By: Christian Conteh
Political commentator and human rights activist, Coach Pasamba Jow has called out President Adama Barrow for taunting veteran politician Sidia Jatta, directly accusing Barrow of disrespecting people who helped him become head of state.
According to Jow, Hon Jatta is not only one of the most nonpartisan members of parliament but also one of the unifying forces in the National Assembly.
Jow was reacting to President Barrow following his (the president) call on Hon Jatta to retire from active politics and allow young people to be elected to the national assembly.
“This does not come to me as a surprise because if you have followed President Adama Barrow’s political career since he became an accidental president, he has done nothing but disrespect people on whose barks he climbed to become the President of the Republic of The Gambia,” Pasamba Jow said.
He further noted that it is interesting that Adama barrow a man elected on the promise that he will serve as an interim president for three years and ended up reneging on that promise will turn around and tell someone else that they should give chance to someone else.
“If Barrow was honest and true to himself and the Gambian people by now Gambia would have had a fourth president. In his selfish interest, he undermined the aspiration of over 2.5 million Gambians when he orchestrated the rejection of a draft constitution that would have given the Gambia a chance to have a constitution that would not allow any leader to stay in power for more than 10 years, but we know he wanted more than that,” he explained.
He revealed that Hon Sidia Jatta got into politics for the people and accused Adama Barrow of getting into politics for himself.
“When Sidia got into politics, he had all the opportunity to have earned resources beyond his imagination as one of the most qualified linguists in Africa, but he chose nation over self.
This is a man when elected to the National Assembly did something that no politician ever did in the history of The Gambia. By taking his salary and establishing a fund (Wuli Fund) that benefited the people of Wuli. What has Adama barrow ever done personally to benefit the Gambian people,” he asked.
He appealed to the electorate to ignore President Barrow’s disrespectful characterisation of Hon. Sidia Jatta, noting that President Barrow is known for using age and tribal rhetoric to divide people.
