By Omar Bah
President Adama Barrow has publicly admonished opposition leader Ousainu Darboe and urged him to be more sincere in his political statements.
Addressing supporters at Munyagen during his current national tour, Darboe questioned the logic of prioritising the construction of roads when the majority of Gambians are struggling to put food on the table. He also accused Barrow and his team of joining politics for personal aggrandisement.
But reacting to Darboe’s comments during the Meet the People Tour meeting in Ebo Town Sunday evening, Mr Barrow criticised Darboe for downplaying the country’s current development trajectory, asserting that his sacrifices and contributions warrant more respect.
President Barrow said if former presidents Jawara and Jammeh had build as many roads in 52 years as he had done in eight, Gambians would not have been talking about roads now.
He told his cheering crowd: “I heard my father [Darboe] saying road infrastructure is not development… I don’t know what development is then. He also said we joined politics to look for positions to enrich ourselves. I want to tell him that I am not a politician because the position I am occupying today came as a result of a struggle to free him. It is because of fighting for his cause that Adama Barrow became president.”
Barrow said he spent 20 years in the UDP but did not address a political platform despite countless calls from the party members for him to do so.
“If I wanted to look for a position, I would have accepted to speak on political platforms when I was with the UDP. I was spending my own money to support the running of the party. They have never given me a butut,” he added.
He said when Mr Darboe and the senior party executive members were arrested and jailed, it took the UDP one month to convince him to be the party’s candidate.
“I accepted because I wanted to rescue my father [Darboe] from prison,” he noted.
Further justifying his argument, Mr Barrow adduced: “…[F]ollowing my selection, we budgeted D1.5 million to embark on a nationwide tour, but when we reached out to the party supporters both home and abroad for funding, we could only mobilise D210,000. I paid the remaining D1,290,000 to ensure we embark on that tour… If I was in politics to look for money, I would have spent that money to improve my business.”
Barrow added: “It didn’t stop there. When they said there were no vehicles for us to use for the campaign, we reached out to one of the jailed executive members who was having a Hummer Jeep at the time, but he refused us its usage. So, I decided to withdraw another D700,000 from own bank account to buy a car to use for the campaign… I also spent D500,000 to pay some of the drivers and griots who accompanied us on the tour. Yet despite all these sacrifices, he [Darboe] said I became president to look for money.”
He said Mr Darboe must be suffering from selective amnesia because he was the one who gave him the honorific title of Moses when he rescued him from Jammeh’s prison.
“This is all about worldly things, but when we are doing politics, we should be sincere and truthful. I am chosen by God to rescue the Gambian people, and I want to leave a lasting legacy. I want to urge the Gambian people to rally behind me so that I would be able to achieve that dream,” he concluded.
