By: Kebba AF Touray
President Adama Barrow has declared his intention to remain in power until the year 2021.
The president made this disclosure on Saturday June 15th while addressing his supporters during a mass rally in Brikama in the West Coast Region.
“My aim is to be a president who will work for the country and that is my only duty. It is up to you to re-elect me or another person in 2021,” he told the gathering. The President underscored further: “You have given me the Constitutional mandate to work for you and I will be here until 2021, whether one likes it or not”. President Barrow further stated that at the moment, Government expenditure has increased to 5 months of import cover compared to one month, when he took over the presidency in 2016; that tax collection has increased by 100 percent and that domestic debt has decreased from 100 percent of national GDP to 80 percent.
According to President Barrow, Economic growth has increased from 4.5 to 6.5 percent from 2017 to 2018, compared to 6 percent in 2016; that Gambia’s’ foreign reserve stood at US$ 35 million in 2016, with huge increase to over US$500 million at present, due to the fiscal discipline mechanisms of his Government. He continued that the pledge made at the donor conference amounts to 1.7 billion Euros.
President Barrow disclosed that the French Government has donated the country with funds that will be spent on agricultural development; that his Government is accessing the 1.7 billion pledge and that by 2021 “we will fully have all these monies.” He continued: “We are also working on drafting a new Constitution for the Gambia and our objective is to have an all-inclusive Constitution that truly reflect the needs and aspirations of all Gambians”.
Barrow has urged the citizenry to execute their political rights with truth and sincerity, and urged those Gambians in the diaspora to come and join in the national development struggles back home. President Barrow said all that he has, he got in the Gambia; that when he returned to the country from abroad, he had only one intention and that is to use their strategies and expertise for the development of the country.
Scores of speakers thanked President Barrow for the giant steps he has taken in all the spheres of national development, especially in infrastructural development. They called on Gambians to rally behind President Barrow and push forward his national development agenda, as well to vote him in the 2021 presidential elections. Many cabinet ministers and senior government officials attended the rally in Brikama.
Most Gambians at home and abroad, believe that President Barrow has failed in his moral obligation to respect the coalition’s MoU. Many claimed that he should concentrate on building a better foundation for Gambians such as building strong democratic institutions, the economy and security, among other issues.
