By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The Youth President of the United Democratic Party (UDP), Haji Suwaneh, has opined that the recently-held National Dialogue will remain a sham if its recommendations are not implemented.
The Gambia’s civil society, opposition parties, and the ruling NPP and its allies were last week involved in consultations on issues of overwhelming national concern.
During the three-day dialogue, several recommendations were proffered by the participants prominent among which are electoral reforms, gender mainstreaming, adoption of a firm posture against official corruption, institutional reforms, sanitization of the country’s body politics, and ushering in a new constitution.
“The National Dialogue was just an initiative of the President but the implementation of its recommendations is going to be a daunting challenge because the former Vice President Alieu Badara Joof mentioned in one of the Cabinet meetings the need to fight corruption, punctuality at work among others but he was criticized by his fellow public servants and members of the ruling NPP. So, we are watching the space for implementation of the recommendations made during the dialogue,” stated Suwaneh.