By Lamn Cham
The Minister of Information, Lamin Queen Jammeh, who is also the spokesperson of the ruling NPP, has reacted to accusations made by UDP NAM Alhagie Darboe that President Barrow is encouraging tribalism by hosting meeting of tribal groups at State House.
The minster said Hon Darboe should correct his mistake by apologizing to the president and the Gambian people.
In a write-up shared with The Standard, Minister Jammeh said a group called ‘The Manding Warriors’ visited President Adama Barrow at State House, where two politicians namely Musa Koteh alias King Sport and Bakary Trawalleh, both staunch supporters of the opposition UDP in the Diaspora, were the significant forces behind the meeting.
“Considering the political capabilities of these two, by people who knew them, it cannot be a surprise that such an accusation by Hon. Darboe can only be seen as the rule rather than the exception among Hon. Darboe and his UDP group. In this regard, I wish to congratulate and thank the entire group, more importantly King Sport and Bakary Trawalleh, for their decision and love of country and her leadership,” the minster said.
He further stated: “The truth of what is known about the association called Manding Warriors is the strong bond with which its members attach themselves to Mandinka Culture. Given the reality of culture and the freedom of association that the 1997 Constitution guarantees, what crime would anyone have committed by accepting such a large reconciliatory crowd in a respectable manner and at a place like State House by the leadership of a country in need of reconciliation like the Gambia?”
The minister said the Association of Manding Warriors has great political motivation, whose members are determine to use every facet of culture to influence political opinion. “It is this Manding Warriors who by simulation, adopted Mr Amadou Kora of Tambasansang in the Tumana District as their Manding King. I therefore wish to inform Hon Alhagie S Darboe that the question of what President Barrow might have discussed with the group, is absolutely irrelevant for the fact that such opened group discussions cannot be kept secret in the today’s world. I would like to inform Hon Darboe that he saw ‘tribe’ in this engagement of President Barrow and Manding Warriors because he looked at it with ‘tribal lens’ and that his a tribal lens were themselves tribally contaminated and therefore require the assistance of relatives, neighbours, friends, well-wishers and humanity as a whole to help and change Hon Darboe’s way of thinking, reasoning and total mindset,” he argued.
He added that the mindset that preaches that people can only be good as long as they share the same political opinion with some, but automatically turns them bad as soon as their political opinion changes, cannot be seen as a tenet of sustainable democracy. “Can Hon Darboe kindly note that President Barrow cannot blame for whatever the Association of Manding Warriors is. He (President Barrow) has never been the protagonist nor was he associated with the formation at any stage in the development of the Association of Manding Warriors.
Can Hon Darboe be gently reminded that party politics requires flexibility and the minimum arithmetical skills that he or she needs is the ability to add and subtract numbers. This must be understood as a natural partisan tendency that every politician should be able to appreciate without emotions but intellect. Political opinion like political decision, has nutrients that can influence it’s growth, as there are also parasites that can destroy it and both of these are posses by man as a political being. However, it remains common knowledge that the lost of political giants like King Sport and Bakary Trawalleh can be a genuine cause of moral myopia in any political leadership that is not guided by reason and democratic virtues. I therefore call on the UDP politician and Brikama North NAM, to correct his mistake by an apology to President Barrow in particular and the Gambian people in general, whose leader he had blatantly accussed and this is the truth that the people need to be told,” Minister Jammeh concluded.
