1st of May every year is known as Labour Day or Workers’ Day or May Day.  In most countries the day takes on a decidedly political turn with trades union organisations seizing the opportunity to petition their Governments on matters ranging from workers’ rights to pay and working conditions.

Sometimes things erupt in violence. But in the Gambia the first of May has, since 1991, always been looked forward to with eagerness by all and sundry - labour unions, employers, employees and even the unemployed.

Why?

In 1991, the Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC) came up with a brilliant idea of bringing all workers together in a non-competitive sporting activity at the country’s Chinese-built national sports centre, or Independence Stadium, to give it its proper name.

And for 19 years, May Day Mass Sports, as the event has been christened by the NOC, has grown from strength to strength.

From a modest number of twelve companies which took part in the inaugural event in 1991, May Day Mass Sports attracted almost 60 companies this year, including all the powerful ones from the telecommunications, banking and petroleum sectors.

But ask the organisers who their biggest ‘participant’ this year was and you won’t get ‘Africell’, or ‘Gamtel/Gamcel’ or ‘Trust Bank’ for an answer.

The NOC’s biggest stakeholder this year is the nation’s sports-loving President Yahya Jammeh.

By the way, the use of the word ‘big’ by NOC to describe a company usually denotes the level of support it receives from the outfit.

And the support - in cash and kind - brought to May Day Mass Sports this year by the Gambian leader is unprecedented.

Since the first edition nearly two decades ago May Day Mass Sports has grown from being a ten-event offering to an annual programme of more than twenty-five track and field competitions.

Enter President Jammeh with his own thought-out list of events and one loses count.

In all, Jammeh introduced sixteen fun events that helped draw the largest-ever May Day Mass Sports stadium attendance.

The presidential introductions included runs for MPs, security chiefs, obese, emaciated and short folks, and my favourite category, in which I might have been a strong contender, the race for “The Most Ugly Men”.

To my surprise my good-looking friend Seedy Kinteh, president of the Gambia Football Association, entered the race only to finish third. So does it mean that in addition to ‘GFA President’ one can also refer to Seedy as ‘Gambia’s 3rd Most Ugly’?

Anyway, if you care to know, that unflattering competition was won by one Borey Colley, a member of the Gambian National Assembly. In other words an MP. He banked 20,000 Dalasi for his looks. Not bad for a day’s job.

With the Gambia’s African Under-17 champions on hand the Bakau sports complex was turned into one huge comedy centre with a host of rib-cracking action by some of society’s most marginalised members. Anybody who was inside the stadium found fun in one oddity or another to erupt into loud uncontrollable laughter.

It all made for a long somewhat tiring day but - to his credit - President Jammeh stayed behind to see it all through with the vice-president, cabinet ministers, MPs and security chiefs by his side. And he never looked for one moment tired.

Jammeh’s appearance at this year’s May Day Mass Sports programme is significant. Not that it’s the first time he’s attending the event. No. Rather it’s for the fact that the Gambia National Olympic Committee is about to undergo it’s most fundamental change since in 1989.

For the past 20 years this important organization of all sporting bodies in the country has been led by one man.

But a couple of months ago, Alhaji Abou Dandeh Njie, a highly respected personality who served his country well from his days as a schoolboy right up to old age, announced that he wouldn’t offer himself for re-election as president of the GNOC for a sixth four-year term.

His legacy is there for all to see. It’s not for me to say. But interestingly, in announcing his decision at a packed press conference back in early March, the former MP and now successful businessman did not name his successor nor was any name put forward by anyone in the Olympic House conference room.

To the outsider he was leaving behind what looked to be an organization in disarray – a president calls up a press conference to announce his departure and there’s no word about a successor.

So, the GFA jumped to action and put forward its first vice president as a candidate for the presidency when the GNOC holds its next quadrennial congress in June.

The GFA’s declaration of the candidacy of Major General Lang Tombong Tamba, the country’s chief of defence staff, was the first time most Gambians heard of anyone being interested in succeeding Alhaji Abou Dandeh-Njie.

As a matter of fact Dandeh-Njie’s long-serving secretary-general, Alhaji Abdoulie Touray, had already been earmarked for the succession, only it was never made public – a big mistake if you ask me.

As soon as Tamba’s interest in the job was established the pendulum swung in his favour. More than half the GNOC members pledged their allegiance to the young army general, whose interest in and commitment to sport – not just football at that – cannot be questioned.

It came as no surprise when Touray – once a safe bet for election unopposed – withdrew his candidacy thereby paving the way for Tamba’s enthronement as GNOC President, only the second in the organisation’s 20-year-plus history.

President Jammeh’s high-profile participation in the 2009 May Day Mass Sports therefore closed the chapter on one era and opened the page to a new era by introducing new events the Tamba administration may wish to keep for May Day.

Oh, which reminds me…I was also made to understand that Jammeh pledged 250,000 Dalasi to the GNOC.

I can’t wait for 1st of May 2010.