Vice president Alieu Badara Joof has denounced acrimonious politics saying it retards the country during a cabinet retreat at the International Conference Centre in Bijilo.
”It was the frugal tough mindedness of those Asian tigers together with their spartan character and of course being in the borderline of the cold war, they got it right and we need to get it right. And we can only get it right if we change our attitude, if we change our mindset, if we change our politics.
“Politics is just having same agenda but different ways of achievements. There is no political party in this country which doesn’t want youths to be employed, there is no political party which doesn’t want access to good healthcare. There is no political party which says my agenda doesn’t want qualitative education or tourism at its best or land reform. We all have the same agenda. So, there is no need for acrimony, there is no need for insult,” he said.
“When people are voted in you put aside the politics, you bring development, cooperation and partnership and we move on. When it is time for politics we go back to The Gambian people and decide who they want. But if you spend most of the time in acrimonious politics it retards us, it takes us back and this is a very small country. We are all related by relatives, by religion, by education, by ethnicity, by regions. So, let’s put that aside, let’s see Gambia first, state goes beyond individuals. We protect the state just as we protect our environment,” he added.
However, he said: “But there is this particular issue which I want to address with the Minister of Environment which is this deforestation and also this log. The timber issue and this is where the security comes in. It shows us the intelligent mind to see, to understand how trucks of timber can leave LRR pass all those security checkpoints over fifteen to twenty of them and reach the ports. And you have securities at the ports and you have inspectors at the ports and they shipped them out. Something is fundamentally wrong with that,” he said.
“The security has to fix it, they have to fix it, ports have to fix it or they are answerable to government. We have to take our responsibility; this is not a light responsibility. This government wants to get the right for the next five years. You cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs, if you want let the president get me out but I will say it and I have been saying it as it is in the cabinet.”