By: Nyima Sillah
Mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council, Talib Ahmed Bensouda has expressed optimism that come the end of the local government election due this month he will triumph over his opponent.
Without mincing words, he said the reason why the National People’s Party (NPP) nominated Hon Bakary Badjie for the Mayoral position to contest with him in the election is that the ruling party knew he, Mayor Talib Bensouda, will win the election.
Speaking in an interview with veteran journalist, Malick Jones on Star TV over the weekend, Lord Mayor Bensounda expressed his optimism about the upcoming elections and said he is hopeful because, during his almost 5 years in office, he did not exercise partisan politics.
Answering questions from the TV presenter, he said he and his team were in the council to transform the Municipality for it to be a service-driven institute. He disclosed that at the council, everyone is treated equally without bias irrespective of party affiliation.
“For any agenda that is for the development of the region, the mayor always gives his support,” he said.
On development, he said “The evidence I can give based on that is because, during the parliamentary elections, 3 councilors resigned from KMC one of them is from PDOIS, Musa Cham, Sulayman Jammeh from APRC, and Musa Badgie of UDP. They all pulled out to contest in the parliamentarian election which they won.
However, he said, out of 19 who had contested about 12 came back “meaning people have confidence and trust in us and show us that they appreciate the work we are doing.”
Mayor Talib added that he is not looking at Hon Bakary Badgie as his opponent because he knows they (NPP) brought him just for politics. “As a sitting Minister, you have a portfolio of Youths and Sport if it’s only the development of the country, you already have a platform if you want anything that will contribute to the development of KMC, you already have a bigger platform than Mayor. The development you can bring in your capacity as a Minister is more than what the mayor can bring,” he stressed.