By Mama Touray
Nusrat Senior Secondary School has celebrated the nation’s independence in advance as always observe by one of the nation’s top high schools.
The Gambia gained its independence from the British after four century rule on 18 February 1965 and as a milestone in the history of the country, Gambians both at home and abroad honors the day in celebration.
Recently, students and teachers of Nusrat Senior Secondary School gathered at the school campus to celebrate 2021 Independence. There was respect to coronavirus protocols – as teachers and students wore facemasks and exercised social distancing among themselves.
Speaking at the prestigious event, Seedia Jatta, MP for Wuli and a politician defined patriotism to the students saying “patria means fatherland.”
“Patriotism means love of the fatherland. To be a patriot you must love your fatherland and how does one love his or her fatherland? It is just (like) loving a flower or loving a bird what different does that make – loving your fatherland means a lot.
“Young people before me who are full of ego and vitality like the sun as it is now over our head you are here to arm yourself with tools to develop what you call patria,” he told the students.
He said that if one doesn’t love patria – fatherland- that there will hardly be development saying “because if you don’t love wherever tool you develop will not be meant to develop the patria maybe that’s one of the reasons why the African continent is lagging behind, because we lack the people who love the African continent.”
“When you claim that this country was independent on 18 February 1965, well this is an institution where we teach what is correct. That is what is said and that is what is celebrated for the past 55 years but is it true that the Gambia became independent on 18 February 1965? The answer is no why because from 1965 up to 1970 the monarch of England was the Head of State in The Gambia. So, The Gambia was not sovereign,” Hon Jatta said.
Ebrima Njie, a teacher at Nusrat, said the wish of every Gambian is to say an Independent Gambia and said: “that cannot be done without the young people.”
