By Omar Bah
The public relations officer of the Gambia Democratic Congress, Mambanyick Njie has said that although his party has nothing to do with President Adama Barrow now, they are not ruling out future alliance with him or any other group “if that is necessary and based on the national interest of Gambians”.
Speaking to The Standard yesterday, Mr Njie said the GDC will not hesitate to negotiate with or join anyone for the good of the country.
“The only motivation that will take us to work with Barrow or anyone will be the best interest of the Gambian people, rather than tribal sentiments. The GDC is not a Fula party. It just happens that the leader of the party came from a Fula tribe,” he said, in reaction to rumours that GDC’s seemingly long absence from public criticism of Barrow might be a rethink and an opening for a possible alliance with the president who is widely suspected to be gunning for another term.
Njie who recently called on President Barrow to respect the Coalition agreement, said: “I am not going to deliver the party’s position based on rumours coming from detractors. We have been at the forefront of criticizing this government and we will continue to do that because this is not about Barrow but it is the whole Coalition that has failed the country. The issue of the government should not be personalized. We don’t understand when people started personalizing the government as a thing between Mamma Kandeh and Adama Barrow because they are Fulas. I hate referencing to tribe or using tribal sentiments when it comes to dealing with national issues,” Njie said.
He said as far as the GDC is concerned, the current government has failed the Gambian people, adding that it is only when Barrow fell out with the UDP that people started to make the government look like a Barrow government.
“Let them stop diverting the attention to Kandeh and Barrow because nobody can use the GDC to push agendas that are not in the interest of the Gambian people,” he said.
The GDC spokesman said the people peddling this trash are afraid that if GDC enters into an alliance with Barrow, it would be difficult to defeat them in the polls.
“Well my position is that even if the GDC is going to form an alliance with Barrow it is going to be based on the national interest and the greater good and not because he is Fula. It is God that made this country to be inhabited by different tribes and it is only natural that if a party is setup, the leader of that party must come from one of these tribes,” he asserted.
Mr Njie said people should be more professional in dealing with national issues and stop reverencing tribes. “It is a disgrace because when there is a problem in this country it will not spare any tribe. I believe we should rise and fall together,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, in a separate development the GDC recently held a meeting with their chairmen and councilors where the party’s youths urged them to disassociate themselves from the Barrow Youth for National Development.
Speaking at the meeting, the party youth president, Modou Cham told the GDC youths that Barrow youths movement is established by President Adama Barrow as a shadow political party in the waiting in case the president loses the battle to lead his former party in the next presidential election.
The party leader Mamma Kandeh also reminded the audience that they should be loyal to the party, saying the only thing that is between him and the State House is the next presidential election.
