For the past few weeks, the Presidency and the NPP were immersed in massive logistical preparations for President Barrow’s tour of the nation.
In just minutes to go, Mr. Barrow and a huge security detail and his supporters will begin traversing the country, in what, the government spokesperson Ebrima G. Sankareh also described as a Rendezvous With The People.
While other descriptions such as Meet The Farmers Tour were also used, the chief justification of the tour remains the same!
Indeed, it’s a tour that’s mandated to enable the President feel the pulse and hear the heartbeat of the nation!
In less complicated way, the tour should allow the President to get more enlightened of the miseries of the masses as over 50 per cent of The Gambia’s population were recently swept under the poverty line.
Yes, as Mr. Barrow comes face to face with Gambians, who should be speaking to him from the recesses of their heart, reawakening is expected to occur and vitals lessons may be learnt.
Reawakening on the economic, social, security and other fronts should be one of the by-products of this tour.
In this turbulent economic times, requiring frugality and austere fiscal measures, we hope the NPP will not overrun the tour and transform it into a political jamboree and consequently distract from the tour’s objective.
Wowing and thrilling the countrypeople with mechanical herds of glistening state-maintained vehicles, fanfare, merrymaking, picnicking and unbridled excitement could deduct from the tour’s ends and that’ll be monumentally unfair to poor, hungry Gambians.
Meanwhile, instead of the perennial excuses of the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as spanners in the wheel of his government, Mr. Barrow and his team should be able to show Gambians their crisis management and problem solving knack.
Enough of this scapegoating, we believe!
Show Gambians how you can improve their economic, emotional and physical health by making life liveable.
Let’s stick to the rule book and use the tour for the intended purpose because there are myriad stories of miseries that the President and his delegation should be confronted with as they push on.
