Leading American civil rights activist and founder of the Rainbow-Push, Reverend Jesse Jackson, has inspired students at the University of The Gambia, challenging them to be dedicated to their academic aspirations as potential future leaders.

Jackson, who wrapped-up his three-day Gambia visit on Tuesday evening, was briefly addressing students of a mathematics class during a tour of the facilities of the University of The Gambia. He was accompanied to the UTG by a high-powered delegation including members of his team, and some senior officials of the Gambia government, including the attorney general and minister of Justice, Lamin Jobarteh; andMomodou Aki Bayo, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Reverend Jackson put it to thestudents that among them could be a future president, a future scientist, amongst others, thus urging them to put their minds to whatever they are doing. He hastened to encourage the students to be good citizens who will do well for mankind.

Speaking at the Chancellery shortly after his tour of the UTG facilities, Reverend Jackson thanked Professor Kah for coming home to join the government’s efforts to strengthen the education system of the country. He noted that despite the good life he could have been enjoying in the United States, Prof. Kah decided to come home and work for his people.

Similarly, he also thanked President Jammeh, for his clemency to allow the moratorium on death penalty to continue. He said they recognised The Gambia as a sovereign nation that can execute the laws of the land. Jackson thanked the president for his wonderful gesture, while urging the UTG staff to continue on the good job as they are working in a very important sector of the country. In his statement, Justice Minister Jobarteh explained to the audience what people like him had to endure in their quest for education.

In his welcome statement, the vice chancellor of the UTG, Professor Muhammadou M.O. Kah, said he has not only known the work that Reverend Jesse Jackson has been doing, but that he has also known the Reverend himself for a long time now. He told Jackson that it is due to the visionary leadership of President Jammeh that encouraged him to come back and work for his country.

Kah underscored that the Gambian leader’s decision to build a university has made it possible for quite a number of Gambians to come and work for their country. He seized the opportunity to inform Jackson that the UTG has embarked on partnership collaborations with universities in the United States, including the University of Springfield Illinois and Saint Mary’s College of Maryland. He also informed that UTG has been having exchange programmes with these universities and that as a matter of fact, they have some American students at the UTG. “We have graduated our first American last year,” he concluded.