Friday, May 29, 2015

Jammeh's daughter's tuition is $ 80,000 per year

Aerial view of the boarding school 
Leman School's swimming pool 
Some of the students at the Leman Manhattan Boarding School

The sidisanneh.blogspot.com prides itself of not getting into or publishing the private lives of individuals unless they are directly relevant to their public functions as public officials.  Jammeh is no exception despite the fact that we are 100% opposed to  his style and content of governance.

When Jammeh seized power in 1994, his justification of his illegal act was that the previous administration of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara was corrupt.  The Father of the Nation was accused of owning a house in  London's Haywards Heath in the early 1990s worth  less than $300,000 in today's prices, according to a real estate agent.  Compare it to Yaya Jammeh's Potomac Mansion worth over $3.4 million in 2015 prices.   This qualifies Jammeh as a first class hypocrite.

It is interesting to note that the Leman International School's recruitment areas appear to be outside the American market.  There are only three American students in the entire school.  The rest of the students come from places like the Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and China.

A second hypocritical move by Jammeh occured last year when he enrolled his eldest daughter to the exclusive one and only Manhattan's boarding school named Leman International Boarding School.  The tuition plus health insurance and incidentals cost US $ 80,000 annually.  In Gambian dalasi, this is equal to D 3,600,000 annually.

In a country that is one of the poorest in the world with many living on $1.25 per day or $ 456.25 annually.  What Jammeh pays for one year  of tuition for his daughter to attend the exclusive school in Manhattan, is equivalent to feeding 64,000 average Gambians who live below the poverty live for a year.  I will leave the opulent style for you to be the judge, and whether is it right for Jammeh to continue to inflict pain on the Gambian people.

Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara's children were all born at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Banjul, The Gambia.  All of them, to the last were educated locally up to the High School level before they went abroad for their University education.   Jammeh when he seized power complained that government ministers transported to and from school in their official cars which, he said, was unfair.  Here we have Jammeh educating his daughter at a boarding school who's tuition is more expensive than Harvard University.  

Meanwhile, Gambians continue to keep a blind eye on the atrocities and Jammeh's corruption and hypocrisy.  When will it all end?

For a detailed description of the school, please check the link here