I just watched and listened to the GRTS replay of the video of Barrow speaking at the opening of the NPP political bureau in Kerewan NBR. He called on his party executive members to be united so that after him there will be many more Barrows after him leading Gambia. To me it’s a hint that Barrow is prepared to step aside and not go for a third term. I have heard him give such a hint before, and I believe I said this before (this was when the Former President’s Retirement Bill was passed by the National Assembly in Banjul). Of course, I’m aware that he has said the contrary during this May 2024 tour. However, Barrow is smarter than the “clueless” person most people think he is; and from my own observations I’m convinced that he has decided in his mind that he does not want to make the mistake of Sir Dawda Jawara and Yahya Jammeh. I believe Barrow will not seek a third term – unless like happened to Jawara his entourage and others in his invisible close circle force him to change his mind – and I hope it does not come to that because, as an observer of events in Gambia since the first Republic, should that happen – what happened to Jawara and Jammeh will also be the fate of Barrow. You see, I was at work at the Information office on the night of the PPP executive committee meeting held at the party’s bureau at Leman Street in Banjul. I purposely left my office at Hagan Street and went to Leman Street to see what was happening. I was watching from across the street when Jawara left the building boarded his state limousine to go back to State House (Sir Dawda looked exhausted and extremely sad as he came down the stairs and walked to the state car). This was the meeting held after the historic Mansakonko meeting when Jawara was begged by some of his crying and wailing (and fainting?) party elders to continue in office, after he declared for the whole world to hear that he has decided to step down. As they say – the rest is history – we all know what followed. Yahya Jammeh also made the same mistake of not knowing when to call it quits; and again, we were all witnesses to his sorrowful exit. I believe Barrow was in Gambia when all these happened, and knows that it’s best to leave when the ovation is loudest. And let’s hope those who sincerely love him will give him that advise, when the time comes.”
Alieu Famara Sagna
Barrow can’t eat his cake and have it
When quizzed about the requirement for the Gambian president to comply with the two terms limit, as is the case in most of Africa, Barrow’s clatter backers, Ismaila Ceesay and Saikou Mballow for instance, are now arguing that his first five years in office was a transition government and shouldn’t count as a normal term.
However, when Barrow was requested to comply with the terms of that same transition agreement which required him to serve just 3 years in office and step down, his argument then was that the constitution mandated him to serve a term of five years.
He is on record to have argued further that he was elected to office by the Gambian people and therefore could not be considered as a transition president as was the case in other countries. How long do we continue to allow Barrow to move the goalpost when it suits his interest and at our country’s detriment?
Dodou Jawneh
UK
