Foroyaa wishes to take this opportunity to advise the Gambian Nation and People to take charge of our destiny.
The month of September 2016 was a very eventful one. The opposition was being condemned all over the world for being divided and for not putting the national interest before party or personal interest.
30 October 2016 changed the political landscape when the opposition selected one candidate at a convention.
The campaign that followed gave confidence to the people that power was now in their hands. They could elect and remove leaders at will.
The victory of Adama Barrow consolidated the confidence of the people. The rejection of the results did not create an impasse since the constitution is very clear that the person announced to have been elected as president by the IEC should assume office at the expiration of the term of office of the incumbent.
This is why the party of the incumbent has decided to go to court to try to stop the 19 January 2017 inauguration of President-Elect Barrow.
The fundamental question that now arises: Who will be the President of the Republic after the term of the incumbent expires on 19 January 2017?
Is it going to be person declared loser of the 1 December 2016 presidential election or the person declared the winner?
The elementary truth that no one can deny is that the person declared winner should assume office on the 19 of January. No propaganda should be made by a party that is not interested in the inauguration. If losers go to court they should simply wait for the outcome but should not use the state media to give the impression that the winner has a case to answer. The unprofessionalism of the state broadcaster and its naked biasness in supporting the loser is the root cause of all the misinformation surrounding the election. Hence the public should listen to the news on GRTS for information on every aspect of the 1 December elections after the rejection of the result with a grain of salt. The state broadcaster is grossly biased and cannot help the Gambian people to know the truth. The non-governmental media which tried to give opportunities to each side have been terrorized with closures or threats of closure. The people must therefore wait for information from the statement issued from the camp of the winner in order to weigh it with information from the camp of the loser in order to know the truth.
We will continue to emphasize that unless Gambians on each side of the political spectrum see leaders as servants who can come and go and not as demi-gods to rule for life, democracy will not serve as a tool for ensuring peaceful transfer of political office.
Losers should always concede in good faith and winners should always show magnanimity in victory. We hope there will be light at the end of the tunnel before 19 January 2017.
Any leader who aims to preside over dead bodies and buildings reduced to rubbles cannot be considered a true son or daughter of a country.
