By: Yunus S Saliu
In this recent time, one of the experience high levels of anxiety in Barra – Niumi, North Bank Region is the lack of youth empowerment. This is now a nightmare for residents of Barra and its communities.
Niumi is located on the mouth of the River Gambia in the North Bank Region of the Gambia. The people of Niumi were the first people to have an encounter with the white people in The Gambia been the first main port of call for the European traders entering through the River Gambia.
Aba T Hydara, Head of Promoters of Artistic Creative Theatre Excellence, who is also president of the Niumi Fort Bullen Festival, lamented that lack of empowerment among the youth of Niumi is one among the problems youth are facing in Barra community.
He opined that youth of Barra deserves attention as far as empowerment is concern so that they can complement the government development policies.
According to him, “Barra has no community hall or youth center, in the whole Lower Niumi no single skill center, Barra youths doesn’t own a single boat, instead they only running after the pirogue boat plying between Barra and Banjul so that owners will give them ‘manda’ known as tip.”
He went further that lack of youth empowerment is one of the reasons for the increase and rampant child abused in Barra. “Children between age of 12, 13, and 15 that suppose to be in school are running after boats at the seaside without nobody challenge them just because of little ‘manda’ from boat owners,” he said with sadness.
According to him, this among others are distracting factor that causes more school dropouts whereby some of the youth engage in selling illicit drugs while some “joined ‘backway’ to Europe and unfortunately died in the sea.”
Whatever the case might be he argued that if government did not do something to empower the idle youths in the community, Barra will remain prone to ‘backway.’ “This is because most of the ‘backway’ coordinators (human traffickers) network is still very intact in the region, as not all of them had fled Barra. More so there are people behind them – ordinary set of people cannot afford a boat as it cost nothing less than D350,000.00.”
He lamented that he foreseen the incident happening which was one of the reasons he wrote a letter to the Honorable Minister of Local Government and Lands in July 2019 copied the Governor of North Bank Region (NBR), CEO Kerewan Area Council, Councilor of Essau Ward and District Chief Lower Niumi but his letter was “given a deaf ear,” he noted.
In the letter, he informed that “Barra deserves better attention to empower its residents and compliment government development policies in consultation with our ambitious Ward Councilor.” He added that “Barra is faced with loads of developmental challenges.”
As a former VDC chairperson and also Secretary General of Barra youth development committee he again called on government to work with the VDC to find solution to issue of Barra community.