By Pa Musa Jallow Nottingham, UK

Dear Editor: I want to respond quickly to the fine article by Mr. Omar Saidy-Khan reacting to Mr. Mathew K. Jallow's essay on Sana Sabally. I believe this was a very fine article and both being "domm bayys" - i.e. my father's children since I am a Jallow and Jallow and Khan are the same - in fact the proper name is Khan-Jallow, I am keenly enjoying the discourse and tend to be agreeing with most of Mr. Saidy-Khan's argument on Sana Sabally but disagree and want to query him on the economic carnage of The Gambia Cooperative Union starting with coinage of the Two Jallows-MM and MBO. Well, M. M. Jallow is my father and one of the few non-politicians that received honours from both the Pre-Independence government and the 1st Republic being an OBE and a MRG in 1965 and 1984/5 (not sure of the year) respectively, and the former mainly for his work as Secretary/Manager of the then nascent Gambia Cooperative Union and Banking Association and first Gambian Chairman of the then Gambia Oil Marketing Board (GOMB). My father was and is still widely renowned as “Jallow Cooperative”. He was removed from office in 1970 (I was not even 2 years then) but from stories and his own accounts, three independent commissions of enquiry were held on him and not a butut liability ever found before his removal. His letter of removal - not DISMISSAL stated simply -Your Services are no longer required – this I have seen with my own eyes. He had threatened to sue the government of the day if any allegations of corruption were preferred on him. I am dismayed that this is the first time in my life that anyone has accused my father of being part of the economic ruination of The Gambia Cooperative Union, which Union he was key to setting up and making one of the most successful and beneficial to our farmers. My father's own words were "there is no village or hamlet in The Gambia I have not visited or met or campaigned in the setting up of the societies that constitute The Gambia Cooperative Union (GCU) and Banking Association”. It was my father's stance on corruption, which inevitably led to his removal after he caused the dismissal and subsequently jailing of a PPP Minister of Agriculture. My father produced evidence of this Minister fraudulently taking GCU funds from the societies and presented this evidence to then Inspector General of Police –Evans and the Minister was arrested on his way out of Parliament. (I leave this to our journalists to research). Anyway, some 20 odd years later, the GCU succumbed to lead to my father's removal - politicians appointing surrogates/siphons and using them to loot the GCU. Now in 2002, I was removed as Project Manager (and subsequently dismissed) for the multimillion-dollar Airport Improvement Project, which I single-handed, drafted and designed. When I blocked certain powerful officials’ attempts to loot the project funds, I was accused of corruption, delay et cetera. Three investigations and audits by the NIA and the National Audit Office (then the Auditor General's office) failed to find a single butut I was supposed to have stolen - yet the papers carried stories of me stealing money and absconding the jurisdiction only to be found and arrested in my office. God Knows that I never took a penny/butut but it is that easy for one to be slandered. When I was arrested and granted bailed (from the NIA in April 2002) - I swore to my father that I did not take or touch a butut and he smiled and said to me that 32 years ago - I said the same to my own father. From April 2002 to June 2003, my passport was withheld and I was arrested so many times before finally I received my passport and in 2004 left The Gambia to work for the UN in Afghanistan and Sudan and now as a Principal for the 4th largest engineering consultant in Europe. Now, Mr. Saidy Khan has any evidence of Mr. M. M. Jallow's negative actions and doings that damaged the GCU, he can state them not just rely on mere speculation. For his information, in 1970 when my father left, The Gambia was performing at its economic best and highest with the revaluation of the Dalasi vis a vis the Pound Sterling, rejecting grant in aid from the UK government; farmers getting best prices and dividends from not only the sale but profits the GCU made. Regrettably, talk is not only cheap in our country but there is a serious propensity to generalize, speculate and to make statements/pronouncements without doing any research to substantiate or verify and rumour mongering is rife. My response is not necessary to defend my father, whose integrity I have never doubted but having suffered the same, I know exactly how it feels. My last point is, this talk of Fula, Mandingo, Jola or Suruwa is really completely defunct, we are not only all Gambians, but also Africans and humans and as Gambians and Africans, we owe our children much better. Thank God for the Day of Judgment because there must be a reckoning some day and for every good or bad deed. (Faman yarah misqala zalatin hayran yarah Wah man yarah misqala salatin, sharan yarah) God Excuse me my poor transliteration of this Holy Ayah. Peace and Blessings of God Be Upon everyone.