News of the appointment of Gambian-born Fatou Bensouda to the position of chief prosecutor at the Hague based International Criminal Court (ICC) has been greeted well here in The Gambia and by extension Africa and beyond.

Even the Office of the President of The Gambia Monday issued a press release, commending Mrs Bensouda and asking Muslim and Christian religious leader in the country to offer prayers for this wonderful daughter of The Gambia and Africa.

In fact, according to the said press release, she is the first Gambian to hold such a high office.

This could be true, but it is also undeniable that Mrs Bendouda’s likes are many. They include, Assan Jallow, the chief prosecutor at Rwandan Tribunal where Bensouda was working before she was appointed deputy chief prosecutor at ICC in 2004. The list is inexhaustible.

In fact, according to a recent World Bank survey over 65, 000 Gambian experts are working outside The Gambia.

A country whose human population is less than two million and with ever-loud cry over inadequate critical brains to man crucial positions both at the public and private sectors, the findings of this latest World Bank study and subsequent Fatou Bensouda hype invite some fundamental questions for Gambians, the leadership in particular.

The conclusion to make from these developments is that claims of lack of adequate qualified Gambians to make things better than they are, is no longer a reality in The Gambia. On the contrary, we have the brains.

What therefore seems to lack is the conducive environment for these valuable sons and daughters of Gambia to return home to contribute more in the development of the country.

And truth to tell, none other than the government of republic of The Gambia under the leadership of Yahya Jammeh should create that conducive working environment.

Its is not all about providing them with better incentives. Conducive here also has to do with job security, freedom to work at ones own reasonable pace without undue political interferences and harass and intimation free environment.

This hiring and firing of people with no reason being advanced to the public must stop. The leadership should treat experts with dignity rather than seeing them as threats. The administration should not use and dump experts like it did to Fatou Bensouda, who government is now taking pride in having her at ICC.

In any case, kudos to you Madam Bendousa for putting our tiny West African country into the limelight.