By Arret Jatta
Presidential Adviser Momodou Sabally has told members of the National People’s Party student wing that a leader like President Adama Barrow deserves to be granted the leverage to go for a fourth term.
Contextualising this claim, Sabally, a former staunch critic of the president, argued that if members of the Gambian opposition can hail Rwandan president Paul Kagame, and had no qualms with him going for a fourth term and celebrating him as a hero, then he would hail President Barrow as an angel who should be granted the leverage to go for a fourth term . This is so because President Barrow has no history of conflict of any nature.
This country could have gone to war, bombs could have dropped in this country. In general, this country could have been in crisis but due to the leadership of President Barrow, who has an unrivaled good temperament, The Gambia is peaceful and these are some of the many reasons why I say we need to grant him the leverage and leeway for continuity to a fourth term and I mean it. I Momodu Sabally said it, a fourth term,” he told the young political actors who had gathered to inaugurate their secretariat at the NPP head office in Churchill’s Town on Sunday.
Sabally added that it is Barrow’s tolerant leadership that has actually even emboldened the opposition to be active in this country and to be saying things that they may not be possible in other African countries. “So Barrow’s continuous presidency is even good for the opposition,” he opined
He also claimed that President Barrow is the first African president, or among the first few presidents to introduce term limit in a constitution.
“If President Barrow wants, he can say that there will be X term limit in the constitution, but instead he provided a constitution with a term limit, and within it, you can find youth and women’s empowerment as well as women’s rights,” he stressed.
The former vocal opposition heavy weight who shifted to the NPP last year, praised the student wing for the wisdom to be associated with the party and a president ‘who has transformed’ the country with life changing projects from end to end. “I have personally struggled to put together the entire list of development projects undertaken by Barrow at diverse places in the country,” he said.
Sabally said if there is any party that deserves a student wing, that is the NPP. You people are the future of the party and as the president has already made it clear that the NPP will last longer than his presidency,” Sabally told the young NPP members.
