The donation of a brand new car by president Barrrow to a newly elected member of parliament, Birom Sowe, without adequate explanation of the provenances of such funds should be a great source of concern to all. This follows a similar move in which 57 pickup trucks were given to MPs, the source of which was shrouded in secrecy at the time. Gambians were told an “anonymous” donor gave those vehicles to the government.
It’s the understanding of Gunjuronline the brand new car costs nothing less than a million dalasi which could have been better used to support development projects and strengthen public institutions.
While hospitals are going without adequate equipment and medication, President Barrow is spending huge sums of money on political activities is unacceptable. What is of grave concern to GunjurOnline is the source of the millions of Dalasis being spent on frivolous activities for political expediency at the expense of tangible development policies geared towards the greater good of the majority of impoverished Gambians who voted for change that brought in a coalition government in 2016.
Barrow is setting a bad example for our country with his flaunting of material gains at the expense of system change.This is not the system change we voted for when Gambians took to the polls in 2016 to end the two-decade tyranny of Yahya Jammeh.
Why is it that when Gambians have great great hope that a new leader will fulfill their desires for a better and prosperous Gambia, the leaders turn out to engage in activities for self perpetuating rule at the expense of development agendas that will lift majority of Gambians out of poverty. Why is it that after 55 years of self rule, most Gambians still live on less that a dollar a day? Gambians are increasingly becoming politically aware and are now prepared to vote politicians who will not look inwards as soon as they are handed the keys to 1 Marina Parade. Gambians will vote based on clearly defined and sound development and democratic policies to lift majority of the citizens out of abject poverty.
The government continue to give deaf ears to the cries of the people of Kombo as continue to experience issues of land, environmental degradation, pollution and depletion of natural resources, not only by foreign owned companies, but locally owned mining companies who continue to destroy the beautiful sand dunes and the livelihoods of women vegetable growers up and down the Kombo Coast.
Gunjuronline calls on the government to allocate more resources to health, education, agriculture and other vital sectors in order to create a better life for the citizenry. We call on the government to disclose the source of the millions of Dalasis that were used in the by-elections in Nyamina West and Kerr Jarga. We further call on the government to disclose the source of funds used to buy a brand new vehicle for Birom Sowe that was presented to him in front of the cameras at the NPP victory celebrations in Banjul last Saturday.