By Omar Bah
The ruling National Peoples’ Party (NPP) campaign manager and personal aide of the president Lamin Cham has said Gambians should give President Adama Barrow a third mandate.
Speaking in a Star TV Gambia Foloo Programme airing every Tuesday, Lamin Cham said: “Barrow should be given another chance because he is doing what Gambians expect from any president. He has given us peace and infrastructural development and everybody can attest to that. So, I am confident that if he contests again, he will win without a doubt because all those saying he cannot win are in the opposition. In fact, nobody is in the political arena who can replace him right now.”
Commenting on whether Barrow should instead champion term limit, Cham added: “Our constitution doesn’t have a term limit – it is wide open and President Barrow is governing this country based on its constitution so it is left to him to decide.”
Advisers
Reacting to criticisms of the president’s ‘many’ advisers, Cham argued: “Every president around the world has advisers – I think The Gambia has the least number of presidential advisers. If you go to Senegal, they have hundreds of advisers within the government so to say the president’s advisers are not educated and because of that they should be sacked is misguided. Who is not educated among those advisers and what is education or knowledge? Knowledge is about wisdom – there are people with academic credentials but they cannot deliver. In fact, most of these performing presidents in Africa are semi literates. President Buhari of Nigeria has performed well but what is his qualification?”
Cham said it is God who gives common sense and that is the most important thing in a human being.
“This is why even when God is talking in the Quran, he refers to people with common sense not the educated ones. The Prophet could not read or write but he was the best in governance so that is an indication that leadership is not all about education but common sense. You have educated people who just read to pass exams but the broader knowledge is not there. There is this person I will not mention but somebody told me the guy told former President Jammeh he had PhD but Jammeh told him he has no common sense. So this academic qualification is on paper but common sense is God’s gift,” Cham said.
Presidential elections
The president’s aide described as ridiculous allegations that the NPP rigged last year’s presidential election. He said the country’s electoral system cannot be rigged. Commenting on the upcoming councillor elections, Cham said the NPP is confident of winning a majority of the seats. “I will not sit here and tell you the NPP will win all the seats across the country, that is practically impossible,” he said. Cham said Mayor Talib Bensouda has not done much in KM that would render him untouchable. “Talib won thanks to President Adama Barrow’s incumbency and Minister Bakary Badjie will win because of the same incumbency,” he said.
WCR
He said most of the people following Ahmad Gitteh will end up voting for the NPP. “They will follow him all along but at the end they will not want to see the downfall of their party. In fact, a lot of people who were following him are now back and we will continue to talk to our people,” he said.
