President Adama Barrow has again been boasting. Speaking in Kerewan NBR recently, Barrow declared that it was his wish to build and open eight (political) bureaus in the country.
“I opened one in Basse, Bansang, Wassu, and Jarra Soma, and now I’m opening the bureau in Kerewan. Banjul is ready to open on Saturday, and the bureau in Brikama will open within a month.” The NPP national political bureau is located in Serekunda.
When you see on television the type of buildings being inaugurated now by Barrow’s ruling NPP party, one cannot help but feel that they cost millions of dollars.
From the physical structures we see built, one is also bound to believe that the NPP led by Adama Barrow must be filthy rich!
And, no doubt, by far wealthier than its predecessors – Yahya Jammeh’s APRC and Sir Dawda Jawara’s PPP.
Of course, the opposition parties, which were never in office as the ruling party in the Gambia, are no match for Barrow and his NPP in terms of displayed resources.
Then, logically, Gambians will and must ask the question: Where is the money coming from to erect the regional bureaus?
Therefore, we repeat: Where is the money coming from to set up all these NPP political bureaus nationwide? The flaunting of wealth is definitely worrying and should raise suspicion.
Also, as is his nature, Barrow again has been mocking his political opposition by saying that they use …as political bureaus.
Some say it is because he is “clueless,” which is a common description of Barrow by his detractors, one of whom has now joined the NPP bus and gravy train.
The NPP leader does not realize that, through his utterances and exhibitionism, he has been exposing himself and his party in government to people’s curiosity about the basis and source of NPP’s financial prowess.
And since we claim to be a state with the rule of law and effective, strong, and independent institutions, this kind of behavior cannot go unchallenged.
Definitely, at a time when we hear revelations of massive corrupt practices and abuses under a past regime in a neighboring state and where a political transition is underway, any suspicion of such behavior in Gambia should raise eyebrows.
Especially when we regularly have reports from official sources and the news media of unchecked corruption and vices such as drug trafficking in the Gambia and the sub-region.
This highlights the need to expedite reforms to tighten the financing of political parties, for the new anti-corruption law to kick in, and to seriously enforce the national regulations on monitoring and prevention of money laundering, among other things.
We recall that when the 2021 presidential election results were declared, one of the candidates lamented in a media interview that should money hold sway in the Gambian elections, the youths of this country would be the losers and suffer.
