Africa-Press – Gambia. President Adama Barrow has given a broadside to those who gave a wide berth to politics during the choppy days when Jammeh was in power and now want to ride on the back of the current democracy to take over the presidency.
Speaking to the people of Nianija who paid a courtesy call on him as he vacations in his native Mangkamang, Barrow termed such politicians as “vultures”.
“These are people who never got into politics when Yahya Jammeh was ruling. They were afraid of Jammeh to the core and they were never interested in going near politics. Other people stood and fought the jihad until the mission was accomplished and all of a sudden they emerged and wanted to put those jihadists aside to take over the leadership of this country,” Barrow said.
“These people are vultures. A vulture only descends on a carcass or a dying animal that cannot even move its tail. That is the scenario we find ourselves in. They know that Jammeh is gone for good and he will never come back to this country and they decided to join politics because President Barrow is in charge and does not have any guns or sticks. Only a strong democracy. And they say let us go and remove him and take the presidency from him. Let me warn them that it is not going to be an easy task for them. If you want to take over this seat, you will have to climb a lot of trees and that is not going to be easy for them,” Barrow told a cheering crowd.
Unite Movement for Change responds
In reaction, Kemo Bojang, spokesman of the Talib Bensouda led Unite Movement for Change told The Standard that the president’s statement lacked “merit” dismissing it as “baseless”.
“Barrow said he was referring to people who were not part of the struggle and now eyeing the presidency but I don’t believe he was referring to us because we were very active in the struggle. Personally, I went into exile and Talib Bensouda has done a lot in the struggle and was one of the founders of Gambia Has Decided movement. As the head of state, we expect the president to promote political pluralism but not to discourage people by claiming that only those who partake in the struggle should be in politics. That is going to be problematic and besides it is our democratic right to associate and seek the mandate of the people. Ousainu Darboe was in the struggle against Jammeh but Barrow contested against Ousainu and he did everything to prevent Ousainu’s presidency to the extent that he declared he would stay in office until Ousainu passed away. So just going by his own statement, he does not have any moral ground to stand on to tell who should or not contest the presidency.”
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