Dear Editor,
Kindly permit me to respond to the report in your publication of Thursday, 16 December 2021 captioned “APRC Takes Credit For Barrow’s Victory.”
The statement is attributed to former Kanifing Municipality mayor Yankuba Colley during a Star FM interview. Mr. Colley’s claim that “without APRC, Barrow might not have won the election…” is false. He should be honest by admitting that without President Barrow’s financial bailout, APRC would have long been dead before the 4th December 2021.
Mr. Colley is entitled to his opinion but it is disingenuous of him to start giving bragging rights to APRC when various surveys from reputable institutions like CepRass showed that the silent majority decided the election of 4th December 2021 in favour of President Adama Barrow.
APRC was a dying party with approval ratings below five (5) percent. Without the financial support from President Barrow, APRC would be forgotten.
The general fear of United Democratic Party (UDP), the decision of the silent Gambian majority and above all, President Barrow’s achievements from 2017 to 2021 convinced Gambians to give him a legitimate second mandate.
The APRC should be grateful to Barrow and the National People’s Party (NPP) for the new lease of life rather than playing god. Without APRC, Gambians especially the silent majority would have still voted for President Adama based on his 2017 to 2021 development records. The period when APRC was dreaming of the return of their Babili Mansa from exile.
As President Barrow prepares to form his next government there is intensive lobbying for positions among the grand alliance members. It is clear Yankuba Colley and his hungry APRC colleagues are doing everything possible to hoodwink President Barrow into allocating high government positions to APRC at the expense of other grand alliance members and national interest.
President Barrow is advised to take cue from the disintegration of the Coalition 2016 and be cautious of folks who out for their personal interests. The fight for positions can lead to chaotic breakup of the NPP grand alliance and bring back the animosities of the Coalition 2016. Like UDP in 2016 Coalition, the APRC can mix up Barrow’s new term when APRC members start bragging and imposing their will on the next Barrow government. The APRC could share the fate of UDP in terms of public rejection and indignation due to arrogance and posturing.
The next few months will be interesting in Gambian politics as the fight for jobs, contracts and dominance of Adama Barrow’s government gets messy between APRC, NPP, PPP, NCP, GPDP, NRP and all other independents who cross-carpeted to Barrow.
The main target of Coalition 2016 was the removal of former President Jammeh from power. Afterwards the competition for supremacy and entitlements between UDP, GMC, GPDP, NRP, PDOIS and independent candidates led to the disintegration of that coalition. In 2021, the starving APRC joined the NPP grand alliance capitalizing on the perceived fear of the United Democratic Party (UDP). With the defeat of UDP on 4th December 2021 presidential election, signs would show NPP led grand alliance will collapse if not during 2022 but mid-way to 2023. The grand-standing and the destabilizing factor of ARPC would speed up the collapse of the grand alliance as they would try to impose their APRC stamp on Barrow and reduce NPP to a junior and submissive partner. Although they welcomed APRC, will the pundits in NPP sit and watch APRC elbow them out of President Barrow’s favour?
Musa Camara,
Ebo Town.
