Coalition
standard bearer Adama Barrow has called on Gambians across the country to use
their votes to redeem themselves and The Gambia from “oppression and
dictatorship”, to which they have been subjected for 22 years.
Barrow
made this remark in Basori Kombo East, Brufut and Jambur at the weekend, after
being welcomed to the Kombos, from his 8-day tour in the provincial areas, by
thousands of people who took to the streets on Friday to rally behind and
demonstrate their support for the Coalition.
Adama
Barrow told the cheering crowds that the leadership of the current government
had been exercising its will on the people, and cared less about their feelings
and the oppression they faced.
“We
have all seen what has been happening to us for the last 22 years, and these
included suffering, poverty, forced disappearance and torture; and we had
nothing to do about it, because you are scared of being targeted or sent to
exile. Now is the time for us to end all these by using our votes to express
our anger, and say ‘enough is enough’ and it is us who gave him power, but if
he is abusing it, we should take it back to free ourselves from hell.”
Barrow
added that “it is now time for the Gambian people to fight against dictatorship
in the country by using your votes; nothing else, no violence, no fighting,
just to vote for the coalition: ‘one Gambia one people’, and experience again
what the good life is.”
Halifa
Sallah, spokesperson of the coalition, told the cheering crowd that the only
way they could end their sufferings is by using their votes to make a change,
and that if they failed to do so, it means they would keep on suffering until
they die.
Folonko
Bojang, a resident of Kombo Jambur, in his message to the jubilant crowd of
people, said that since 1994 “the country had been going backwards instead of
forward, all because of bad governance”.
“We
have suffered enough because we are farmers and very poor, but we would not
like our children to be poor also and experience such ordeals as us in their
lives. So the best thing to do is to have a change of government and usher in a
government of the people, that listens to and works with the people to ensure
everybody contributes their ideas, skills and knowledge in making The Gambia a
great nation.
“We
don’t want a situation where the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer;
so vote for the coalition, come December 1.”
Dr
Isatou Touray, another member of the coalition, said the Gambian women in the
past 22years have been used to vote in the government of the day, and not to
really empower themselves. She made this remark at a rally in Kombo Farato on
Sunday.
She
mentioned how female gardeners have been struggling to sell their produce in stark
competition with what is being produced by the country’s leader, among other
actions that are meant at keeping them only as voters and not really to change
their economic, social and political status.
“Now
it is time for us the women to fight for ourselves, just by using our votes and
putting it in the right place; that is, the coalition, which will make women
their first priority, because we are the mothers, sisters and wives and in
every society women are always important.”
Mam
Ceesay, a coalition supporter, in her remarks, told her fellow women that every
five years they are told the same thing: that “if you vote for us we will do
this and that”, and they would vote. But over the years they had not realised
any real change in their socio-economic condition.
“Enough
is enough! We women have suffered enough; therefore, we will now change the way
we do things by voting for the coalition, under ‘one people one voice’, come
December 1,” she said.