The freshly sworn-in Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda has said he would reach out to President Adama Barrow on Monday to seek his support in his development plans for Kanifing Municipality (KM).
Speaking on the occasion of his swearing-in ceremony at the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) at the weekend, Bensouda said: “We will continue to ask for more decentralisation of functions from the central government in order to take more responsibility for the needs of the people of KM. To serve our people better and more efficiently, we will also seek to realise the changes to the relevant legislation so that the council can be granted more autonomy.
Giving synopsis of his plans, the mayor stated: “We invite the government of the Gambia to let go of more authority to KMC so that we can ease its development burden. This will enable the government to focus more on increasing its oversight function to guide us and to assist us increase our capacity to serve our people.
“The people of KMC demand more rapid development. The people of KMC deserve rapid development. On Monday, I will call on his Excellency to extend the collaborative hand of council to seek his support.”
He further pledged to work with the government as partners to collaborate over the next 4 years to demonstrate to the people that through unity they could deliver even faster developments.
“We are energised and motivated and are ready to work harder than ever for the people of KM,” he said determinedly.
The mayor also paid tribute to the recently fallen Tuku Jallow, who he said was “a woman of substance with great empathy for the underprivileged, who worked tirelessly to better the lives of people” throughout the country.
