By Amadou Jadama
A well-known politician, Foday Sisawo, has accused UDP leader Ousainu Darboe of being the cause for the hardship in the country.
Mr Sisawo was reacting to the opposition National Unity Party’s campaign manager Lamin Demba who was reported in The Standard as having called on Gambians to turn out and vote for the opposition candidates, saying wins for President Barrow’s NPP will sink the country in a deeper hole. Demba said the president and his party have failed Gambians, and all the hardship and retarded development in the country stemmed from their ineptitude.
Reacting to Mr Demba’s comments, Mr Sisawo, yesterday told The Standard: “Everyone knows I am a PDOIS supporter but I am speaking in my capacity as a concerned citizen and a member of Coalition 2016, and not PDOIS. The campaign manager of NUP, Mr Demba, said the country is hard and people are hungry. I want to tell him that all these problems emanate from Ousainu Darboe, the leader of the UDP. He is the cause of the damage that the country is facing currently.
“Mr Demba said that if Gambians vote for NPP candidates the country will go from the frying pan to the fire. I am also saying that electing UDP candidates would be two times worse than electing NPP candidates.”
Asked how Mr Darboe who is not running the country is responsible for the hardship in the country, Sisawo, responded: “The fact of the matter is that Darboe never had the interest of the public. He has never supported any agreement that is in the interest of the country. It has always been about himself and the UDP, not The Gambia.
“Coalition 2016 came with agreements, and among them, for the National Assembly election, they agreed that all the candidates should contest on the coalition ticket as independents. Darboe is the one who refused that agreement, saying that if that happened the UDP would die and therefore, he would not accept that. That’s how things started unraveling.
“That is why I said that the cause of the suffering today emanated from Darboe for his refusal to agree with the coalition plans. Another thing is, when Darboe was removed from his position as vice president, he called a press conference and condemned President Barrow and advised him to step down after three years as agreed by the coalition. But initially, he supported Barrow for five years.
“Mr Demba got it all wrong. I am not a supporter of the NPP and I cannot be an NPP supporter, but one has to be objective when speaking the truth. I don’t hate personalities, but we owe it to each other as Gambians to speak the truth. To say that Barrow is ignoring the hardship of the country and he is not making any efforts to address them, I can deny that outright.
“Things might appear to be slow because in this country, from the onset, the same political system is still operating, and we have to change that, otherwise, we will not eradicate corruption in this country. The system itself is corrupt. We have seen what Barrow is doing with rice fields across the country and this can eradicate poverty in the country if it goes according to plans.”
Mr Sisawo also hailed President Barrow’s establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate financial activities at the local government councils.
