With the constitutionalists’ school of thought inspiring the president to be gung-ho on a five-year stay, the small nation’s socialist party, earlier this week reiterated the three year agreement, arguing that there would not have been any coalition, in the first place, if the flagbearer were to declare any presidential propensity for a five-year tenure.

Moralists’ school of thought, on the other hand finds it binding on the embattled President to strictly consider his promise, at least on moral grounds. Constitutionalist or moralist in spectrum, the country continues to face an avalanche of problems of both domestic and international bearing. At the vanguard is economic as well as security woes of an administration that habitually relies on donor dole outs while its officials live large.

The cogent philosophy of Mr. Halifa Sallah, on Tuesday, could be enough of a thesis that the fountain of the Barrow administration’s nightmares may not be diasporic. Besides, the president’s unpopularity, especially among Gambia’s youth is explicit, irrespective of his manufactured “Barrow Youth Movement” in the contours. The recent protests in both Brikama and Serrekunda provided testimony to this in a milieu where, perhaps only a Halifa Sallah intercession placated a multitudinous anger. The literature from the office of the President reads:

“It has come to the attention of this office that a growing influence on public opinion in The Gambia originates from the Gambians in the diaspora which raise some concern.”[abridged]

ForGambia News laid hands on the document almost a week ago without publishing it. We have been praying for peace the same way we have been beseeching the current administration to value anything that preserves tranquility and stability.

From editorials with, mainly, tones of both exhortation and brotherly counsel, we always deem it imperative to work a fair and responsible journalism. But our quest for preserving a tranquil and festive Gambia will remain futile if our government continues to gnaw at the very fabric of such peace or ignore mass indignation hemorrhaging from broken promises, youth hopelessness, squandering of public funds by an elite few in new-found vainglory, and unbearably rising cost of living.

As we scribble this piece, we were informed days ago, that this year’s Gambian pilgrims included thirty (30) NIA officials. Why? How? What for, especially from a land of destitutes and the abject poor? We were also informed of Barrow’s two-time trip to Mauritania in less than 48 hours when Gambians cannot afford food. And each travel inveterately involves a huge entourage in a world of premeditated and venally-conceived per diems. Read the full text of the leaked document below: