BARROW FIRES DARBOE EQUALS A POLITICAL SUICIDE: It will be political suicide for President Barrow to fire VP Darboe. First the whole nation will notice his naked ungratefulness and betrayal of those who brought him to power. Some audacious disingenuous political novices think firing Darboe will remove an overt impediment to Barrow ascending to power in our nation rather it will quicken Barrow's political demise.
Lamin Darboe argues that firings VP Darboe would be political suicide for President Barrow
First, the UDP MPs will not take that lightly and they will marshal all their parliamentary power to make life difficult for Barrow. Barrow government will find it difficult to pass vital legislation and thus impede the vital reforms that should project Barrow's democratic and good economic stewardship credentials.
Secondly, they could expose Barrow administration into more stringent and intrusive scrutiny to ensure he has less latitude to manoeuvre to gain the political capital he excessively desire. This can be achieved by bringing legislation to make the President' s assets and financial dealing more transparent. To demand changes to the constitution to cap the powers of the President and making all presidential appointments subjected to parliamentary approval.
They can set up parliamentary commission to scrutinise all projects, loans and grants to ensure they are acquired and spent according to the protocols, deployed for bona fide inetrest of the nation and that no resources are diverted to enhance the President's political ambitions. They could launch an investigation into the President' s wife's foundation accounts to ensure it is fit for purpose, that all allegations of impropriety is thoroughly investigated and documented. It is clear that his wife's foundation is housed in a state building and it is allegedly financed by government funds, an apparent violation of financial act and government budgetary allocation. This is an act of impunity and the President is capable beyond doubt. The foundation is serving as a political tool and its activities and financial propriety had raised eyebrows. Many alleged that it is a vehicle to suck funds from investors to fund Barrow's political whims.
The first shots have been fired by the coalition MPs in their historical rejection of the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, to the applause of the whole nation and it is relishing to expect more of this type of scrutiny in the coming months. We need private legislation by MPs to buttress their existing powers to be more proactive in taking executive to task in an intrusive way. Gambia need a radical reform to make government officials more accountable and responsible. I pray they investigate Barrow' s finances especially the huge monies he allegedly used to finance BYM and all these frivolous meetings.
Barrow lacks the political base and he thinks the support he enjoys is the result of his personal orchestration. That is undoubtedly a prodigious insinuations, it dangerously inflates Barrow's ego. No doubt if that ego took over him then he is waiting for a rude awakening.
First there is simmering frustration with his style of leadership, his sheer incompetence, inability to grow into the job, being tarred in a perceptual campaign mode by the way he speaks. He is still wailing and waving his hands, which is not presidential, talking without strategic thinking, apportioning all success to his personal know how and stewardship. I have squeamish felling Barrow will fall on his errors, prodigal proclamations and self adulation never helped Jammeh, it cannot help any president thereafter. His errors are immense.
Where Barrow lost the plot is when he maintains the vestiges of Yaya’s old regime's pernicious and unrepentant actors. Those who were instrumental actors in the entrenchment of a corrupt, inefficient, wasteful regime of Yaya Jammeh. The remnants of Jammeh' s tyrannical rule, who could not institute any meaningful development or reforms for past 22 years, what meaningful changes or contributing changes can they do now.
Barrow should carry out radical reforms of all the ministries by first cleaning all ministries off all its old guards and promote new people to drive the substantive goals and objective that the coalition and all stakeholders in coalition envisioned. Instead he had a self-perpetuation vision to remain in power so he does not want to be seen to ostracised certain communities in the GAMBIA. He wants to maintain and embolden the bourgeoisie which for many years undermined our development so as to build his support base. This is fallacious and goes to expose Barrow' s political opportunism an naive thinking.
Barrow has failed so far to usher in, the necessary reforms we all yearned and fought for. There is less financial discipline, he court APRC and it's cohorts who enabled Jammeh dictatorship for 22 years, thinking he can bank on them to build his own political mass and stand on his own party tickets to gain a second term. That is very naive and nymphic. The same APRC militants who hated him like poison and loved Jammeh up to the last seconds can suddenly change colours like "Kaakatarr" and become his avid supporters, is the most ironic political somnambulism(sleep walking) of this century, Gambians political century.
Finally and not the least UDP can marshal the support of the other coalition partners to force Barrow to kowtow to the coalition timeline of 3 years by organising civil disobedience, boycott, exposing him to international isolation by appealing to donors not to trust him. Barrow need to wise up and bring the country together by working with the UDP. He need to disband the Barrow Youth Movement, change Finance and Foreign Ministers and re-invigorate his team by hiring honest and qualified technocrats with international experience. All those political sycophants hovering on the state House like vultures cunningly undermining would be investors, must all go.
As for Ousanou Darboe, he need to show leadership and should not be satisfied with the current support he enjoys as UDP leader. The function of vice president is not to be a dovish empathiser of the president and be a passive participant in his whimsical and prodigious spending on non-economic overtures, useless travels, useless and expensive meet the people parties and meetings. He should frankly say no where necessary and give us the confidence that presidential excesses will not proliferate under his nose. He should be clean and set a good example for all to see. Let him consider the interest of Kombo and give positions across the board, not only for people of provincial extract. BARROW is leading a transition government and his cravings for populism is an overt violation of the spirit of the coalition goals and objectives. Therefore Mr president take the bull by the horn and do what we ask you to do.
Lamin Darboe Leicester UK Editor’s note: Views expressed herein are those of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Gunjur News Online.