These are yet another case of irresponsible and dangerous speech by the president that the Gambian people must confront. It is incitement to violence and threatening lives for a president to single out private citizens, journalists and media houses to target them for their opinions and work. It is a blatant attempt to once again damage democracy.
Therefore the director of public prosecutions and IGP must invite the president to raise concern with him about his violent and inappropriate messages and withdraw them.
Since 2017 President Adama Barrow has championed himself as the leading single citizen notorious for threatening citizens because of their opinion and work. This must stop. Never Aagain should The Gambia go back to that time when a president could stand in the public releasing invectives against citizens and groups. Never again!
President Barrow must be told that he did not bring democracy to The Gambia and he has no choice but to abide by democracy. Rather he must be told that it is Gambians who brought, maintain and own this democracy in this republic and he is duty bound by the constitution and other laws of The Gambia and by international law to respect, uphold, abide by, defend and protect democracy and the rule of law. This means he has a non-negotiable obligation to protect and fulfil the human rights of all Gambians!
So it is not for him to decide which media house should exist or not or which citizen should talk or not. He has no authority or power to determine that.
Just as he has the right to talk and criticise and spread false information about people as he always does, so also the media and citizens have the right to criticise and condemn him and put to him that he is a dictator in the making who is threatening our democracy.
Citizens have a constitutional duty to criticise and hold him accountable! If he does not want that he has a choice to resign and leave public office. Gambians did not beg him to become president and Allah did not give him to Gambians. It was himself who chose to seek election into public office as president and Gambians voted for him. Therefore he must humble down, without arrogance and violence, and with honesty and integrity to submit himself to the laws of The Gambia and to the opinions of Gambians including the scrutiny and criticism from the media, CSOs, political parties and citizens. Quit if you don’t like that. There are far more and better Gambians to serve as president.
Therefore I urge all political parties, CSOs, media organisations and media houses and indeed all citizens to speak up to condemn this blatant and unacceptable dangerous talk by President Adama Barrow.
He must be told that he is neither the king nor the lord of The Gambia. He is nothing other than the Chief National Mbindaan!
If he does not know that let him go to the constitution and read Section 1, Subsection 2 so he knows and understands what a president means in the constitution. Hopefully that will humble him down if he has any values in him at all!
Once again, I urge all Gambians to be alert and vigilant and check our elected and appointed public officials, always. The level of arrogance, threats and violence that public officials direct at citizens must be confronted.
For 58 years of independence, these public officials cannot deliver even basic human development to our people yet they have the audacity to insult and threaten citizens as if they are the only ones who own this country.
The corruption, inefficiency and incompetence perpetrated by President Adama Barrow and the rest of his administration should be what he must talk about. But to allow him to insult and threaten citizens by using public office and public resources and the authority and power of the people entrusted to him must be challenged.
