NaYCONF Kicks off

Executive Secretary of the NYC Marcel Mendy

All roads are leading to Bansang town as the much-anticipated youth gathering, NaYCONF, kicks off this afternoon. The event is expected to gather more than two thousand delegates, mainly young people. And already, delegates have started enjoying the beautiful environment of Bansang.

The official opening will be graced by the Vice President, cabinet ministers, traditional rulers, and donor partners, amongst others. The Gambian youth are expecting the president, His Excellency, Sheikh Professor Alhagie Dr.  Yahya A.J.J Jammeh, to officially open the 2012 NaYCONF. Line up of activities includes march past, youth conference, musical jamboree, youth exhibition, cultural displays, sports and awards.
"So far so good, everything is on track,” the minister of Youth and Sports, Alieu K. Jammeh, told the NaYCONF Daily. “I am very much satisfied with the organising committees. I sincerely want to thank them for working very hard.”

Minister Jammeh projected a smooth running of the NaYCONF, noting that security is fully guaranteed. "We give the local organising committee enough time and also the venue Bansang to put all the necessary facilities in place," he said.

He advised delegates of all the regions to take the NaYCONF seriously. "NaYCONF is the biggest youth gathering in the country. It is for the youth to gather and assess themselves and discuss issues affecting them. So it should seriously be done.”

Also speaking to the NaYCONF Daily, the executive secretary of the National Youth Council (NYC), Mr Marcel Mendy, expressed gratitude to President Yahya Jammeh, who donated D2.5 million, donor partners as well as individuals for sponsoring the youth conference and festival.

He said: "I wish to express my profound gratitude on behalf of the youth council to thank Gambian President Sheikh Professor Yahya AJJ Jammeh and his cabinet and also partners for making the conference a reality.

"I look forward to a very successful NaYCONF and I want to assure all that the NaYCONF will be successful, as our decisions have been well calculated and we are going by our action plan. Therefore, everything will go well.”

On why the event that was originally slated for 2012 is being held in 2013, Mendy says, "Basically, we want to host a successful NaYCONF. If we had gone by the earlier date, we would have had hitches and at the end the youth gathering will fail.

“In order to avoid that,” he added, “the council has decided to change that date and allow more room for preparation so that everything will go as planned, such as security, publicity, accommodation, feeding etc. etc.”

On the allegations that NaYCONF resolutions are never implemented, Mendy differs. “Some people pretend to know when they really don't know. Some of the resolutions have been implemented by the government and the council.

“The fact of the matter is that most of the resolutions have been worked on. One of the resolutions was that young people want a representative at the National Assembly and as you know we have succeeded in having a youth representative in the National Assembly," he highlighted. 

The NYC executive secretary went on to point out that it was through a NaYCONF resolution that National Youth Council (NYC) was established, functional and vibrant. "So, we have achieved a lot since the inception of the NaYCONF. Maybe people don't know much or are not following the implementation of the resolutions up that's why they are saying that resolutions are not being implemented.

“As a result, they always say that young people go to the NaYCONF and talk and talk but noting comes out of it. This is a wrong statement.”

 By Mamadou Edrisa Njie