Dear Editor,
The UDP has the same political makeup and image as President Barrow and the NPP. And that’s why the UDP is struggling to prevail over President Barrow. The Barrow politics is the policy of inducements and bribery, corruption and the crippling politics of patronage. That self-serving political image and identity casts its long dark shadow over the opposition politics of the UDP.
To most ordinary Gambians like Momodou Sabally and his likes, politics is about going in with the sitting government and getting what you can for yourself. They say, that’s what politics is about. And that’s why many so-called politicians and activists are crisscrossing between the UDP and the NPP. There’s nothing to choose from between the two similar political entities in their political makeup and image.
President Barrow is a terrible president, and you look at him smiling awkwardly, embracing his new found political friends. It’s absurd! In Senegal, Macky and France have been unable to kill the Sonko-led opposition politics for change because the political movement is built on and anchored around Sonko’s political agenda for government change and national development.
It doesn’t matter which so-called politician left the Sonko-led opposition political movement and whether Sonko himself is contesting in the presidential election. There’re stark policy differences and visions for change and national development between Macky and the Sonko-led opposition. The Sonko-led opposition politics in Senegal is framed on the policies of change and national development unlike the politics of patronage makeup shared by President Barrow and the UDP. There are no policy ideas and national economic development vision differences between President Barrow and the UDP. I’m not saying that the UDP won’t make a better government than President Barrow but the political makeup and thinking are largely the same.
I believe UDP will make a better government than President Barrow and that’s why I support the UDP. Do I want the UDP to adopt the Sonko type political agenda for change and national development in The Gambia? That’s a no brainier. But Talib Bensouda doesn’t have the capacity to put forward the Sonko type political agenda for change and national development in The Gambia. And that’s why I’m not counting on him. And as usual, I expect fireworks between me and UDP friends – the Bensouda converts. I don’t fall in line over stupid decisions. I can live with stupid decisions but don’t dangle it in my face learning to live together and be more accommodating is the approach to living together particularly in politics and in public life.
President Barrow has to go and that’s why I support the UDP. You don’t have to agree with whatever decisions the UDP leadership makes but if you agree that President Barrow has to go, you have to vote for the UDP. UDP is the only political agency to remove President Barrow from power. President Barrow is very bad for The Gambia and here’s why: The ERP economic programmes of the Jawara government led to the Jammeh 1994 military takeover. The Barrow government is the ERP economic programme of the Jawara government on steroids. There’s only one destination to the outcome of the ERP economic policies of the Barrow government on steroids: political chaos like in 1994 from the effects of the terrible economic policies of the government. Vote for UDP or the worse is yet to happen again. And to cut loose the vicious political cycle of military takeovers due to economic chaos, the UDP should strive to come up with the Sonko-type political agenda for government, change and national development in The Gambia. We have to cut loose the vicious political cycles of bad presidents, bad governments and bad economic policies. On a more positive note, let’s hope that Sonko wins, forms and informs how the next Senegalese government is governed. A Sonko presidency in Senegal will have consequential political and economic development impact on The Gambia. Long live The Gambia!
Yusupha ‘Major’ Bojang
England
