By Omar Bah
Following President Barrow’s announcement that most of his cabinet appointments will come from the NPP coalition, a former APRC National Assembly Member for Kombo North, Pa Lamin Jatta has urged the president not to include those presidential aspirants who backed him only after failing to fulfill their nomination requirements.
Speaking to The Standard yesterday Jatta, who was elected unopposed in 2012, said: “I want to advise the president to be very careful with the people he is going to appoint in his cabinet. If he mistakenly appoints those who only came to him after failing to become candidates, he would get a cabinet worse than ever.”
“We all agree with him that he was distracted in his first term by people who were allegedly undermining him. So now that he is about to appoint his new cabinet, I am concerned because I know Gambian politics and the kind of politicians we have in this country. What worries me is that after the nomination many people who wanted to run for the presidency decided to join him for obvious reasons- to be appointed into positions,” Jatta said.
He further wondered how could people who never wished the president well in the first place and wanted his job themselves now come to join him. “This is mind-boggling and the president should be mindful.
What has suddenly changed or do they want to be close to him to have chance to destroy him?” Jatta asked. The former Kombo North NAM said he knows most the kind of people he is talking about and knows what he is saying. “So if I see these people getting closer to Barrow I feel sorry for the future of this country because the likelihood of them undermining him is very high. This is my worry and I have nothing to fear about what I am saying,” Jatta concluded.
