By Lamin Cham
Presidential political adviser Dou Sanno yesterday hit back at the leader of opposition Gambia Democratic Congress leader, Mamma Kandeh describing him as ‘someone living with a personal grudge’ against President Barrow hence his incessant invalid criticism of the president.
Both President Barrow and Kandeh come from the same constituency and have been political rivals, with Kandeh winning Barrow in a National Assembly election in 2007. The two men met again in the 2016 presidential election when Mr Barrow was elected president with Kandeh finishing a distant third.
On Wednesday, both Kandeh and his Niamina East NAM Omar Ceesay criticised Barrow and his government over their handling of the Covid-19 crisis.
Responding to these criticisms, Dou Sanno told The Standard that it was very easy to recognise that Kandeh and his company are engaged in cheap propaganda at a time when the whole world put politics aside to concentrate on fighting a pandemic.
”Only immature people like Kandeh and his people would try to make politics out of the Covid-19 issue. Does it make sense to question the president’s commitment to the fight against Covid-19 when he has swiftly approved and committed an unprecedented D500M to protect the people from the virus? Besides, does the GDC even know what the president has done as a person for which he is not seeking publicity? Or does the GDC expect Barrow to stand on tree tops and shout ‘I have done this and this to fight Covid-19’ like Kandeh always does even when he gives a butut to anyone?Childish and immature,” Sanno said.
The presidential adviser said President Barrow as the head of state knows the weight of the challenge posed by Covid-19 and that is why he has no time to do any politics. “Currently, none of the NPP bureaus across the regions is open for politics.Yet all the opposition bureaus are busy doing politics,” Sanno said. He further charged that Mr Kandeh’s assertion that he had asked President Barrow to cut his recent official mission to Senegal cannot be true. “When and how did he contact President Barrow about that? Again, he is always immaturely looking for cheap propaganda.”
Religious leaders
Mr Sanno alsoaddressed religious leaders that the closure of mosques and churches is based on solid professional advice from both local and international experts as an effective measure to curb the spread of this deadly virus. “Similar measures have been taken by countries bigger and more religiously central than ours. And all decisions have been accepted by the local Islamic and Christian council members on the understanding that these measures are temporary to help us control the problem. President Barrow is a very religious person but he is aware that we are in very trying times where we are confronted with a mission to save lives by all means,” Mr Sanno said.
