GAMBIA: A Native of Chamen Debunks the False Information Propaganda Surrounding the Diaspora Club Maternity Project

• They said UDPs and political motivation led the Chamen Nianija Maternity Ward project by the Diaspora club, but that was false.
• ⁠They said the stakeholders, like the Ministry of Health and government, were not informed, which turns out to be false and not actual.
• ⁠The government spokesperson, who doubles as the Presidential Adviser for the Diaspora, has been engaged since last year. The health minister, with whom the diaspora club worked to rehabilitate the children’s ward during his time at EFSTH-RVH, and Dr Bittaye, the Medical Director, were also involved. The ministry constituted a committee and created a WhatsApp group involving many departments within the ministry and the Diaspora Club Team.
• ⁠The Ministry reviewed the proposed plans for the maternity ward and advised the Diaspora club to scale down their plans. The government is building another health centre at Njau, 10 km from Chamen, which will reduce some of the demands on the only labour ward in Chamen. The Diaspora club agreed to change the plans approved by the ministry planning team, resulting in the issuance of the clearance certificate by the Ministry of Health.
• ⁠The ministry officials recommended that the contractor selected for the project be one of their approved contractors.
• ⁠The authority at Nianija, including the deputy speaker, who is a native of Chamen Nianija, was informed and invited to attend the foundation-laying ceremony by the project local coordinator, whom they labelled as UDP, on the 21st of December 2024, 10 days before the ceremony. Let them deny it, and we will have the proof and evidence to share.
• ⁠After playing their politics and stopping the project, stating the government had secured a GRANT to rehabilitate the centre, they sent people from the ministry to start doing the feasibility studies. They even bullied the Alkalo of Chamen not to attend the foundation-laying ceremony, fearing for his Alkaloship, which he didn’t when a project of that scale began in his village.
• ⁠We are aware that the funding for that project isn’t available yet unless the government diverts much-needed funds or projects elsewhere to satisfy the egocentric interest groups in Nianija that stopped the project. The Grants haven’t been tabled at the National Assembly yet, nor has that grant been included or budgeted in the just-approved 2025 budget. This means the government’s proposed project isn’t likely to start anytime soon.
• ⁠They have stopped a project that should have started last week. Four thousand blocks have been made, the contractor paid over D250,000 in advance, and over one million Dalasis have already been spent.
• ⁠The NPP propagandists are now telling our people in Nianija that the government and President Barrow plan that they have seen to build at Chamen a Hospital bigger and better than Farafenni and Bassang, which are among the only handful of major Hospitals in the Gambia. That laughing and funny even though I would love such a big project for my village.
• ⁠How can the government or President Barrow build such a hospital at Chamen but not at Mankamang Kunda, the President’s home village? They are now deliberately lying to fool some of our gullible people. I have the audio and can happily transform it into videos for the whole country and world to hear!
• The Nianija District Page, the Admin, a renowned NPP apologist, allowed such propaganda and audio to be shared at the NDA apolitical forum. Such messaging is against the District Association Constitution; they let those audios carry on without implementing the association constitution. Then, they decided to shut the forum down when people started countering such failed propaganda. They can use their political tactics on that forum, which only has 188 members, but on my Facebook, I have over 500 people from Nianija who will see my post with a bigger audience. They can’t control the narrative and silence us.
• ⁠A committee was formed to engage the same authorities further to ensure the community doesn’t miss out on this much-needed project. We appreciated their efforts, but before even that engagement could happen, they already undermined those efforts by confirming what we all expected: the government wouldn’t rescind its decision because of the wrong information they told the President, and those efforts were futile to satisfy egos.
• ⁠The same health centre that the authorities and the government neglected for decades is now the centre of political activity in Nianija. For months, the health centre had no electricity or functioning solar power. Medical personnel used candles and their mobile phones to attend to women giving birth or critical patients at night, and non-critical care patients were turned away until daylight.
• ⁠A victim who lost two children in the last two years there due to the poor medical facilities already spoke out after hearing the decision to cancel the project; I have the audio, which I can transform and translate his emotional speech in Fula to a video.
• ⁠The same authorities that played politics were aware of this, and the community, through a Diaspora brother who visited the health centre, brought this to the attention of the Nianija Diaspora Team. Within a day, on December 14th, 2024, we raised nearly D40,000 to replace the damaged solar batteries and inverters. This was just two weeks after they stopped the Diaspora Club project. I am happy to share the receipts and evidence with you as the co-founder and PRO of the Nianija Diaspora Team.
• ⁠Now, let’s ask ourselves, where were these egocentric people when all this happened? They are now falsely claiming that the Diaspora club and we are insulting the authorities and the First Lady, which is a lie. I challenged them to share any evidence of their claims. We are raised to respect authorised and elders even when we are aggrieved.

Only truth shall set us free; the era of deception and falsehoods is misled our society is over, and Inn Shaa Allah, this weekend, I am making a Facebook live in Fula, Wollof and English so that our people in Nianija will be told the truth they deserve to know. The government can’t do it all; genuine Gambians who want to
Contributing to our national development should be encouraged but not discouraged!!

