Editorial

We wish to congratulate those who have just been conferred with different categories of national awards. The 309 Gambians and non-Gambians who received the awards are respectively, patriotic citizens and friends of The Gambia. They are people who have in one way or the other served this nation well and devoted their time to sustaining its development. The awardees indeed deserve the honour and we hope it would serve as a catalyst to galvanize their tireless efforts towards the advancement of this country.

The awards do not only acknowledge their success, but also many other qualities including ability, effort and above all, excellence in the execution of their duties. That is why we value the National Awards.

We hope that the recipients of the awards will use the opportunity to amplify their efforts in the ongoing journey towards the attainment of the national development blueprint, the Vision 2020. A national award is a prestigious and important honour for any human being, it is part of the few things that we will leave behind to judge us when we pass onto the land of the silent ones, whoever is fortunate to have such a decoration must know that a huge challenge is being bestowed on him or her.

We also wish to congratulate the person who made it possible for the state to recognise the valuable contributions of the awardees in national development –the Gambian leader, President Jammeh because without his great contributions, there will still be many more who would not have had the opportunity to have their efforts in national development recognised.

The trend the nomination for the awards has been taking over the years denotes that everyone has the chance of becoming part of this prestigious national decoration; what we have to do is to double our efforts as one people in pursuit of one goal, contribute meaningfully to the development of the country and complement the efforts of the leadership in that respect. The state belongs to all of us and it's a collective responsibility to ensure its advancement in all spheres.