By Omar Wally
Lamin Waa Juwara, the leader of the moribund NDAM party, has said if President Barrow succeeded in his current term he should be given another mandate.
Juwara, one of The Gambia’s most strident politicians, said the voters knew that the term for a president is five years. “Those who voted for Barrow know that for the presidency, if you vote for anybody, it should be for five years. If Barrow chooses to leave, that would be a different matter but those who voted for Barrow elected him for five years. I think Barrow should be given another chance. He has done well and all we need now is for all of us to unite so that Barrow can succeed. He will succeed if Gambians unite,” he underscored.
But the Brikama based political scientist injected a caveat: “Now that we are falling apart, nobody knows if that is going to happen.”
Juwara denied claims that he failed as a politician because of his partiality to drinking, rebuffing: “I’m not an alcoholic, I don’t drink alcoholic. And nobody can tell you that I have found him drunk or lying in the street. I’m not a failed politician. I have succeeded as a politician – the fact that I was in the thick of the struggle, one of the most prominent Gambians. I don’t see how I have failed, where did I fail? I have not failed.”
Read the full interview on the opposite page.
