By: Lamin B. Darboe
Information Officer, MoPS
Baboucarr Bouy, The Minister of Public Service, Administrative Reforms, Policy Coordination, and Delivery Saturday said that if local government authorities (Governors, Chiefs, and Alkalolus) in the country were sincere with their work, most of their concerns would be tackled before the next Meet-the-people-tour.
Mr. Bouy who is also overseeing the Ministry of Lands, Regional Governments, and Religious Affairs made those remarks on Saturday, December 2, 2023, while delivering a speech at a general meeting held at Brikama and Lamin as part of the president’s meet-the-people-tour meetings.
“If the local Government authorities do coordinate their development work from the Alkalo-to-the-Chief and-then-to-the-Governor and finally to their line ministry with sincerity, President Barrow come next year tour, he will overcome some major issues raised by Gambians during this tour,” Hon. Minister explained.
Minister Bouy, therefore, explained that if coordination was lacking between local government authorities from the grassroots to the highest level it would not be easy for the president to address citizens’ concerns raised in the tour before next year’s meet-the-people-tour.
According to Minister Bouy, local Government authorities on the grounds need to be committed to their work diligently to support the Government in implementing its National Development Plan called in the local language (Yiriwa).
‘’We as a nation cannot be different from other countries if we are interested in the rapid development of our country. Nothing should therefore deter local government authorities who are working with government directly from putting more efforts to make sure President Barrow achieves his NDP-YIRIWA aspiration,” Minister Bouy stated.
‘’President Adama Barrow cannot succeed in the development of the country without the Governors, Chiefs, and alkalolus’ grassroots support to his National Development Plan-(YIRIWA). I therefore urged the local government authorities to put all hands on deck to move this country forward,’’ he reiterated.