“As a country, we are failing and heading in the wrong direction. It is a predictable outcome of a failure of leadership. We are witnessing the high cost of living and it's getting worse every day. Many find it hard to get a basic need for their families and this has been made more glaring in the just-ended month of Ramadan.”
He added that not long ago, the president proposed to convene what was said at a national dialogue; “our collective responsibility in preserving the nation, safeguarding the state and securing our resources”.
Darboe noted that the president who has been in charge of the country for five years calling for a dialogue on what is essentially a core function of the government he leads, is a failure.
“To invite his political competitors to give speeches cannot be termed as a serious national dialogue. It is closer to a televised mimicry disguised as a serious conversation about a nation facing serious challenges.”
The UDP leader calls on the president to wake up to the deep and serious problems the country faces, saying the first is the need for him to cool down and the need to abandon the dangerous polarisation he and his alliances have injected into the politics of the nation.
“To call a national unity from a government that has fractured and deeply divided communities and even families in the process of political power will ring horror.”
He calls on the president to wake up to the threat drugs pose to our country while emphasising that drugs are taking root in our society, destroying our youths and corrupting the governance infrastructure.
“Drugs and drug use directly increase crime rates in any society where they are prevalent and nothing is closer to a national emergency than this menace. The president must convene an inter-agency taskforce comprised of the Drug Law Agency, the police, military, SIS and other law enforcement agencies, local councils, religious leaders and ward-level volunteers tasked exclusively to tackling drugs and their effect in the country.”
Among other things he highlighted is the need for the Barrow government to fight corruption.
