{"id":91135,"date":"2025-12-01T17:06:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour"},"modified":"2025-12-01T18:45:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T18:45:53","slug":"barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour","title":{"rendered":"Barrow Denies Politicizing Meet the People Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>President Adama Barrow on Friday rejected mounting criticism that his annual \u201cMeet the People Tour\u201d has increasingly taken on the tone and trappings of a political campaign, insisting the cross-country visits are meant to foster dialogue with citizens, not electoral mobilization.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a community meeting in Sifoe, in Kombo South, the president said the tour\u2019s purpose is to \u201chave conversations with Gambians,\u201d and that any formal political activities would come only after its conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>Barrow, who has faced accusations from opponents that he is using state resources to bolster his political standing, pushed back sharply by invoking his early years in office, when he governed in coalition with some of his current critics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was in government with them in 2017 and 2018,\u201d he said. \u201cI did the \u2018Meet the People Tour\u2019 with them, and at the time there was a scarcity of yellow fabric in the country. They made everything yellow\u2014\u2018Ashsobe.\u2019 These same people are now saying we are politicizing the tour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The president said he has already instructed the Minister of Works Ebrima Sillah to identify five villages in Kombo for a political rally once the government tour ends. \u201cWe are not doing politics yet,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is why we only touch on it lightly. We will come back to do politics\u2014we are, after all, a political government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barrow added that any political outreach by his administration would rest on \u201ctruth, trust, peace, development, and what benefits the people,\u201d framing the impending campaign activities as an extension of his governance agenda rather than a diversion from it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. President Adama Barrow on Friday rejected mounting criticism that his annual \u201cMeet the People Tour\u201d has increasingly taken on the tone and trappings of a political campaign, insisting the cross-country visits are meant to foster dialogue with citizens, not electoral mobilization. Speaking at a community meeting in Sifoe, in Kombo South, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":91134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-91135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Barrow Denies Politicizing Meet the People Tour - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Adama Barrow on Friday rejected mounting criticism that his annual \u201cMeet the People Tour\u201d has increasingly ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Barrow Denies Politicizing Meet the People Tour\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Adama Barrow on Friday rejected mounting criticism that his annual \u201cMeet the People Tour\u201d has increasingly ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-01T17:06:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-01T18:45:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1764601710.385686.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Barrow Denies Politicizing Meet the People Tour\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-01T17:06:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-01T18:45:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour\"},\"wordCount\":281,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1764601710.385686.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/barrow-denies-politicizing-meet-the-people-tour\",\"name\":\"Barrow Denies Politicizing Meet the People Tour - 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