In 2016, seven political parties and Independent presidential aspirant came together to form a coalition. Adama Barrow was from the UDP and according to their agreement had to resign and stand as an independent candidate. He won the 1 December 2016 presidential election and was sworn in on 18 February 2017.
There are some concerns I have and wanted those to be critically analyzed to the fulfillment of why I voted for the change of 2016. My understanding of the campaign slogan one Gambia, one Nation and one people is the unification of all Gambians under one umbrella; a truth and reconciliation commission to be set up to investigate all the cases of human rights abuses of Jammeh administration from 1994 to 2016, the misuse of government resources and come up with reconciliation to go on with reforms ranging from constitutional reforms, legal reforms and institutional reforms.
The establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission has just been announced by the Attorney General, that is a timely announcement and we will be observing developments. But there is yet to be a statement regarding the auditing of accounts in the face of many allegations of huge sums of money missing.
There has not been a blue print by the new administration and the fact that The Gambia should be in transition for three years is in a constitution. The removal of directives and the re-calling of some ambassadors and replacing them without explanation to the public is a concern.
No reform has been done yet; some Directors are replaced. Are we not following the path of ex-president Jammeh? We all agreed that Jammeh has no regard for the rule of law but the manner of administration seems to be the same. A lot of information is coming out about how much money Jammeh went along with, but I am yet to hear anything from an independent investigation as to how much money Jammeh stole.
The coalition is in a state of separation caused by disagreement on how to contest in the coming NA election; parties that came together to select our candidate are now against each other on a simple matter. This coalition should serve as a foundation stone for the people of The Gambia. What is my concern is the tribal line coming into place as some politicians use the tribal line to win the hearts of the voters, others arguing that they are the majority so everybody should follow them and this is causing a lot of hurdles within our communities.
What is of paramount importance is that when Adama Barrow was elected there was no tribe and majority that showed support; instead it was the whole Gambia who contributed to the success of Adama Barrow. The issue of tribe and majority should be a thing of the past as looking at the Gambia there is no tribe that pays higher tax than the other and there is no majority that pay high than the Ministry, so the issue of tribe and majority is not important, even the laws of The Gambia is not for tribe or majority but everybody, so the President and all politicians should take note of that.
Finally, the reforms are not yet made and there can be social consequences to that as some of the institutions believed to be loyal to an individual rather than the people, this sometimes results to injustice in the administration of duties by institutions. We should know that institutions are supposed to be independent and fair enough to be able to carry out their duties according to the dictates of law.
These are my concerns that I would like President Barrow to critically look at, analyze and address so that we live in peace in a free and prosperous Gambia.
