Tuesday 9th January 2007

Traditionally, influential newspapers and magazines around the world select at the end of every year a distinguished personality and honour him or her as the Man of the Year. To have Newsweek or Time, or our own The Gambia News and Report Weekly name you as the Man of the Year is a big honour. When the Time named Bill Clinton the Man of the Year in 1992, they said Clinton deserved the accolade because he pursued his campaign with so much dignity, a quality that was to be the defining characteristic of his eight-year administration.

Different newspapers and magazines have different criteria for their selections, but one thing is common to all of them – it is an honour for people who have left their footprints in the sand of time. It is for men and women who refuse to be derailed by obstacles in their quest to make this world a better place for their fellow human beings.

For the past 14 years, The Gambia News and Report Weekly has been singling out for praise prominent Gambians who have made significant contributions to the nation. The recipients of this prestigious award cut across all spheres of life – politics, education, business, journalism, medicine, philanthropy et cetera. In 2004, Deyda Hydara, the slain Managing Editor of The Point newspaper was honoured posthumously as the Man of the Year for his evident enormous contributions to the growth and development of journalism in The Gambia and for paying the supreme sacrifice for the ideals of journalism. Other prominent Gambians such as Dr Lenrie Peters, Mrs Harriet Ndow, Mrs Isatou Njie-Saidy, Mohammed Jah, Dr Ebrima Samba have also had their names inscribed in the hall of fame.

The editor-publisher of The Gambia News and Report Weekly, Mr Swaebou Conateh, has just named two eminent Gambians as joint winners of the 2006 Man of the Year award. The lucky duo is Bolong Sonko and Mustapha Njie. Both men need no introduction. Mustapha Njie, popularly and simply known as Taf, is a household name in The Gambia. He has through his own prodigious efforts become a synonym for real estate development in this country. Arguably, the high point of his career as yet is the incredibly speedy completion of the Presidential Villas for the last AU Summit. According to legends, Taf started from nothing, but has through diligence become somebody. His life therefore is an inspiration to young and upcoming Gambians that if you back up your desires with energy, you will get to the mountaintop of your ambition.

If Gambians are still basking in the afterglow of the AU Summit that we hosted here last summer, then it is only fitting that the brain behind that feat should be honoured. Mr Bolong Sonko was the General Coordinator at the AU Summit Secretariat. The AU Summit succeeded largely because Mr Sonko gave it his best shot. If the AU summit had failed, some people somewhere would have asked for his head. Now that the contrary is the case, Mr Conateh has done well by honouring this illustrious son of The Gambia. If Mr Sonko had been lax and indolent, the AU Summit would have collapsed like a pack of cards. But thanks to his exceptional organisational skills, we were able to host successfully the continental political showpiece.

More awards, which reward excellence, are needed in The Gambia so as to spur people to give out their best. All other professional bodies in The Gambia should follow suit by organizing yearly awards to honour their own. The Gambia Press Union (GPU) should revive its yearly awards ceremony. It is a way of uplifting the standards of journalism in the country. The same goes for the Gambia Football Association (GFA).

“ A few honest men are better than numbers.”
Oliver Cromwell