Dear Editor:
 
Please allow us to respond to Yahya Jammeh's tirade at yesterday's signing ceremony of the so-called strategic partnership at State House between Jammeh and Spectrum International Investment Group, a group that was formed recently for the sole purpose of acquiring Gamtel shares offered by Yahya Jammeh.  We can state categorically that Spectrum is a bogus group consisting of con artists, fly-by-night operators and cowboys bent on preying on our country with the tacit collaboration of Yahya Jammeh and therefore they lack the business wherewithal to add value to Gamtel stocks for the benefit of Gambia and Gambians. 

 
It is shameless of Jammeh to say that GAMTEL has been mismanaged for 13-years by successive Managing Directors from Bakary Njie to Omar Ndow.  We say to Jammeh that his claim is furthest from the truth.  Bakary Njie has ably managed GAMTEL from its inception to 1994.  It was after Jammeh seized power illegally in July 1994 that the meddling into the affairs of GAMTEL by the A (F) PRC governments, using the company as their personal property and changing management teams at will that GAMTEL became a basket case.  It is Jammeh and his cronies that have led to the present predicament of GAMTEL.  
 
Jammeh worried about the national furor over the illegal divestiture of GAMTEL moved to assure his partners in crime, Spectrum International, of “government's full cooperation and the people of The Gambia adding that telecommunication is key to development, just like education is key to development.”  We say to Jammeh that he can speak for his Government but he cannot speak for Gambians the majority of whom are opposed to selling off their national asset without their prior consent.  And speaking of telecommunication and education sectors as keys to development, Jammeh's government has managed to destroy both sectors in thirteen short years.  If you want to see a living testimony to Jammeh's legacy you need not look further than these two sectors.  Just as GAMTEL services have deteriorated since 1994, the quality of education has deteriorated even further during the same period, courtesy of Yahya Junkung Jamus Jammeh. Only 25 students out of 19,000 managed to pass the Grade 9 exams with distinction; a catastrophic result by any measure.
 
Jammeh has used the occasion to threatened his critics by stating that those who oppose his selling of GAMTEL should stay away from The Gambia lest they face dismissal or face jail time.  What Jammeh fails to realize is that he has succeeded in conditioning many Gambians to “fending for themselves” once dismissed from government service.  Most civil servants worth their salt have left the service anyway. 
 
On the inevitable redundancies to follow, Jammeh has paved the way by giving Spectrum carte blanche when he stated, “we have signed the management contract, and it means that those that can be kept, be kept and those that cannot be kept would have to go”. After all, he continued, he (Jammeh) has given the management of Gamtel/Gamcel thirteen good years to prove themselves, but they have failed.'  We will be monitoring the situation as it developed.
 
Jammeh's claim that government found it necessary to engage the services of an ALCATEL consultant to install telecommunication equipment at Kanilai is another lie.  It is a feeble attempt to justify his decision to sell our national treasure.  The ALCATEL consultant was engaged because Jammeh did not trust Gambians with what he consider to be of national security nature and not because there were no qualified Gambians to handle the job.
 
Further attempts to justify an otherwise illegal disposal of GAMTEL shares by the Secretary of State for Communications and Information Technology only adds insult to injury and we wish the lady would just keep her big mouth shut.  She knows nothing about telecommunications, business or basic management concepts.
 
Finally, we wish to restate our earlier warning to all those involved in pilfering our national treasures that doing so will be at their own peril.  It is not too late for Spectrum to withdraw from this illegal business deal before it is too late.

      Patriotic Soldiers of the Armed Forces,

     Yundum Barracks, The Gambia.