Tamsir Jallow Reports to Work At Gambian Embassy in Washington, DC

 Ambassador Jallow with United Nations Sect. Gen. Ban Ki-Moon

Now that erstwhile Tourism Secretary Susan Waffa Ogoo has been appointed as Gambia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, the new Gambian Ambassador to The United States, Tamsir Jallow has also finally reported to work.

Ambassador Jallow officially reported this Tuesday morning April 22, 2008 to the ill-fated Gambian Embassy nestled at 1155 15th Street, NW, Suite 1000, Washington DC, after much waiting and speculation as to the old-school teacher’s fate.

Prior to his recent appointment, Ambassador Jallow was The Gambian Ambassador to the United Nations, a position he held briefly before he was relegated to Assistant Ambassador and then back to Ambassador.

Mr. Jallow is among the first cadre of rising West African activists who studied under the tutelage of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and holds a Masters degree in Education from Great Britain with years of high school teaching experience. Jallow, is highly charismatic and a phenomenal orator who once served as President of The Gambia Teachers’ Union; a position he held until shortly after the July 22, 1994 military coup that toppled the PPP regime. Shortly thereafter, the junta appointed Jallow Chairman of the now disbanded July 22^nd. Movement. Although there is no evidence linking Jallow with that movement’s trail of havoc and destruction, that a man of his calibre and repute would have headed such a notorious organization raised eyebrows among many Gambians. Among other things, the predacious July 22^nd Movement is blamed for various nocturnal acts of savagery, banditry and gross human rights abuses of political opponents, real and imagined.

Following the 1996 elections, Jallow was appointed Majority Leader of the APRC Party in The Gambia National Assembly. He was subsequently appointed Deputy High Commissioner to the Gambian Embassy in The United Kingdom and later rose to the position of High Commissioner. 

Ambassador Tamsir Jallow is also the first known Gambian Ambassador to have presented letters of credence to the state of Israel.

 As the new Ambassador to Washington, Jallow will undertake to bring sanity to an Embassy, which many have described as highly dysfunctional, highly inert and grossly corrupt. To some, the Gambian Embassy has become an extension of the all too powerful and most notorious National Intelligence Agency where diplomats are busy reporting Gambians instead of helping them and those who chose the high road are sacked within the strike of a pen.

At the time of going to press, this paper had received countless numbers of complaints that ever since the departure of Ambassador Dodou Bammy Jagne, the Gambian Embassy has taken a catastrophic nose dive as Gambian Passports cannot even be renewed. One Gambian we talked to told us that when she called to enquire about the delay in renewing her passport, the Acting Ambassador, Abdourahman Cole told her that passports would not be renewed without forwarding any reason as to why.

With his new position, Ambassador Jallow has big shoes to fill. He takes over an Embassy which many Gambians have given up contacting for assistance, an Embassy where telephones are hardly ever answered and where Gambian in the United States are put on hold for twenty minutes waiting for staff to help them. The Gambia Echo welcomes the new Ambassador and wishes him good luck with his appointment. Hopefully, when we call this time, at least someone will have the courtesy to talk to us.