Time is one of the factors of development of any sector as far as the national development plan is of significance as well in human life. It is a gift worth effective management, not only for personal development but also for national development.
In Africa, particularly in The Gambia, time should be one of the key fundamentals which should be cherished. For a nation to achieve its rapid development goals in all sectors, time management and utilization should be prioritized in the various departments, being government or private, particularly in the government sector, they should take the lead by setting examples in the effective utilization of time.
In many cases, either during government or private functions, people would be waiting for one or two hours before a function would commence, simply, just waiting for officials to arrive for the event to commence, thus, this culture of Gambians not respecting time should now be dropped for effective changes for the future of the Gambia. Let’s do away with the eon of the lazy ones saying – Gambian Time, The Gambia has no personal or different time of her own!
It would be pretty good if the officials could be present before the set time for the commencement of any event.
Under the current leadership, from the highest authorities, for example, the Vice President of the Gambia, Badara A. Joof’s commitment with his sound-minded to the development of the country through all sectors, with him, The Gambia could be agreed to now have great opportunities to uplift herself to the international standard in time management and utilization.
There should be no more African time or Gambian time, but the standard time to catch up with the international standard. No single minute should now fade away unutilized. The late arrival or commencement of any government or private function could be a cause to retard already set development which negatively impacts the program scheduled. For that syndrome to be eradicated there is a need for attitudinal changes towards time with professionalism.
Another example which authorities could probably evaluate is to ensure that any official time is given by, for a particular government or private functions, they should abide by the principles of the exact given time and not wait for anyone regardless of who it could be, if that continues for some moments, people would able to learn and adapt to the new time system for effective implementation.
However, through the past five decades, The Gambia could now probably make an assessment on how time was managed and whether it was effectively utilized or managed in the past on government functions and it should be an issue of concern.
It is with no doubt that effective time management and utilization is one of the factors of the rapid and vast achievement of a national development plan. Both the government and private sector should set a time frame for the achievement of any development pursuit.