It is with profound shock and sorrow that we report the death of doyen Gambian journalist Babucarr M. Gaye the proprietor of Citizen Newspaper & Citizen FM Radio Station.
Gaye who died at the Medical Research Council (MRC) facility at Fajara was born in Kaur to the late Alkali of Kaur Momodou Bamba Gaye and the late Mrs. Aji Mallen Wadda of James Senegal Street.
He was a brilliant student who trail blazed to The Gambia High School where he later climaxed to the Sixth Form. He joined Radio Gambia along side his contemporaries Alhaji Ebrima Cole, Amie Joof Cole and Lala Hydara also from The Gambia high school sixth form. Given his nimble intellectualism, Baboucarr quickly perfected his broadcast skills, a career that sent him to places far and wide to expand his intellectual horizon and that he did with amazing success. In the late 1970s he took reporting with the BBC Focus on Africa Programme a career that made him a household name in the West African sub-region.
In 1981 following the abortive coup by rebel leader Kukoi Smba Sanyang; Gaye was arrested at State House at the conclusion of a Press Conference because of police findings that tied him to MOJA-G –the once very famous clandestine political “The Movement Of Justice in Africa.” He was whisked to Mle II Central Pisons from where he became a cause celebe. A little later he regained his freedom and when the defunct Senegambia Confederation launched a newspaper; The Senegambia Sun Babucarr Gaye became its Editor; a job he did simultaneously with his BBC reporting.
On December 16th. 1991 he, together with slain journalist Deyda Hydara and Reuters' Dean Papa Saine, launched the Point Newspaper. However, after four months of operation, Babucarr quit and returned to his foreign reporting. A little later, he formed his weekly paper, Citizen Newspaper that metamorphosed to a famous private radio- Citizen Radio. During the paper’s infancy, the late A. A. Njie and I worked with Babucarr. True to his character, President Yahya Jammeh out of fear of the radio’s popularity and its civic education programme shut it down. Since then, Babucarr has fought it out in the courts but after realizing that he could not operate, he decided to use his creative potentials in other areas, until his demise today. The editorial team of The Gambia Echo prays for our good brother as he heads to Heaven. May God grant mercy to Babucarr’s gentle soul.
By Ebrima G. Sankareh