By Lamin Cham
Mayor Talib Bensouda of Kanifing Municipality has said the recent unpleasant debate about the next flagbearer within the United Democratic Party is premature and an unnecessary distraction that can only benefit the ‘incompetent’ ruling National People’s Party.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Standard, Bensouda, around whom much of the debate centers, said the UDP leader Ousainou Darboe has categorically stated that the time for such debate is not now and that “whenever we get there, the party has laid down guidelines that will be followed to decide. So, I think this is very clear and all what is expected of us all is to follow the guidance of the party leader and continue our work of holding the incompetent NPP regime to account so that they don’t get away with the calamitous blunders they have committed in running our country. Unity in the party is imperative now more than ever.”
Asked to finally speak on the widely held rumour that he is considering to become flag bearer, Bensouda responded: “I have never in public or private told anyone that I am going to be flagbearer of the UDP. So, I am surprised that recently, during my leave, I became the topic of a heated debate on this matter. It is unnecessary and a distraction. Our people must not play into the hands of third parties who occasionally trigger this debate so as to disorient UDP members. Every incumbent would like to confuse its opposition especially the one with the biggest potential to unseat him. So, our people must not fall prey to that ploy by the NPP. Look at the state of electricity, the depreciation of the Dalasi and the looming stoppage of importation of basalt from Senegal. These are the issues that our people must tackle with the government.”
Asked to comment on the ongoing presidential commission of enquiry into local government matters, Bensouda said the commission is triggered by the government’s unsuccessful tussle with the KMC where all attempts to interfere with the council for political reasons were rejected by the courts. “This is what morphed into what we are seeing today, but we are not against transparency or holding public officials accountable. So, in theory, we are not against the commission but the way it is applied. That’s why we protested that the timing of its establishment, just before the council elections, was suspicious,” he said.
The mayor said the government should be interested in transparency across all state institutions especially, because according to the National Audit Office’s report, there are far more serious cases of mismanagement in the central government involving billions than those at the councils.
Bensouda added that what is “happening in the commissions right now–a high focus on myself, overzealous feeding of cherry-picked commission proceedings by NPP sympathetic media and direct access by NPP surrogates to witness statements–all confirm our suspicions. If you can recall a former PS appeared before the commission and said that it was established after the failed attempt to setup a ministerial commission on KMC.”
When asked about the issue of the KMC staff and driver sent to collect his passport from Dakar, Bensouda responded that very common in government institutions and does not involve any payments of monies to him personally.
“But you can expect more of these because many councils have appeared but you will see more overzealous media stunts over KMC than all. But this expected and it goes with public office which we choose to hold in public interest and in the end, the truth would be known to the public,” Bensouda said.
Read more tomorrow.