It’s never too late to do the right thing, and if authorities or the government get things wrong, they should also remember they are elected or appointed to serve the interests of our people and the country. Rescind your decision and bring back our maternity Ward!!

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[19:58, 11/01/2025] Sulayman Ben: BAKARY BAH FOLLOWS UP, PROVIDING IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE IN EXPOSING THE POLITICAL DISTRACTOR!

When someone speaks without the facts or data, they are merely expressing their opinions mostly to mislead people, and we respect that, but the truth has no two sides.

The truth is that it is like a double orphan child without any siblings. We expect our politicians to be untruthful at times, but not medical professionals who should maintain the highest code of ethics.

I’ve listened to an interview in which one medical professional deliberately lied, forgetting that some of his lies or denials were within a WhatsApp group that the Ministry of Health created, and he is in that group.

There is no need to do a VAR to expose him on this occasion unless he continues his lies. Let his conscience and our creator, whom he prays to, deal with him. It’s not easy, and I feel sorry for him.

Thank you, Diaspora Club and Brother Momodou Cham, their perceived Political opponent, who immediately made this government and our Nianija NPP gang react with an afterthought project as their counter-attack.

Suppose their afterthought project, now under feasibility studies, is fully implemented. In that case, that’s a win for our community of Nianija, which had been made victims of their political games to prolong our misery unnecessarily.

We have the complete list of things they promised to capture. We are waiting for plans for their state-of-the-art, newly built health facilities to see that they are fully implemented within 12 months; hence, they said the funding is already in place.

Let me leave you with these facts and use your common sense to judge. Don’t allow to be manipulated and misled:

1. Momodou, a private citizen, has worked with many other partners, implementing entirely different projects before this Maternity Ward project. Not once was he accused of mismanaging or misappropriating any funds. Why is he now the enemy of the Chamen maternity ward?
2. The Chamen Health Centre was neglected for decades during this dispute when we had a Nominated member and National Assembly from Nianija twice under Jammeh and now under Barrow; why didn’t they act then until now?
3. The Chamen Health Center was without a functioning solar system for months, and they were aware of this. Well, let me give them some credit here because the MP took a Patient there one night a few months back.

The place was dark without any light, and he later bought one solar battery, which cost less than D6,000, but it could only power two light bulbs or charge mobile phones. Where is his over D500,000(half a million Dalasis) yearly constituency development fund for Nianija?

4: The Deputy Speaker, a native of Chamen, was informed of this problem; let me again give credit here. He tasked someone to do some work to fix this, and due to the poor quality of the artistry, the place caught fire 🔥 a few months ago after that work.

5. One member of the Nianija Diaspora Team was visiting the GamChamen Nianija Minor Health Centermen to pay his respects to a family member who died, and on the same day, the Deputy Speaker was also in Chamen.

Our Diaspora Member visited the Chamen Nianija Minor Health Center at night with some villagers and saw patients treated using candles or Mobile devices.

He left a very emotional voice note in our Nianija Diaspora Team WhatsApp forum stating that we need to act immediately as this is an unfortunate situation with the Health Centre. We got into action whenever we were called upon.

6: On December 14th, the Nianija Diaspora Team raised over D34,000 from our own pockets to purchase two powerful batteries with an inverted, transport them to Chamen, and hand them over to the Health Centre, the Alkalo, and the Health Centre Committee.

7: On the 16th of December 2024, one Samba Bah, an NPP member, recorded two audio messages and shared them on the Niani and Nianija NPP WhatsApp forum, commending the intervention from the Nianija Diaspora Team and saying that if the government failed to act, then we did. Someone forward me those audio messages!!

8: The President had a meet-the-people tour meeting at Buduck in Nianija on November 21st, 2024. Hamat Bah, the NAM, the Chief, the Deputy Speaker, and the President spoke, and none of them mentioned the Chamen Health Centre project they are now discussing. Do you think all those speakers, including the president, will miss that opportunity to discuss such a project?

9: On November 18, 2024, I engaged the Deputy speaker about the Chamen Health Centre issues. He responded, “ I’m trying to get the Ministry to build the health centre. I have already engaged a contractor for me. This may not be much, but it will get it in better shape” (Ref: No4 on my post).

I don’t like to share such conversations, but some of our family members blame me for not engaging with him. I always do anything I am involved with as if he were my younger brother because I respect his position and family.

10: In its letter rescinding the clearance issued to the Gambia Diaspora Club, the government said they secured funding through the ADB. The Information Minister said it’s WHO on Coffee time. The links below from ABD and WHO don’t list the Chamen Health Centre in those projects, but all the other places are listed. See for yourself.

Let them produce their list, which includes the Chamen Health Project from the WHO or ADB. We can tolerate their deliberate misinformation to mislead our people, but insulting our intelligence on top of that is not acceptable!! Money and positions of power or influence don’t change people but reveal who you are.

Juma Mubarak, and may Allah bless us with honesty, truthfulness, and humble leadership with integrity that puts our nation’s interests above theirs.

Opinion Article by Bakary Bah.