By: Dawda Baldeh
Speaking to journalists during his maiden caravan tour in the Kanifing Municipality yesterday, Bakary Y Badjie, who is the National People’s Party (NPP) candidate for the forthcoming Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) mayoral election, disclosed that youths and women will access micro-credits to sustain their immediate needs if elected mayor of KMC.
“We have plans that are meant to develop the municipality to ensure that we have a council that is responsive to the needs of the people.
“We have programmes that are meant to empower people economically which are youths and women empowerment projects.
“The projects will help young people and women groups with micro-credits so they can be able to sustain themselves and take care of their immediate needs,” Badjie told journalists yesterday.
Speaking on why people should give him the chance to run the affairs of the council, Badjie said: “I want to address the most difficult need of the people, which is the lack of good feeder roads, proper markets, supporting community’s basic needs such as an extension of water, electricity, and access to recreational facilities for the young people,” he added.
He also mentioned that he has planned how to ensure garbage collection is intensified by having more vehicles in the community to collect garbage.
Asked how prepared his party is despite losing majority of the seats in the Kanifing Municipality in the recently concluded councillorship elections, Badjie responded: “The loss that we encountered in the election of the councillors is a wake-up call for us as a party, the regional executive committee and everyone that is part of NPP should know that supporting a party and not going to vote doesn’t help in any way.”
He further explained that the number of votes that their party leader got in the presidential election signifies that they have the support base.
“We believe even if some of those votes might not be necessary for us, but we know more than half of those votes are for NPP and their candidates vying for any position.
“We have learned from that, and we looked at the strategies and discussed what needs to be done,” he noted.
Mr. Badjie said they have learned from the experience and that they reached out to their supporters anywhere they are to give them reasons they need to go and vote but also to ensure that they get the message.
“If you have a council that is there for five years and is not able to tell you tangible things that they have done from the revenue that they have collected by the council then there is a need for change.
We are going to make sure that people get the message and know that the time for change is now,” he responded to questions on why he believes that the council under the leadership of Talib Ahmed Bensouda needs to be changed.
