By Adama Makasuba
Momodou Bah, ex-presidential aspirant has explained the importance of compulsory military service for young Gambian boys and girls which he said will help to inculcate patriotism and discipline in the young Gambian citizens.
Mr Bah had promised last year during the presidential nomination to introduce compulsory military service for every young Gambian if he wins. However, his nomination was rejected by the Independent Electoral Commission.
“I came up with the idea of introducing compulsory military service because we are in a period where to mould and discipline children is very hard. But the military service helps to mould and discipline one, it doesn’t mean to brutalise the child but it will teach them honesty and uprightness,” he clarified.
“In my eleven agenda also demands changing our capital city because you know Banjul is so tight up, therefore, we need a place for a new capital and my suggestion was why not we switch our capital to Soma or Farafenni because those places are very big and they are in the centre of the country,” he added.
Meanwhile, he said: “The endorsement was very difficult because our aim was to contest the election and I believed if passed the nomination, would have made it. But when we got rejected by IEC during the nomination, I consulted my team and they told me to let go of Barrow which was very hard in the party because they had then two options which were to support either Barrow or Darboe.
“But people asked me to join Barrow and support his re-election, this is why we endorsed President Barrow. I was called by one of his ministers who told me Barrow needed me to come and support him to win the election to develop the country. Bakary Badjie called me to come and work with President Barrow. He called me with Bakary and we met with the President I listened to him because he is a young man,” explained.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I will not lie, and I think anyone who stands and wants to lead this country should be trustworthy and people know that I will not lie. Honestly speaking President Barrow didn’t give us any money. Anything we did, we took it from our own resources during the campaign. Barrow called us to the State House after the election and thanked us for supporting his re-election and added that the positions are here, but all of us cannot be there at the same time. We also told him we didn’t support him for the position, but we did it for the country,” he opened up.