By Tabora Bojang
The leader of the Peoples Reformist Organisation for Growth, Renewal, Equity, Security and Social Justice (PROGRESS), Amadou Jaiteh, has warned Gambians against allowing President Adama Barrow a third term in office saying it is neither good for him nor for the country’s democracy.
Jaiteh is a Gambian lawyer and a former diplomat who served as legal adviser at the permanent mission of the Gambia at the UN. He resigned from foreign service after “losing confidence” in the Barrow government and now pursues a career in politics with the founding of a political movement, PROGRESS, which aims to transform into a political party to contest next year’s presidential election.
Speaking to The Standard in an exclusive interview (read full interview on Bantaba next Friday), Jaiteh described President Barrow’s attempts to contest a third consecutive term in office as “unfortunate” after reneging on his promise to serve only three years, and failing to bring progressive democratic reforms promised to Gambians.
“We are asking Gambians to not allow the president a third term. Sometimes, we have to feel sorry for our leaders, because the longer they stay, the worse it becomes for them. So we have to feel sorry for him [Barrow] and help him out of his own troubles. And the only way we can do that is by stopping him from running for a third term and if he does then we vote him out,” Jaiteh said.
On the argument that there is no term limit in the Gambian constitution, Mr Jaiteh argued that even though there is no indication of term limit in the 1997 Constitution, Gambians should go back to the 2020 draft constitution which embodies the values of Gambians that they will not accept self-perpetuating rule. “The law does not just drop on people. The law is written in observance of the values that we live by. If you bring laws that are in contradiction with the values of the people, they repugnant laws. That is why Gambians cannot fathom the idea of colonial laws like the Public Order Act because they find it to be abusing their rights. And it needs to be removed. People were consulted on a draft constitution. For all I know, that is the law we should apply ourselves to. Whatever the president is doing now is not what we want. We should stop him. We should not allow him to run for another term. We should talk about this third term as much as possible. And we should stop him at the polls. We must stop him by all means. We must not allow him to continue because it is not good for him. It’s not good for our democracy. If he wins a third term, when is he going to stop? We cannot guarantee that he will stop at that. So Gambians must not allow a third term for President Barrow,” the PROGRESS leader stated.
He also rejected suggestions that no single party could remove Barrow in 2026 stating that a party could emerge that people can find trust and hope in and that party can go on to remove Barrow. “Even as a single party. And PROGRESS can do that. It depends on the messaging that the people want to believe in. People need to have an open mind and not follow political parties for the sake of their colours, leaders or relationship to them but they need to listen to their ideas, their manifestos and their messaging”.
Jaiteh noted that PROGRESS will wait and see if they will go into a coalition with other parties. “Until we get closer to the elections, we cannot really talk about coalitions now,” he said. He outlined that PROGRESS has a people-centered and people-driven agenda with a slogan “for the people, by the people” and its priorities are to reduce the high cost of living, promote national self-sufficiency, diversify agriculture, empower young people, fight corruption, reform local governance, national security, overhaul ailing health system, limiting presidential powers, get rid of partisan politics, bring back the 2020 draft constitution and put in place a robust foreign policy rooted in peace building, promotion and protection of human rights, progressive development of international law, good neighbourliness and driven by capable, competent, energetic and well trained young Gambians.
