With the presidential elections fast approaching, the political temperature is gingerly rising in The Gambia. Consequently, concrete measures should be immediately taken to temper the mounting political tension.
The onus is on the Head of State to promote peace and stability as the country edges to presidential polls in December. In his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the President is primarily charged with maintaining peace and security in the country at all costs. His statements and actions have the potential to enhance or jeopardize national security.
Political leaders across the board are duty-bound to equally preach peace and promote sanity to avert looming pre-election violence that a tiny and homogeneous nation like the Gambia cannot afford. Political leaders must rein in their renegade supporters bent on hurling insults or assaulting those who do not share their political views. Leaders of political leaders must roundly and unequivocally condemn derogatory and incendiary statements.
We must learn to accommodate and tolerate convergent and divergent views. Your vote is your voice; hence you can use it to vote in or vote out a politician. In other words, one does not need to resort to violence to push their political agenda.
Issues affecting the lives and the livelihoods of Gambians must be the preoccupation of politicians and their supporters.
On the attack against the UDP voter registration monitoring team in Kanilai, I roundly condemn it because the settlement is part of The Gambia and must not be off-limits. Every political party must have access to any part of the country without hindrance. If the people of Kanilai do not want to vote for a particular party of a politician, they can simply wait until the election day to pass their verdict.
Maintaining peace is everybody’s business, and it must be jealously guarded.
Editor's note:
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