Alieu Mboge, the former managing director of the Gambia Groundnut Cooperation (GGC) has written a letter of appreciation to President Jammeh, thanking him for the opportunity given to him to serve under his government in various capacities after retirement.
 
Below we reproduce the full text of the letter:
I could not have been more honoured, as I was, when I came out of retirement and for the next years, you entrusted to me, with quiet confidence, one assignment after another, and always providing the support, either by giving funds or by showing the lead, as good leadership must, in our national push towards greater prosperity. 
 
To call me back at the time that you did, when I had retired, bespoke of the confidence and trust you had in me; and I was absolutely thrilled at the opportunity to have a late innings in my career, to have an Indian summer, as the expression goes, not for vainglorious reasons, but to offer, without putting too fine a point on it, my experiences and knowledge in the service of the people.
 
Gratitude, like history, casts her shadow backwards, and having my eyes similarly cast, I am delighted to acknowledge my gratitude to you for sincere confidence you had in me, of which I had done my utmost, with each assignment, from the Committee for Peace Reconciliation of Banjul, the Banjul City Council, the Gambia Tourism authority and the Gambia Groundnut Corporation, to make myself worthy.
 
Development is always a work in progress, requiring an inter-play of settled experience and a searching, explorative youth; if in the end of yields to the other, it is yielding that is as natural as sons succeeding their fathers: for after grey experience had conferred its riches, it ought to stand back and let the brimming, green energy of youth, carry forth the goods into the future.
 
I have nothing but great admiration for you, for the way you have re-focused energies, of both old and young, along a path that is ready bearing fruit, as well as fertile with promise of the bigger things to come. The fruits are all around us, and there can be little argument that they derive largely from the singular audacity of your vision, sweeping in its ambition, and unapologetic in its aim to transform a tiny, mainly groundnut-dependent and tourist country, such as ours, into a beehive of industry and high tech, and producing enough food for us to feed ourselves. To create a goliath, so to speak, out of a David.
 
As monumental a task as it is, we can achieve a significant lot, if we believed in our selves. The genius of your leadership is how you have managed to spread a sense of optimism, an Obamaesque sense of "we can", without which no nation can develop beyond the first few steps of civilisation.
 
Your patriotism is of the highest distinction, and we as a nation should consider ourselves fortunate to have you at the helm; but in order that we take advantage of this fortune, it behoves us all to rally behind you, and help give flesh to the lofty vision that you have long nursed for this country. The old political injunction still holds away, especially for us, in the developing countries, and we would do well to remind ourselves of its wisdom: ask not what your country can do for you, but ask we the citizens together with the government can do for future prosperity of our country. The challenge must be equalled by the will to prevail.
 
Once again, I am deeply and inexpressibly delighted to have served in the official capacities I was called upon to do. At all times, I performed my responsibilities with probity and sense. With little could one have repaid the privilege of serving one's country and people. And through I leave office, I remain committed to your political vision, and bind myself anew to your government, to your party and to the entire nation.
 
Long may you continue to lead this country, taking if from strength to strength, building up a stock of inheritance on which our children, and their children, can stand secured and self-assured, emboldened by the confidence that derives from pride of inheritance, as they negotiate their way through the challenges of their time.