{"id":92301,"date":"2025-12-18T15:16:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T15:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control"},"modified":"2025-12-18T16:34:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:34:05","slug":"meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control","title":{"rendered":"Meet People\u2019S Tour has Made Demands Harder to Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Speaking on Coffee Time on West Coast Radio, Director of Press and Public Relations at the Office of the President, Mrs Amie Bojang Sissoho, admitted that the Meet the People\u2019s Tour has raised expectations so high that communities across the country are now demanding the same level of development everywhere.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the government created a problem for itself, because there have been so much massive infrastructure development people now believe that everything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to her, communities that once stayed silent are now confidently asking for roads, electricity, water and health facilities, not because of politics, but because they have seen neighbouring districts receive them.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow everyone is saying if they have a road, we also want a road,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mrs Sissoho explained that this shift was clearly felt during the 2025 Meet the People\u2019s Tour, where complaints were no longer about whether development was possible, but about when it would reach specific communities.<\/p>\n

She revealed that the President repeatedly responded to frustrated speakers with a line that has now become his tour mantra \u201cYou can say I have not reached you, but you cannot say I will not reach you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, she said, the tour is not just talk. Permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries and directors travel with the President, taking detailed notes of community demands. Back in Banjul, those notes trigger meetings and follow ups.<\/p>\n

She also rejected claims that the tour has become more political than developmental, arguing that politics naturally follows the presidency. \u201cYou cannot separate politics from a president,\u201d she said, adding that the priority of the tour remains governance and government programmes.<\/p>\n

Mrs Sissoho disclosed that this year\u2019s tour recorded fewer complaints about electricity and roads, a sharp contrast to previous years. In earlier tours, rural communities repeatedly complained about buying ice blocks across the border every Ramadan due to lack of electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we didn\u2019t hear that,\u201d she said, noting that only a few areas like parts of Niamina raised electricity concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, recurring issues included groundnut prices and the use of mobile money for farmer payments, particularly in areas with poor network coverage.\u201d She said government has already begun improving payment systems in response.<\/p>\n

On criticism about the cost of the tour, Mrs Sissoho insisted that budgets are reviewed and controlled, stressing that not everyone in attendance is funded by the state. \u201cPeople see a crowd and assume government paid for all of them, that is not true,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

As for viral controversies like the crocodile reportedly presented to the President, she distanced the presidency from the incident, saying it happened before the President arrived and without official involvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people are demanding because they have seen change, and now government has to keep up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: POINT<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. Speaking on Coffee Time on West Coast Radio, Director of Press and Public Relations at the Office of the President, Mrs Amie Bojang Sissoho, admitted that the Meet the People\u2019s Tour has raised expectations so high that communities across the country are now demanding the same level of development everywhere. \u201cI think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-92301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet People\u2019S Tour has Made Demands Harder to Control - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Speaking on Coffee Time on West Coast Radio, Director of Press and Public Relations at the Office of the President, M ...\" \/>\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\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet People\u2019S Tour has Made Demands Harder to Control\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Speaking on Coffee Time on West Coast Radio, Director of Press and Public Relations at the Office of the President, M ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control\" \/>\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=\"2025-12-18T15:16:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-18T16:34:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766062230.966041.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=\"3 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\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Meet People\u2019S Tour has Made Demands Harder to Control\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-18T15:16:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-18T16:34:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control\"},\"wordCount\":487,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766062230.966041.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/meet-peoples-tour-has-made-demands-harder-to-control\",\"name\":\"Meet People\u2019S Tour has Made Demands Harder to Control - 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