By: Momodou Justice Darboe
& Kemo Kanyi
The Gambian leader Adama Barrow has vowed to deal with those agitating for him to leave the stage in a heavier-handed way than the treatment he meted out to the Three Years Jotna protesters.
“When they [UDP] say I will not contest again, Minister Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Agriculture Demba Sabally, and all the party executives should allow me to fight that fight because that is my fight. You know, I clashed with Three Years Jotna but what will befall them [term limit agitators] on this issue [term limit] would be worse than that,” Barrow said to applause and cheers as he spoke at the inauguration of the NPP bureau in Brikama on Saturday.
“I’ve heard the utterances of the many speakers at this meeting. Ebrima Sillah spoke, the minister of agriculture Demba Sabally spoke and so did other people. A previous speaker said the UDP claimed that I would not contest in 2020 but my position on that is that whatever the UDP says…Even if they say I shouldn’t commit suicide, I would take my life,” he jokingly remarked.
Barrow said he would do exactly whatever the term limit proponents say he shouldn’t do.
“I know that a human being must be mindful of one thing. A person who knows his enemy and knows that his enemy is his enemy should do whatever that enemy advises him against. That is what’s good for you,” he maintained.
According to Mr. Barrow, some of those UDP members calling for his exit just joined the party in 2016. He continued: “They are the 2016 people, who were never seen in the UDP, before 2016. When we were in the UDP fighting, nobody saw such people in the party. They are the ones, who are now sweet-mouthing, saying President Barrow would not vie [for a third term]. I laugh whenever I hear such claims. When did you come to the UDP? They all came to the UDP for positions. When we fought and ousted Jammeh, they all swarmed the party like vultures. They are all vultures because a vulture eats a carcass only when it has decomposed. They are people of that ilk. Some became chairmen while others became mayors all through Allah and President Barrow. Why didn’t you come in 2016? Why didn’t you come when Ousainu Darboe was arrested? Why didn’t you come at that time? Where were you when I was recognized as the flagbearer during the first meeting that we organized here in Brikama when OusainuDarboe was incarcerated? Where were you? I made utterances in Brikama and that was when it was agreed that I was the one to replace Darboe. Where were you then?”
President Barrow said he recalled that one elderly man once told him that there exist three things that would never suffer from old age.
“He told me that the first of these three things is Allah. Allah never grows old. The second thing is the truth. The truth never wavers. And the third one is what? That is a blessing. Blessing would never grow old,” explained Mr. Barrow.
“NPP is where the blessing resides. If you go to the forest as a hunter and shoot dead a Jinn, what else are you going to do in the forest when you return home? I killed Yaya Jammeh. I shot him with the gun and killed him,” bragged the President.
