Dear editor
Let the government try to establish a good standing government. That is the most important topic to talk about. Let them talk about:
1. Term limit. This is a concern for every Gambian. Let us look at all developing countries. They all have fixed term limits.
2. Why has the president and the National Assembly Members failed to work on importance peace building pillars.
3. The president should do something urgent so that most of our youths will not think of leaving. Developed countries do not have enough young people and we have them but we are letting all of them leave. It’s a tragedy.
4. Government must create employment and job opportunities for all Gambians. These are the things the government should do.
Saikou Bah
Perth, Australia
Re: President to meet opposition leaders in national dialogue
Let’s remember that the NPP camp is full of political dribblers and mafioso. I believe this call for a national dialogue is just a new systematic approach to dribble the opposition parties. It’s a preplanned strategic session. The opposition parties must be careful and unite under one roof and speak with one voice. The Gambia and its people do not trust NPP the administration team. They have different colours: today red, tomorrow black or white. Let the opposition parties strongly emphasise to The Gambia government to give chance to the mayors and regional council chairpersons to effectively do their job without any control over them as stipulated by Local Government Act.
Bakary S Jadama
Founder CEO PCED
Serekunda
National political dialogue
Dear Editor,
Anyone who formed a political party is a political leader in The Gambia. And their political leadership in the country is cemented by their membership of The InterParty Committee. That’s the wrong understanding of who’s a national political leader in a democracy – the people who sit down and talk about the political future of the country. To be a national political leader in a democracy of the status weighty enough to attend national political engagements, one must have to represent a political constituency, a qualified political constituency, an elected political constituency in the country. Meaning not everyone who formed a political party is a national political leader in a democracy. Going by the substandard democratic political narrative in The Gambia, anyone could attend the so-called political dialogue called by President Barrow. No one knows exactly what the president’s call for the political dialogue is about. Reading between the lines, clearly President Barrow wouldn’t have called for the political dialogue wasn’t he being hurried to have one. The hint was in his press conference upon return from the last Ecowas Summit. Whatever the president wants to talk about, politics is about talking and talking and talking. If you listen to some of political commentators and political commentaries from certain quarters of the political spectrum in the country as to why the UDP should not attend the dialogue, some of these people are crazy.
See, if the UDP leadership and supporters think that President Barrow can behave like Macky Sall, he’ll end up behaving like Macky Sall. Why are some UDP political commentators making up insane stories about why the president called the political dialogue and what President Barrow can do? Do they think that the president can do whatever he wants in a democracy like Macky Sall? Macky Sall is crazy and The Gambia is not Senegal. That’s why I want the Senegalese occupying force go home now.
The Gambia National Army is not the Senegalese army. Just go attend the dialogue, listen and no one will be under any duress to say yes to anything that they do not wish to support and endorse. But if some UDP supporters are making up stories about why President Barrow called the political dialogue along the lines of plot to ban the UDP, destroy the UDP and all kinds of crazy conspiracies – where are they getting their crazy ideas from? Can President Barrow ban the UDP? Can President Barrow destroy the UDP? Oh, he’s Macky Sall and will cancel the next presidential election. Where are they getting their paranoid ideas? Well, you’re giving the president some bad ideas inadvertently. The InterParty Committee members will attend the dialogue and that’ll look bad on the UDP. The UDP has attended far more useless political engagements than the dialogue called by the president. So why not this one?
Yusupha Bojang
England
