By Lamin Njie
President Adama Barrow was not interested on Wednesday when journalist Peter Gomez politely asked him to keep his mask on, as the president presided over the state funeral of fallen football icon Alhagie Momodou Njie Biri Biri.
Thousands of Gambians including the president gathered at the Arch in Banjul for the official send-off ceremony of Biri Biri who died at a hospital in Dakar last Sunday.
Peter Gomez who officiated the event throughout pleaded with those gathered at the event to wear their face mask throughout, as the country continued to look out-of-sorts over the coronavirus pandemic.
“If you are wearing a face mask, please keep it on. If you have a face mask but you’re not wearing it, you’re actually holding it in your hand, please put it on and leave it on for the rest of the ceremony,” Mr Gomez at one point said during the event.
The prolific radio journalist insisted elsewhere: “The situation of Covid-19 in our country is scary, some of us have just returned from countries where we have seen what Covid-19 has done. Those are stronger countries than ours in every respect and for this disease to do to them what it was able to do, we pray to God that it doesn’t happen here.”
The president who had his mask on quickly removed it as soon as he stepped forward to the podium to give his speech.
“Ah President, if I had it my way, you [would] wear your mask, if I had it my way I mean,” Mr Gomez said as the president removed his face mask.
The president simply laughed into the microphones before proceeding to deliver his tribute.
