UDP leader Ousainou Darboe has wondered about the kind avarice that would possess a leader of one of the world’s poorest countries to propose to spend a massive D627M in one year.
At UDP’s congress over the weekend, Mr Darboe insisted the nation’s scarce resources were being used to cater to the personal needs of President Barrow and his cronies.
Darboe said: “Our country today is saddled with a president and a leadership that subordinates the urgent and life sustaining needs of the citizens to the obscene or scandalous allocation of very scarce resources to the personal needs of the president and his cronies.
“There is no better example of this than how farmers and the vital sector of agriculture upon which tthree quarters of our people depend for their livelihood are treated in the 2021 budget. How can it be just or moral that the president of this country is being paid a salary of D250,000 a month and can turn around and further allocate himself D150,000 a day to spend on food.
“What king of unheard of gluttony would possess the leader of one of world’s poorest countries to spend more money on his personal food than is allocated for the medicine and equipment of our underfunded hospitals?
“In total, this president proposes to spend D627M on his office and the few people that works there and allocating only D402M for the entire ministry of agriculture. That is an outrage that every Gambian must refuse to accept. Because it condemns the majority of our population to poverty and neglect while their hard earned money is being schemed off and wasted by an uncaring administration.”
