The Gambian leader, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yhaya Jammeh, continues to receive goodwill messages from a diverse group of people, congratulating him on his 44th birthday, the development trend of the country and a host of other achievements realised under his administration.

Below we reproduce the full text of the latest messages received from State House in Banjul.
Birthday greetings
Your Excellency,
I present my compliment to Your Excellency on the occasion of your Natal day. I pray that, Allah (the Almighty) continues to shower his blessings upon you, your family and the entire Gambian populace. May the Almighty Allah continue to guide us in pursuit of The Gambia's development endeavours.

Also, on behalf of my family and the entire Gambian community in Ghana, we wish you a happy birthday. I would like to extend my heart-felt felicitation to Your Excellency, and pray for continued progress, peace and prosperity for the government and people of The Gambia. Once again, Your Excellency, may joy, happiness, goodwill and prosperity embrace you in the years ahead. May Allah bless you with wisdom to govern our fatherland and may you prosper in all your endeavours.

I once again seize this opportunity to renew the assurances of my highest consideration.
Ousainou Mohammed Yaffa, The Gambia Honorary Consul, Accra-Ghana

Your Excellency,
Following on the heels of your memorable birthday, my family and I join the multitude of well wishers both at home and abroad, in conveying our heartfelt and sincere best wishes to you, with humility and solemnity, on the occasion of this important day which happily coincides with the celebration of Africa's Liberation Day.  Indeed, this happy and important coincidence is proof that you are the true liberator, rare gift of the Almighty not just to Gambians but also to Africa and humanity in general.

Your Excellency, Sir, may it please you to know that from my ordinary position as a public servant who has been blessed and privileged to be of service to you and your government, I have discerned from a quiet but pensive perspective, your total dedication and service to humanity, a duty of care you continue to exercise with seasoned compassion and equity.  It is thus from these sterling qualities that I draw inspiration, with support from my family, to commit selflessly to be of service as Your Excellency may direct, in the interest of your government and The Gambian people.

On this happy occasion therefore, my humbly birthday gift to Your Excellency, Sir, is my pledge and rededication to serve under you diligently, selflessly in absolute trust and to the best of my ability and knowledge. As I have now rejoined my family and fully settled in my new position, I once again express my profound gratitude to Your Excellency, for affording me the privilege once more to serve under your guidance in the knowledge that your prayers are with me and my family and that I will not falter.

Please accept Sir, the assurance of my loyalty and profound gratitude as you continue in your noble task for humanity and posterity.
Lamin (Sibi) Sanyang, Consular at the Embassy of The Gambia,Washington DC

Appreciation of development achievements
Your Excellency,
On the occasion of the commencement of satellite broadcasting of the television of your sisterly country, The Gambia, it pleases me to express to you and the government and the sisterly Gambian people my compliments and heartfelt wishes for this great achievement.

As I express my congratulation, allow me to join you, the government and the Gambian people in the joys of this achievement. Praying for your sustained development and prosperity.
Prof. Dr Ali Muhammad Dukaly Al-Hisnawe ,Secretary of The People's Committee at The Libyan People's Bureau, Banjul

Your Excellency,
It is with great sense of pride that the Ministry of Communications, Information and Information Technology (MOCIIT) wish to extend its most profound gratitude and appreciation for the wit and zeal you have exerted in making yet another dream come true - a satellite broadcasting system for The Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS).

In the same vein, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you profusely for accepting to launch this wonderful state-of-the-art apparatus, despite your busy schedules.  Your Excellency, the amount of D50,000 that you provided for the entire staff of GRTS to celebrate the success of this project amply signifies your happiness and enthusiasm about this laudable achievement. Once again, on behalf of the entire staff of GRTS and on my own behalf, I pray that all you wish to do for this country be realized. Amen.

While wishing you many birthdays to come, please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances on my highest consideration.
Alhaji A Cham, Permanent Secretary,MOCIIT

Congratulations on conferment of title 'Sheikh'
Your Excellency,
It is with great pleasure and excessive joy that I write this letter, congratulating Your Excellency on your recent title "Sheikh". It is my belief that these titles are conferred upon you, Sir, because of Your Excellency's efforts in building a peaceful world.  I, among other Gambians, have seen what your desire is for every one of us.

Every person in this country, whether citizen or not, knows and sees what you have done in your short tenure as president. I am confident that you will do more in the years to come as you are full of dreams especially for The Gambian people for whom you took the helm of power and are ready to die.

I also use this opportunity to thank you, Sir, for the street lighting projects you have for the country, most especially in KMC, where there were places that people often could not trek at night due to the darkness in those areas.  More importantly, the installation of the new earth satellite equipment will ever remain in the minds of Gambians as it exposes and links The Gambia to the rest of the world.  With this, I say bravo, Mr President. Once more, congratulations and thank you, Sir, for every thing you have done and are doing.  Long live your reign.
Sarjo M Sonko and family, Fajikunda

Clearance of The Gambia of responsibility in murder of eight Ghanaian nationals
Your Excellency,
I am deeply honoured to write and express sincere thanks and appreciation to Your Excellency for the happy conclusion of the investigations on the above captioned subject, in favour of The Gambia. I got this delightful news on 18th of May 2009, the eve of my birthday, while watching the news on the GRTS.

The reasons why I am so happy, delighted and relieved about this news are the following:
1. I spent the whole of the year 2006 in Ghana, reading for a Masters degree in Public Sector Management (MPSM), with four (4) other Gambian colleagues, and I was the group leader. This was a regional program with participants from Ghana, Nigerian, Sierra Leone and Liberia.  Of all these groups, The Gambians were the least endowed, and things got so bad at some point that we nearly wrote to Your Excellency for intervention and support.

To make it even worse, one of our lecturers, a Ghanaian, came to class and made the following statement: "Gambians killed our brothers. There are Gambians on this course.  We will not kill them, but we will maim them."

Your Excellency, you will easily imagine how we felt, particularly I, the group leader, and I though of suggesting that we come back home immediately. However, upon recalling your strong belief in Allah, your policy drive, love and support to this nation, I drove away that thought, but we carefully selected the places we went to and always moved together as a group. Halfway through our program; this issue came up again, through an aspiring presidential candidate who was trying to use this problem for his campaign.

However, thanks and praises to Almighty Allah, all five (5) Gambian delegates who pioneered this program successfully completed it and came back home safely. During our whole stay in Ghana, we were good ambassadors of The Gambia, as we heeded your directives to all patriotic Gambians and we left a very good image with all those we met or knew.

2. The second reason why I am so happy and delighted with this outcome is that Allah has yet again proven your detractors and enemies of The Gambia shamefully wrong, and this keeps happening because you are a true and devout Muslim, a clean and kind hearted person, and an exemplary leader.

I therefore wish to thank and congratulate you for your relentless endeavours to develop and promote The Gambia, and to preserve and protect its people and territorial integrity and sovereignty. May Almighty Allah keep guiding, protecting and supporting you in all your noble and laudable endeavours, to make The Gambia a model country in all aspects.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the expression of my highest and distinguished consideration.
Abdou Rahman Jobe, Deputy permanent secretary, Ministry of Agriculture