By Omar Bah
A group of Gambians has submitted a petition to the European Parliament, expressing dissatisfaction with President Adama Barrow’s governance.
The petition highlights concern over human rights abuses and possible reemergence of dictatorship in The Gambia. The petitioners argued that Mr Barrow has failed to implement key recommendations from the TRRC aimed at addressing past injustices, adding that Barrow’s administration is not living up to its promises of reform and accountability
The petition obtained by The Standard continued: “We, the concerned Gambians, are writing to you expressing our deep concern about the reemergence of dictatorship in our country led by President Adama Barrow. We are writing and demanding that the president be urged to make a stop to this project because we, the Gambians, will never accept dictatorship in our country again.”
It added: “We the concern Gambians are submitting this petition to your honorable office for different reasons. Crystal among the reasons is the fact that your institution is very central in sponsoring the developmental plans of the Gambia government led by President Adama Barrow. We are submitting this petition to your office not only because we are Gambians but also as residents of Europe, working and paying taxes. Therefore, we are urging your institution to stop using our taxes to sponsor a government transforming itself into a full-fledged dictatorial government.”
The petitioners added that their demand for the EU Parliament to intervene and stop the reemergence of dictatorship in The Gambia is motivated by “our collective experiences during the last dictatorial regime led by the former president Yahya Jammeh for 22 years”.
“During these 22 years, we, the Gambians did everything within our powers to bring an end to a brutal dictator. It cost us lives, freedom, loss of property, exile etc. These are very expensive memories and we are not prepared for their repetition in our country. It was in our collective fight to end the dictatorship, the current president, Adama Barrow was selected and subsequently elected to lead the country through a 3-year transition,” the petitioners noted.
To the disappointment of the whole nation, the group added, “President Adama Barrow decided to ditch his promise of a three-year transition for a five-year term and subsequently 10 years. Sadly, he plans to contest for another five-year term”.
President Barrow, the petitioners added, “in his apparent preparation to be a dictator, started laying ground works by ditching all the important transition programs which were initiated by the new democratic government and sponsored by your institution, the European Union. Example, the TRRC; the Jammeh Asset Recovery Commission; the Constitutional Review Commission; the Electoral Reforms; the Security
Reform; Civil Service Reform etc.
“These transition programs were meant to safeguard and prevent the re-emergence of dictatorship back to our country. These programs are completed and recommendations are sent to the president only to be ignored.”
