Macdouall-Gaye, 14 others Present Letters to President Obama

By EBRIMA G. SANKAREH, Editor-In-Chief

Neneh Macdouall Gaye, Washington, DC Ambassad

Predictably, as reported on our Tuesday May 5 edition, The Gambia’s former Information Minister and ambassador designate to Washington, DC, Neneh Macdouall Gaye, had presented her letters of credence to President Obama at the Oval offce on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Along with fourteen other envoys from around the globe, Neneh Macdouall-Gaye, accompanied by her family, among them a US-born daughter, presented diplomatic credentials to President Barack H. Obama at a modest ceremony at the White House. 

According to a senior State Department source, “the foreign ambassadors who participated in the credentialing ceremony at the White House with the President on Wednesday at 3:00pm were:

Ambassador Heng of Cambodia                          

Ambassador Beale of Barbados                           

Ambassador Matthysen of Belgium                              

Ambassador Kujundzic of Bosnia and Herzegovina     

Ambassador Kutelia of Georgia                                    

Ambassador Han of Korea                                           

Ambassador Mansour of Tunisia                                  

Ambassador Valdivieso of Peru                                    

Ambassador Petrovic of Serbia                                     

Ambassador Thompson of Fiji                                      

Ambassador Goni of Chile                                           

Ambassador Saladin-Selin of Dominican Republic       

Ambassador Shankar of India                                       

Ambassador Escalante-Vargas of Costa Rica                

Ambassador MacDouall-Gaye of Gambia.”

In a related development, Lamin Sabi Sanyang has returned to the Embassy in a different capacity, as Counsellor, the soucre said. According to our sources with over a decade-long experience in the Foreign Service, “it remains to be seen whether Macdouall-Gaye will be able to stay long in a Mission where diplomats have been changing like pants.” Also, the continued detention of journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh and Senior Illinois Senator, Richand J. Durbin’s relentlessness for his release, will continue to play out during Ambassador Gaye’s tenure, the source hinted. “Mr. Sankareh, Senator Durbin is like President Obama’s political mentor who played a pivotal role in the President’s election and you cannot, expect Yahya Jammeh to have it easy with Senator Durbin consistently pulling the diplomatic strings; besides, Senator Durbin is the Assistant Majority Leader in the Senate and Jammeh cannot afford to ignore him” he said.

However, as we went to press, the rumour in Washington among the Gambian community is that, the so-called Director of Information and Cultural Affairs at the beleagured Consulate, Jammeh’s  pathological informer in-chief, Ebrima J. T. Kujabie, has confided in some close friends, that Musa M’boob and Ambassador Gaye are out to remove him and he too, will do everything within his powers to tell his “big brother” how he was being mistreated. Last week, one of our informers in Maryland sighted M’boob at a local grocery store bargaining for lamb meat and had also slightly, just slightly, alluded to a moster at the Embassy. For now though, we will continue to monitor the diplomatic chemistry and see who “big brother”, the man sometimes called “Kebba” or “Pabee”will listen to.”