president said, as bad as it may be, has taught us now that we can no longer depend on the grand father.