In the issue of The Standard Newspaper of Thursday, 2ndAugust 2018, Mr Almamy Fanding Taal, spokesperson of the United Democratic Party is quoted as saying that ‘there is no argument or issue that the UDP has with the Barrow Youth Movement for National Development….’. He went further to postulate ‘We have the majority and we are very grateful to the Gambian electorate.’
I am flabbergasted by these statements of my Comrade Mr Almamy Taal. Given the damage and harm that political patronage, nepotism and cronyism have caused in this country, one would have thought that the United Democratic Party, the de facto ruling party in the country to stand up for good governance and the promotion of the rule of law and following due process.
The current inquiry into the financial activities of former president Yahya Jammeh, his close relatives and associates show clearly that political patronage only encourages corruption and nepotism to the detriment of the Gambian masses. We know that prior to being elected president, no one named an association after him. Thus, naming an association after him now is just a way to get close to the corridors of power with a view to gaining something from him.
A sitting president is a servant of the people who pay him and thus his focus should entirely be on how to serve the nation. We pay Pres. Adama Barrow two hundred thousand dalasis every month and as such, his entire waking moments have been bought and paid for by Gambian taxpayers. Focusing on any movement (whatever the name, be it development or progress) is a form of cheating the nation.
I am not against any association or movement but why name it after our democratically elected president? We don’t want any conflict of interest. We want our president to focus on national development. The Barrow Youth Movement has the potential to derail the president as we see them traveling with the president and making pronouncements and even the president now talking about their projects.
We heard, and we know that they keep saying that their funding is not coming from government. Yea yeah, we heard, we know all that but that does not guarantee that they will not influence decision or be granted some privileges which they do not deserve. We have seen the Green Youths, the Yayi Compins and others during the previous regime. They also called for national development but well, we know what they were or what they turned out to be.
The United Democratic Party has always stood for good governance and the rule of law as we have seen how its secretary General Lawyer Ousainou Darboe has sacrificed everything to ensure that we have good governance. He is a world-renowned lawyer and could have obtained a job anywhere in the world and make tons of money, but he didn’t. His love for this country made him stay and face the difficulties of the dictatorship like any other Gambian. For Heaven’s sake, he even went to prison for our liberation!
It is therefore confusing, if not disappointing, for the United Democratic Party not to take a stance on the issue of the Barrow Youth Movement. Many will jump to the defense that Barrow is a Coalition candidate as he resigned from the UDP in order to contest. But that, My Dear Reader, is just an excuse. Barrow is UDP and therefore the technicality of him resigning is just that – a technicality.
The point is, even if we go by that, the UDP will still have a moral responsibility to take a stance against the Barrow Youth Movement. So, to now hear my Comrade Almamy Fanding Taal (he was my president at Gambia Writers’ Association) say that the UDP has no qualms with the BYM is an abdication of responsibility and a disappointment.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) must show leadership!
