Gambia’s embattled president Adama Barrow is witnessing shocks of his life as more and more individuals, groups, and former accomplices desert him to join the UDP ahead of the December polls. Five Years Jotna group, a devised team earlier charted to counter the popular 3 Years Jotna pressure group sought a reconciliation with their rival where they also met UDP’s leader and other party henchmen Monday.
They told Ouysainou Darboe that their group was supposed to be apolitical. But later, they tried to use them for a political gain. They were addressed by Momodou Sabally, Ousainou Darboe himself, and other speakers. Prominent at the occasion was 3 Years Jotna Chairtman Abdou Njie, PRO Hagi Suwaneh, Sheriffo Sono, and many others.
Gambia’s career diplomat Dr. Sedat Jobe delivered something that will go down in our history as a phenomenal post-conference sermon to the adamant president that has breached all major promises and the most basics of trust just for self-perpetuation. It is a must-listen delivery every Gambian should listen to. Below we reproduce parts of it:
“We are nearing an election. Everybody, today, knows, including those fooling themselves, that Adama Barrow has seriously disappointed us. And this transition, today should have availed us our constitution, protected our institutions, worked out our soldiers in such a way that we could count on them. But today, Barrow wants us to give him an election when he is relying on foreign troops for his own security. I think he has wasted a lot of time.
But I don’t blame him because what has befallen him is that there are so many people around him, “Ndeysaan,” that are intoxicating him, telling him you’ll win because you’re the sitting president. But they themselves know that Barrow can’t rule Gambia. He should have learnt the way of ruling Gambia and should have accepted things.
But when I saw Barrow avoiding the National Assembly, the law makers, I knew he wasn’t in control of himself anymore. If you look at Dembo Byforce, I don’t know whatever it is that they’ve put Dembo Byforce in because now, he has become Dembo ByFear. Whatever is controlling him, he’s shaking in fear. He’s my own friend.
I’m praying for Dembo to shelve his Dembo ByFear status and regain his Dembo Byforce status. Gambians respected him when he was fighting for UDP. People recognized his lionheart whenever he was mentioned. But today they’ve made him a Dembo Byfear. I’m praying for him and appealing to all to pray for him to remove himself from this. It’s still not late.
If he thinks today what might happen on December 5th and considers the destruction of his legacy (if Barrow loses) he can never raise his head high again. I don’t wish him such. What I want to tell you is, when Ousainou Darboe was foreign minister and Amadou Sanneh was in finance, we went to the Europeans and got 1.7 billion from them.
When he came back, he didn’t even use 1.5 million (of such money) because if you look at our hospitals, if he had requested even 10 million to purchase medicine and other developments, today our hospitals wouldn’t have missed anything.
But when the Europeans saw him start on a spree of car purchases, alas, they held their money and look at what Gambia is in today. Some of our legislator that are beating their chests saying we’re independent and sovereign are actually fooling themselves.
A country that doesn’t have a constitution, a country that depends on foreign forces for security, a country that has foreigners’ whim on it isn’t an independent country. I praise Gambians because Gambians are trustworthy otherwise what has happened here would have bred some turmoil.
But through their patience, very soon in December, UDP will win and will restore Gambia’s respect from both the Europeans and the rest of the world. Thus, Gambia’s name will be respected again and wherever Gambia speaks, people will know that Gambia is a trustworthy country, a serious country where people really want to develop.
On When Barrow Rejected the Draft Constitution and Refused an Audience with E.U, other Foreign Ambassadors:
He shouldn’t have done that. These were the people paying ECOMIG. Him refusing to see those folks is tantamount to stabbing himself and that’s why he had to go back to them. But now, they too don’t want him. It’s because of (diplomatic) respect they are quiet and watching him because he’s the sitting president and Gambians are a constitutional people. That’s why we’re sitting and waiting for him. In December, he would realize that he has put us backward a lot.
If Barrow really shakes and considers the over one hundred million he spent on the draft constitution and people gave him three years earlier, then he said five years and he secures that too and no one would say anything if he were to get another five years. But he’s confident of himself and others are pushing him thinking that he’d get fifteen years to the extent that he’s not ready to leave even after this five year, wollaahi they’ve fooled him.
I feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for him and I don’t want him to get himself in a funny situation. And on December 5th if he fails to be re-elected, he’d see that all these people around him will varnish and people won’t regard him as one who keeps a promise, he will be lonely, and there will be investigations. And there were many things done and he wasn’t alone in them, but his name has been besmirched.
Today, he has a chance to resign. If he loves himself, he has a war against himself. He could declare that since death is better for him than shame, then he won’t run in this coming election to self-organize himself and his party and recall his people and vehicles to reconstruct his party. In five years’ time, if he still feels the need for politics, he could train himself and try. At that time, no one would tell him he had no agreement (fulfilled) and he would have escaped a big shame that was supposed to befall him.
Gambia’s Comparative Advantage
Dr. Jobe furthered that after independence Gambia was a darling for regional and international trade where countries, including Mali approached the country for re-export trade agreements. He stated that thousands of Senegalese used to buy their goods from Gambia.
The Gambia, he added, has the best geostrategic location in that our river is the most navigable with a 300km stretch inland for vessels. Other countries in Africa don’t have such, one of the reasons the Europeans desired Gambia so much.
He added that the country can also venture into rail road trade with regional countries from Kungel all the way to Ivory Coast via Mali, Burkina Faso etc. He advised that our country is small but extremely important. We should never belittle ourselves, the diplomat said. Please listen to the rest of Sedat’s full interview on forgambia radio here. This is a must-listen!