By: Sheriffo Baiyo Sonko
Saihou Mballow should be the last person to call on anybody to respect or appreciate President Barrow. He was the first to disrespect the president by referring to him as ‘Jongo’ (slave).
Mballow once said that he couldn’t accept Barrow as his leader because he was from a lower caste in his region. So in the 2016 election, Mballow decided to support Mama Kandeh. Secondly, Mballow was the first person who protested against Barrow when he was elected president by the Gambian people.
Mballow and the president betrayed the party that made them who they are today. Mballow went to America through to seek asylum through UDP asylum, and he returned to the Gambia after the death of solo sandeng. The entire UDP leadership went to jail in the fight against dictatorship, which brought the change with the help of the Gambian electorate and coalition partners in 2016.
He refused to join or endorse Barrow because, according to him, Barrow Was a slab and not worth his support or endorsement. Regarding Solo Sandeng’s official funeral service, it was a great betrayal of what Solo had done or sacrificed to bring change which made president barrow to be the president.
If Barrow truly respected the legacy of Solo, he would have been present at the funeral service. But he decided to stay away from it, and now Mballow and other narrow-minded folks like him expected the UDP leaders and others who attended the funeral service to sing Barrow’s praises. For what? If the president wanted to be praised, why didn’t he do the right thing by following or sending folks like Mballow or Dembo By-Force to represent him and sing his praises?
Every genuine and intelligent Gambian knows that the president was ashamed to face solo sandeng family and Gambians because he betrayed Solo’s legacy. He appointed people who embraced and continue to defend the regime that tortured Solo to death and is never apologetic. If you entrust the country with people like Tombong Jatta by appointing him as the third most potent citizen, there’s no way you care about Solo Sandeng and what he stood and fought for. If Seedy Njie is your chief strategist and confidante, then you don’t care about Solo’s legacy. These are people who will never see Solo as the martyr that he is. They’ll never even admit that he was tortured to death.
So truth be told, Barrow had a choice between respecting Solo Sandeng’s legacy or embracing people who had no respect for Solo when he was alive and after he died. He decided to go for the latter. That’s the only reason he didn’t have the guts to attend his funeral service. He didn’t care. Period! So Saihou Mballow must be out of his mind to expect people to thank Barrow for Solo’s funeral and burial. But what do you expect from an opportunist who would say anything to continue living a fancy life he never lived before? He will continue to be the new rabble-rouser in town to keep his job. Dou Sanno, a griot and so-called political spokesperson of the president, should understand that The Gambian people are asking what president barrow did for solo Sandeng’s family and not what other patriotic Gambians did for the family. Attacking Solo’s family is the lowest he could go. A clown will always be a clown.
