UDP declines to respond
By Omar Bah
President Adama Barrow has described the opposition United Democratic Party as the biggest threat to the country’s internal security.
Addressing supporters at the launch of his party’s political bureau in Soma on Tuesday, President Barrow said: “The biggest threat to Gambia’s national security today is the UDP. You will not hear any political party talking except them. My friend, are they more Gambian than all of us? We all know that things that you were scared to do or say yesterday are what you are doing today. You want to make yourselves good sons and make us bad sons. You want to say the president of this country is a bad son? But this nonsense will end. The powers Yahya Jammeh was using are the same powers that I have.”
He urged NPP supporters to be strong and demonstrate that they are the ones in power.
“We have laws in this country that everybody will have to follow by force and if anyone feels that you are powerful, if you do anything that is against the law, we will catch and tie you up. No matter how powerful you are, if you live in this country, you are under President Barrow. I am the Commander-In-Chief. We are happy to nurture our democracy, but democracy requires that we all respect the law from the president down. That is what I want to happen moving forward,” he said.
He said UDP leader Ousainu Darboe’s claims that he will not respond to him because he is more experienced than him is laughable.
“He may be older than me but certainly not wiser than me because to have wisdom and education are completely different. I agree that he is more educated than me, but for 20 years, with all his education, capacity, and age, he was mercilessly beaten by Yahya Jammeh, who was in turn beaten by the President Barrow he is underrating. I agree also that he can speak better English than me, but I also speak better Mandinka, Fula, Sarahule, and Wolof than him. I can speak native languages better than him. Then where is his education?” Barrow quizzed.
Barrow, who used to be a senior member of the UDP, said there is now a new UDP which operates on insults that was never the case when he was in the party. “We didn’t insult at that time. This thing started a few years ago because of Darboe’s rhetoric. They said I am scared, but I want to announce today that nobody will henceforth insult me in this country and go scot-free. Even if anybody calls a radio station to insult, we will arrest the radio owner. We will also go after those who insult people on social media and even if a judge bails you, we will rearrest you. We want this country to move forward,” Barrow threatened.
When contacted for comment, UDP spokesperson Almamy Taal said the United Democratic Party has decided not to respond to the president’s personal attacks against it or its leader.
“We have better things to do as a party than to be going back and forth with Barrow,” he said.
