Mai Fatty urges Barrow to convene national dialogue

Mai Ahmed Fatty, the leader of Gambia Moral Congress (GMC) has called on President Barrow to take the lead for national dialogue, arguing that political leaders must ignore political consideration and put the nation first.

“We must put partisan consideration aside and put the nation upfront. I think it will be better if the president takes the lead because it’s his responsibility to ensure that the nation is united. We elected him for the welfare of the nation and we elected him to take leadership in crisis like this. It’s his primary obligation to maintain stability and peace and most important thing; national unity,” he said last week during press conference with journalists.

The GMC leader added: “Today, the nation is divided and the prosecution of 3 Years Jotna leaders will further divide the nation. Among the measures that I intend to do is to engage all political stakeholders in the country for national dialogue. We want to see this country prosper. I will take initiative upon myself and I will meet, Ousainou Darboe, Halifa Sallah and President Barrow among others on the need for a national dialogue.”

According to him, the New Gambia was a nation of the ‘ballot’ and not ‘bullet.’ “We respected the presidency as a place of honour until it been transformed into venue for frequent ordinary political rallies that have no connection to national development or state matters,” he stated.

“The wounds inflicted by politicians are still very deep, and the bickering, the insincerity, the selfishness continues.”

Looking for a way out of this crisis, he added, our people have turned to The Gambia government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our national life. The gap between our citizens and our government, he went on, has never been so wide. “The people are looking for honest answer; clear leadership, not false claims, evasiveness and politics as usual.”

Mai Fatty said what one sees often around the country is a system of government that seems ‘incapable of action.’ “The same depressive trend is what you find in many political parties and citizen groups. You see every extreme position defended almost to the last breathe by one unyielding group or another.”

The erosion of our confidence in the future, Mr. Fatty said, is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of The Gambia. “It is the idea which anchored our struggle against tyranny and had guided our development as a people.

Confidence in the future, he continued, had supported our struggle from dictatorship to democracy, in the potentials of our public institutions, our private enterprise, our own families, and the very constitution of The Gambia.