He firstly clarified that though his government has not yet taken a decision on their request, he stated that these are government policy decisions.
President Barrow made the response in an interview with journalists at the State House at the climax of the 2022 ‘meet with the people’ tour that covered all regions, in which some Imams made appeals to President Barrow to allocate monthly salaries for them.
However, President Barrow confirmed that Alkalos (Village leaders) are different from Imams, adding that Alkalos are directly representing and working under government at community level. “So, the Alkalos are doing a service for the communities and they are directly under government.”
He commended Imams for doing a very good job for their communities on voluntary basis.
“We will look at it, because we want to support, especially our community leaders. The Imams are doing a very good work for their communities which is a voluntary job. Government is all about policies. We will sit down and assess it,” he concluded.
It could be recalled that President Adama Barrow embarked on his constitutional meet with the people tour under the theme “together we can accelerate socio-economic growth and maintain peace and stability” to give an opportunity to communities across the country to disclose their concerns and challenges faced through directly meeting with the head of state for possible interventions.
