By Omar Bah
Presidential adviser on religious affairs, Dembo Bojang, has said he groomed Adama Barrow to the presidency and will get him re-elected president in 2021.
Addressing a meeting at Tallinding Buffer Zone grounds on Saturday evening, the Bakau politician who curiously is the national president of the United Democratic Party, told a cheering pro-Barrow crow: “I want to tell Gambians that I am the one who made Adama President and I am going to make him president again for another five years and another five years to make it fifteen years.
“Let us be very careful of President Adama Barrow. We fought Jawara for 17 years. Jammeh came and removed him by the gun. For 22 years we couldn’t remove Jammeh. President Barrow came and stood for us and removed him within three months. Barrow had said in one of his meetings that he was wearing someone’s dress and he was going to remove it and wear his own dress. I want to say we will stand behind Barrow. We will girdle a wrestling pant for Adama Barrow and he will wear his own dress.
“I have come with President Barrow a long way until he became president and now I cannot go back to being an opposition. I will follow President Barrow and we will fit him with a wrestling cloth [and he will wrestle with his opponents and beat them] especially a one-metre-tall fellow. We know where we came from but we do not know where we will be. It is thanks to President Barrow we are breathing the air of freedom in the country.”
Trading barbs
Also speaking at the same meeting which is part of the President’s Meet the People Tour, local parliamentarian Fatoumatta Jawara condemned insults hurled at her by UDP supporters.
Until her expulsion by the UDP along with seven other sitting parliamentarians, Ms Jawara was part of the yellow camp. Since her expulsion, she has teamed up with the Barrow Camp which has morphed into bitter political rival of the UDP.
She told the meeting that she was being insulted because of UDP leader Darboe and said the abuse has to stop. She accused Darboe of certain un-Islamic habits and addressed him with choice invectives.
But responding to Ms Jawara’s statement in a social media audio, Mr Darboe urged his supporters and family members not to dignify her statement with a reply. He said the statements were insulting and false.
“Let her continue with what she is doing. Allah will settle my score with her because she knows what paths I have trodden with her yesterday. If she has nothing but to insult me Allah will judge between us and it would be clear,” he said.
