By: Jung Jabang
Mr. A.N.M. Ousainu Darboe, Secretary General and Leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP) has questioned the direction of The Gambia, arguing that The Gambia is on a wrong trajectory failure.
In his Eid El Fitr message, the text of which was made available to The Voice, Mr Darboe said: “Where are we as a country and more importantly, where are we heading to in a fast-changing world? The answers to these two basic questions are that as a country we are failing and heading in the wrong direction.”
According to Mr Darboe, the Gambia’s current predicament didn’t happen in a vacuum.
“It is the predictable outcome of a failure of leadership and all the attendant consequences. We are all witnesses to the acute and high cost of living in the country and this is getting worse every day. Many are finding it hard to provide basic meals for their families. This has been made more glaring in the just-ended month of Ramadan with our friends, neighbours, and families scrambling to prepare decent Iftar,” he said in the message to Gambians.
“Another example is that in the not-too-distant past, the President proposed and convened what was billed as a “National Dialogue to discuss “our collective responsibility in preserving the nation, safeguarding the state and securing our resources.”
Darboe contended that the President, who has been in charge of the country for seven years, is calling for dialogue on what are essentially core functions of the very government he leads, which, he said, is illustrative of the magnitude of the failure Mr. Barrow is presiding over.
“To invite his political competitors to give condensed few-minute speeches in the said event cannot be termed as a serious national dialogue. It is closer to a televised gimmickry disguised as a serious and sincere conversation about a nation facing serious challenges,” he further contended.
“I call on the President to wake up to the deep and serious problems our country faces. Foremost is the need for him to dial down and abandon the deep, bitter, and dangerous polarisation he and his allies have injected into the politics of this nation. A call for national unity from a government that has fractured and deeply divided communities and even families in the pursuit of political power will ring hollow unless Gambians see and verify a clear change of direction starting with the president himself down to the last person in his Government,” he added.
The UDP leader also called on the president to wake up to, what he called, the existential threat drugs pose to our country.
“Drugs and their use are taking root in our society, destroying our youths and corrupting our governance infrastructure. Drugs and drug use directly cause crime rates to go up in any society where they are prevalent. Nothing comes closer to a national emergency than this menace. The President must convene an inter-agency task force comprising of DLEAG, the Police, the military, SIS, other law enforcement agencies, local councils, religious leaders, and ward-level volunteers tasked exclusively to tackling drugs and its effects,” he said.
