By Omar Bah
The administrative secretary of the National People’s Party has denied accusations that the president is using his influence to fund his party through government coffers.
“Whosoever knows how government is run will know that it is not possible for a party to use government funds because any payments that the government is supposed to do will be within what is approved by the National Assembly and any payment should be backed by a voucher. No stupid permanent secretary will approve a voucher for a political party,” he said in a Star FM interview to be aired this morning.
Mambanyick Njie continued: “So how can a government money come to NPP? From which department? The ministry of finance is not mad to give government money to the NPP and even if you go to the directorate of national treasury, I am sure they would not raise that cheque to fund the NPP. So really when we are talking, we should know what we are talking about”.
The former GDC spokesman said the NPP wouldn’twant to engage in the politics of throwing stones at every dog that barks at them. “We are now focused on structuring the party while the president is concentrating on the mandate given to him by the Gambian people”.
However, he was quick to note that he sees nothing wrong with the president using his influence to generate funds for the party.
“If the country’s opposition feels like the president is not doing one or two things right, they should summon him to a meeting and discuss with him on the way forward. He listens and doesn’t want to violate the Constitution but no human is perfect,” he said.
Njie, who recently took over as the head of NPP national bureau, said the NPP will soon hold its grand launching but “we are now concentrating on establishing the party’s structures. And I want to assure Gambians that we will be a political party of difference”.
“The NPP will be different…we will create leaders after Barrow who will contest and win elections. But people should understand that the NPP was not formed out of the blue…Gambians called on Barrow to form his party,” he said.
He said the party has nothing to fear ahead of the 2021 presidential election and surely “we will emerge victorious. It is not going to be a child’s play to beat Barrow at the polls because it is not about the numbers but the message you sent and interestingly, most of our political parties are led and controlled by individuals”, he said.
He added: “We have few people in this country who feel like they own this country and to them the country is only safe in their hands. But whosoever sit in your corner and believe Barrow will lose the 2021 election you must be dreaming. And to those who think education is everything I am submitting to you that it is 100 times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.
“When the UDP executive were arrested educated Gambians were here. What stopped them from contesting for the position? I even understand that they approached some of them but they refused. So President Barrow is the one who sacrificed”.
Njie further stated that the problem Barrow is facing is that “we have people in the civil service who don’t want him to succeed and they are doing everything to make sure that he fails. This is hypocritical and unfair to Gambian tax payers. We should wake up from our slumber and build this country. This Gambia is not poor. For god’s sake”.
