Africa-Press – Gambia. Ousainu Darboe, leader and flag-bearer of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has called on President Adama Barrow’s advisers to counsel the president to refrain from making him the focus of his public remarks.
“Ousainu Darboe is not the problem of The Gambia. Ousainu Darboe should not be your agenda,” Mr. Darboe said in a recent interview with Eye Africa TV.
The veteran opposition leader said the president should instead focus on the country’s pressing challenges, particularly those in the agricultural sector, which he described as vital to national development.
Mr. Darboe criticized what he called the president’s “petty talk” during public gatherings, saying it was unbecoming of a head of state. “We are competing in ideas, not in crowd size,” he said, urging Mr. Barrow to deliver speeches that inspire young Gambians, especially those of voting age.
Despite his criticisms, Mr. Darboe expressed gratitude to President Barrow for appointing him as vice president and foreign minister following the 2016 election that ended Yahya Jammeh’s two-decade rule.
“He had faith in me, and I do not think I broke that faith,” Mr. Darboe said. “If I had, you would have heard them saying something else about me—not this nonsense ‘Bantaba’ talk.”
The UDP leader went on to remind Mr. Barrow that his rise to the presidency was made possible through the support of the UDP and its members.
“We refined him, made him, and gave him to the people,” Mr. Darboe said. “During the campaign, he was only wearing yellow until people started protesting that he should stop.”
He added pointedly, “If they are calling him President Adama Barrow, commander in chief of the Gambia Armed Forces, it is because of the UDP and Ousainu Darboe. Even his wife should advise him on this.”
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