Barrow will commit political suicide if he fires Darboe

By Lamin Darboe It will be political suicide for President Barrow to fire Ousainu from the cabinet. First, the whole nation has noticed the president’s naked ungratefulness and betrayal of those who brought him to power. Some audacious disingenuous political novices think firing Darboe will remove an overt impediment to Barrow ascending power in our nation, rather it will quicken Barrow’s political demise. First, the UDP MPS will not take that lightly and they will marshal all their parliamentary powers to make life difficult for Barrow. The Barrow government will find it difficult to pass vital legislations and thus impede the vital reforms that should project Barrow’s democratic and good economic stewardship credentials. Second, they could expose Barrow administration into more stringent and intrusive scrutiny to ensure he has less latitude to manoeuvre to gain the political capital he excessively desires. This can be achieved by bringing legislation to make the president’s assets and financial dealings more transparent. And to demand changes to the constitution to cap the powers of the president and making all presidential appointments subjected parliamentary approval. They can set up a parliamentary commission to scrutinise all projects, loans and grants to ensure are acquired and spent accordingly the protocols, deployed for bona fide interest of the nation and that no resources are diverted to enhance the president’s political ambitions. They could launch an investigation into the accounts of the foundation of the first lady to ensure it is fit for purpose, that all allegations of impropriety are thoroughly investigated and documented. Barrow lacks the political base and he thinks the support he enjoys is as a result of his personal orchestration. That is undoubtedly a prodigious insinuation. It dangerously inflates Barrow’s ego. No doubt if that ego took over him then he is waiting for a rude awakening. First, there is simmering frustration with his style of leadership, his sheer incompetence, inability to grow into the job, being tarred in a perceptual campaign mode by the way he speaks. He is still wailing and waving his hands, which is very unpresidential, talking without strategic thinking, apportioning all success to his personal know-how and stewardship. I have a squeamish feeling Barrow will fall on his errors, prodigal proclamations and self-adulation never helped Jammeh; it cannot help any president thereafter. His errors are immense. Where Barrow lost the plot is when he maintains the vestiges of Yahya Jammeh’s old regime’s pernicious and unrepentant actors – those instrumental actors in the entrenchment of a corrupt, inefficient, wasteful regime. The remnants of Jammeh’ tyrannical rule, who could not institute any meaningful development or reforms for past 22 years, what meaningful changes or contributing changes can they do now? Barrow should carry out radical reform of all the ministries by first cleaning the all ministries off all the old guards and promote new people to drive the substantive goals and objective that the coalition and all stakeholders in coalition envisioned. Instead he had a self-perpetuation vision to remain in power so he does not want to be seen to ostracise certain communities in The Gambia. He wants to maintain an emboldened bourgeoisie, which for many years undermined our development so that he can build his support base. This is fallacious and goes to expose Barrow’ s political opportunism and naïve thinking. Barrow has failed so far to usher in, the necessary reforms we all yearned and fought for. There is less financial discipline. He courts APRC and its cohorts who enabled Jammeh dictatorship for 22 years, thinking he can bank on them to build his own political mass and stand on his own party tickets to gain a second term. That is very naive and nymph-like. The same APRC militants who hated him like poison and loved Jammeh up to the last seconds can suddenly change colours like kakatarr and become his avid supporters, is the most ironic political sumnanbulism (sleep walking) of this century – Gambians political century. Finally, and not the least, the UDP can marshal the support of the other coalition partners to force Barrow to kowtow to the coalition timeline of three years by organising civil disobedience, boycotts, exposing him to international isolation by appealing to donors not to trust him. Barrow need to wise up and bring the country together by working with the UDP. He needs to disband the Barrow Youth Movement, change the finance and foreign ministers and re-invigorate his team by hiring honest and qualified technocrats with international experience. All those political sycophants hovering on the State House like vultures most go. Mr President, take the bull by the horns and do what we ask you to do. The author, Lamin Darboe, a Gambian, lives and works in the English Midland’s city of Leicester.]]>