Many Gambians may have known by now that President Adama Barrow was not one of the brightest students of his time but little did many suspect their President may be afflicted by a disability to understand, read and pronounce English words and letters.
Though, some Gambians have already known that Mr. Barrow was not a first-rate student but are just beginning to understand the full extent of his struggle with English words and letters.
The struggle is becoming never-ending; an indication of slow intellectual progress or lack thereof.
The President’s intellectual capacity continues to expose him to public ridicule as well as bring collective shame to the population.
A former Gambian diplomat Samsudeen Sarr was struggling to understand whether President Barrow is not one person suffering from dyslexia.
Mr. Sarr has been exercising his mind to fathom why President Barrow is still pronouncing Covid as “Covic” three years on.
Barrow’s struggles with letters, words and pronunciation have made Sam to ask whether the Gambian leader is not another person affected by dyslexia.
But the President’s perceived slow intellectual growth was also brought to the fore last week by comedian Muhammed Darboe, who equated Mr. Barrow’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) to that of kindergarten children.
This may sound an unfair criticism but the President’s apparent lack of grasp of certain issues and poor delivery in terms of speeches continue to put him in awkward situations.
Comedian Darboe’s insinuation that giving Barrow the words “At Variance” was like overstretching his intellectual parameter may sound hilarious to some and offensive to others but many say it accentuates the significance of intellectual nourishment on the part of the President.
To avoid faux pas at all times, some Gambians have advised President Barrow to open the pages and read.
“Listening to radio and watching TV will also strengthen him, intellectually,” one commentator wrote.
Bullshit, really bullshit!! I am no fan of Adama neither will I ever be. That said, equating mispronunciations of a foreign language, even if persistent that is, is nothing short of the same intellectual dyslexia you are pseudo-diagnosing him with.
You have not indicated a single example to gauge his cognitive abilities on any recognized scale. Just blabbering that he is cognitively disabled because he pronounced words “wrong”, in a language you are enslaved and culturally castrated with, in which you yourself have no significant or better fluency than Adama, is at best hypocritical and at worst barbaric.