By Amadou Jadama
A key UDP surrogate has said President Barrow’s announcement of allocation of salaries to village heads a few weeks to presidential election is tantamount to political inducement.
UDP North Bank Region spokesperson Karamo Njie said on Tuesday while on campaign tour, President Barrow announced that from January 2022, all village heads will be put on a paid government salary in appreciation of their community service.
Njie contended: “Since he was elected in 2016, he has never mentioned this till today just less than one month before election. This is a clear case of political inducement. Jawara did not do it. Jammeh did not do it. Barrow did not do it until a few weeks to election. The question is why now? Gambians are not sleeping.”
Mr Njie said the president “made numerous promises to the Gambians which he failed to fulfil, among them to step down after three years, improve the of standard of living, health education and security sector reforms”.
“Instead of fulfilling these promises he is making new ones by fixing salaries for alkalolu in anticipation of getting their votes and the votes of their people. What is D3,000? My father is the alkalo of our village and he spends more than D5,000 a day so President Barrow cannot fool Gambians now. Even the alkalolu will not vote for him and I appeal to alkalolu not to campaign for him,” Njie said.
“I want to tell President Barrow that January will not find him at State House. UDP will unseat his government come 4th December. The politics of deception has now been uprooted in this country. Everybody has seen how [badly] the country is being governed, and Gambians are ready to vote for UDP led by Ousainu Darboe who has all the needed experience to lead The Gambia into a better future,” Njie concluded.
