By Lamin Njie
President Adama Barrow has insisted he will remain in office until 2021 as he for the first time reacted to Three Years Jotna’s protest.
Pressure group Three Years Jotna earlier this month staged a protest to demand Mr Barrow’s resignation in January. The group in a petition threatened to take to the streets on 20 January if he refuses to leave office.
But speaking on QTV’s Kachaa Dula, the president once again touted his reform agenda as the reason why he needs to stay in office.
Mr Barrow said: “Regarding their protest, it’s a democracy and we want to ensure our democracy is strong. What The Gambia needs today is to see out the transition. Being president is not important but Gambia is important. What makes Gambia important, presently the work we’re doing is what will decide Gambia’s future. That will be Gambia’s foundation.
“I believe I should introduce a new constitution, that constitution should dictate us on what Gambia should be in future. So that’s something all Gambians should join me so that we can achieve that.
“Today, we have ECOMIG forces here. We want to ensure if ECOMIG is leaving, we can be able to take care of our own security. To be able to do that, we must implement our reforms processes, we must have capacity building to the point we are sure that we can do it ourselves.
“The TRRC that is currently ongoing, we should perfect plans to see how we can complete all these, how the civil service reform can be achieved. Because we all know we can’t do this today and complete it today. So this is what everyone should be interested in and put the issue of position aside. If anyone becomes president today, these things must be implemented. So why would we not work to ensure we achieve them? Don’t look at Adama Barrow, Gambia is bigger than Adama Barrow.
“Because if they say three years, you 10 people are saying three years? There is 20 people saying five years and there is 30 people saying 10 years. So whose word should we take?
“So we should therefore follow process. It’s process that removed Yahya Jammeh here. Don’t be afraid of me but be afraid of the law. And if we argue over anything, we should revert to the constitution.”
