By Momodou Jarju
A close look at the new executive of Young Journalists Association of The Gambia (YJAG) doesn’t need telling that the people posed for the picture are in their ebullient selves. With their jaunty faces brimming with delight, the eight-member-team comprising three females and five males has a huge tasks shrugged on their shoulders.
They are the fifth executive since the creation of the association in 2007, with a three-year-mandate on their badges to execute their action plans centered on promoting and protecting the welfare of young journalists in Gambia and also proffer training and mentoring initiatives for its members.
The new president, Yankuba Jallow, also known as Stay Balance, and his led executive has to overcome a plethora of challenges they would face in a bid to place the journalists’ pressure group in a firm footing to accomplish the aims and aspirations of its members.
Stay Balance is a staunch critic of the main journalists’ union- GPU. Time without number he has challenged the union on various issues, ranging from the working conditions of journalists and keeping the promises he claimed the union made but failed to live up to expectations.
He now has a show to run, with all eyes on him, leading an association like that of journalists to the pinnacle of success is the benchmark. Scoring failure will have him receive lashes from critics for being one.
In fact, he agreed that if at the end of the third year he has nothing to show as achievement, he “will receive what you call lashes.”
“The criticism that I would receive would be a motivation for me, it would never distract me even one second,” he added.
He also admitted of feeling the heat as he took the new position. But he was quick to add that it was expected as a leader and he was conscious of the realities from outside and within.
Quizzed what he meant by the realities he was conscious about, Stay Balance said: “The realities inside is the weakness of YJAG and the struggling that is waiting for me if I come in. but for the outside are the people who would be looking up to you. Those who I was criticizing and those who would also want to see what leadership qualities I have.”
Stay Balance said he has a very strong team committed to the success and prosperity of young journalists in the country. Thus, he is covered.
Financial constraint is a top challenge the new executive has to confront. Though the previous executive has left some thousands of dalasi for them, they need fat funds to fulfill their action plan for the next three years.
Since the young association was founded, it is yet to have a secretariat to house its executive and members. This is one aspect Stay Balance led executive intends to execute.
Stay Balance said a secretariat is part of their plan but not in their one-year-plan. He cited weak structures within YJAG as a challenge they intend to address forthwith. He said they plan to give the association a fresh start and a proper foundation then think about other things.
“We believe we are likely to have an office Insha’Allah in our second year, even if it would be a single office, we will try that. We can even have it this year; we are not ruling it out, because if we start work, we are starting it with speed and that speed is speed to success,” he said.
First Impression, High Expectations
Banna Sabally is among the young promising journalists in the country working with West Coast Radio. A product of Media Academy for Journalism and Communication (MAJaC) Sabally is impressed with the cohort of the new executive who are as young as the name of the association.
Already, she observed that a free flow of information sharing is one noticeable trait the new executive seems to master. This wasn’t a wont of the former executive, she opined.
“For a start, for the fact that these people have started engaging us, sending messages into WhatsApp groups and telling us what they are doing, I think that is a good start,” she said.
“An example was when they had a training with one of the high schools press club, after the training, they sent pictures and what the training was all about. So this is a very good thing.”
Emerging journalist and YJAG member, Muhammeh Kandeh, is also impressed with the manner the new executive kick started its mandate.
Kandeh, who recently handed over the president portfolio of the Gambia College Press Club to his successor, said for the fact that they have started engaging press clubs in secondary schools to train them on basic journalism tells a lot.
The Gambia College graduate also has high expectations that the new executive will deliver. He believed that before the end of their mandate “so many changes” would take place.
However, Sabally hoped that the free flow of information sharing continues and ‘not to just start and stop.’ She further said even the new executive is cognizant of the fact that a lot is expected from them.
Nonetheless, she said organizing training should be their paramount initiative, saying young journalists should be trained so that they can know more about the profession.
“It is good to become a journalist but then if you are a journalist without having the adequate know-how of the profession is like going to a war without a weapon,” she said.
Ms. Sabally said the association should lobby for support to get most young journalists trained and help them understand contract agreement. She said they should ensure young journalists know that if they are working for a particular institution, they ought to be given a contract which when appended by both parties, an agreement exist thereof.
