The Gambia’s veteran politician, Halifa Sallah, has said that the country is still mired in poverty and hardship due to, what he called, “the people’s dependency mindset and not for lack of resources”.

Mr Sallah, leader of the political party – the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), made this statement at a workshop in Tujereng organised by the Mbolo Association.

He said the country is not making progress because of the wrong attitude to progress and development.

“We are dependent because of our mindset and not because we do not have resources.

“We are retarding rather than developing because of our mindset. We are importing most of the rice we are consuming, which is about 70 percent.

“We are small-scale producers. They said we have plans in terms of energy, but we are only producing two percent of renewable energy.”

He urged for attitudinal change in order to address the challenges facing the country.

The leader of PDOIS also spoke about climate change and its effects on developing countries like The Gambia.