By Landing Ceesay
Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, the Leader of the Citizens’ Alliance has reaffirmed his Party’s commitment to supporting the National People’s Party (NPP) led government.
“We are willing and ready to work with the government to transform our country. We are going to diversify our economy to create growth, provide jobs for our young people to reform the civil service, and make it more efficient to serve the Gambian people. We’re going to make sure we work with the NPP-led government to facilitate the expansion of infrastructure and technology upgrades to provide reliable, clean, and affordable energy that provides access to safe drinking water to every Gambian citizen in this country,” Dr. Ceesay said.
Dr. Ceesay said CA will work with the NPP government to transition to green energy, to use solar energy, hydro energy, and renewable energy to provide reliable power for Gambians.
Dr. Ceesay emphasized that the educational system will be reformed to make it fit for purpose because the status quo is laughable.
“We are working with a new government to reform it. The way I was taught 30 years ago, is the same way we are teaching our children. But the world has changed. The competence needed to navigate this new digital world is different from what I needed to navigate 30 years ago. We have to shift towards what they call innovative teaching and learning to teach our kids new ways, being creative, to solve problems, not to memorize things,” he said.
The CA Leader gave examples of 5-year kids in the UK and other western countries who can read maps. In comparison, kids in this country cannot read maps, stressing that
Gambians have to change the way kids are taught to prepare them for the 21st century so that when they go out, they can navigate the world easily.
“We have to also ensure that we made changes to agriculture to ensure food security. We need to move away from seasonal and subsistence farming. So over the years, commercial agriculture uses organic fertilizers because chemical fertilizers are not good for the environment. We will work with the NPP government to transition to organic fertilizer to create more yield for our farmers and provide food security,” he said.
On the issue of the country’s natural resources and environment, Dr. Ceesay said CA is going to protect the environment and natural resources. The River Gambia and every other natural resource that the country has, doesn’t belong to this generation alone.
Dr. Ceesay if the previous leaders had destroyed the country’s environment and natural resources, people will not have anything to speak of today.
“But they reserved some for us. That is why a CA government will one day do all we can to preserve it. There will be a law that will take the concerns of generations into account. We are going to work with the NPP government to ensure that effective climate change policies are instituted. Never in my lifetime has it ever rained the way it rains yesterday at the end of December. It means climate change is real. We need to prepare and build more resilient societies to ensure that we move on,” Dr. Ceesay stated.
The CA Leader said his party is going to also work with the NPP government to reform the criminal justice system to shift away from punishing criminals in prisons to rehabilitation. They will urge the government to build a more humane prison system that is fit for purpose, and that respects the rights of the prisoners.
Dr. Ceesay they are going to also work with the government to build a proper public transport system for the country as well as smart roads and build the country for the future.
He said it is their responsibility to build a country for the next generation.
“Every generation is your responsibility to build for the next generation. That is why planning is important. You looked at population growth you look at the trends, and how many roads we would need in 2055 for example. If for instance, we use only 10 liters of water today, the population is growing at a rate that may require 100 liters a day in 15 years. You start putting the systems in place to provide for the next generation. If we are using 100 megawatts of electricity today, population growth and the way we live have changed. We need to prepare those systems for the next 15 years. Therefore, we must consider these things,” he said.
The Citizens’ Alliance (CA) on Friday, December 31, 2022, held a nonelective congress at a local hotel in Senegambia.