Editor,

Countries in developing world want to emerge from a state of obscurity to a state of prominence. For this to be achieved within the shortest possible time, people in the developing world should learn to rely more on themselves than on foreign aid. The English proverb goes: "Rome was not built in a day"; the building of Europe didn’t take one day or month or year.  

There was a time when Europe was also very poor, but with their scarce resources and with agriculture, was able to provide enough food for its citizens.  The people were well fed.  As a result, they were able to think properly and eventually inventions followed leading to their development. Africans should do the same thing and strip ourselves of the Third World status.

However, African countries like The Gambia are on the right track. Our country is undergoing major transformations and is indeed on the road to self-reliance thanks to our good leadership.  We have not yet got all that he aims for the country, but he is trying to help us attain the Millennium Development Goals. When thetime comes for AU missions and UN missions in Sudan and the like, The Gambia takes a principal part, contributing soldiers, and working towards peace, love and harmony.  

All this is because of the man of peace, love and success, our humble leader, Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh.  The other African states are capable of doing the same.  Even though some of the states don’t have mineral resources, they have land, labour, and capital which could be combined for better results for the nation. This way, industrialization is ensured, which will eventually create employment for their citizens.

The question to ask is why is the prevalence of starvation in certain African states?  One answer to this is African states rely too much on foreign aids and these aids are not guaranteed.  When the developed countries fail to help them, starvation comes in because they have not done any work to prepare for such times.  

This brings about laziness. Probably this reliance on foreign aids could partly explain the reason for the failure of the OAU. This is because the member countries are loyal to different masters beyond the continent.  Because of this, they hinder self-reliance by providing aids which in the end do us more harm than good. The promise of such aids has made us dependent and lazy and divided the political policies of our leaders for a united Africa.

I want to offer my special thanks to Baaba Sillah for his wonderful chat with Ansumana Drammeh on the GRTS Gentleman show. He is my role model.