By Madi Jobarteh
Building The new Gambia: Today is Freedom Day. Adama Barrow Is Our Chief Servant
This is a new day. This is a new dawn. This is a new chapter. This is history. January 19 is Gambia Freedom Day. All thanks and praises to the Almighty God and to We the People for making this great achievement! Congratulations Gambians. Congratulations Adama Barrow.
I wish to register my gratitude also to the leaders of the Coalition for coming together in the supreme interest of the Gambia to put up a single candidate, which we have been yearning for in the past 20 years. Indeed our achievements demonstrate that if we unite and stand firm and determined, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. I hope and pray that that unity and determination in the supreme interest of the Gambia continues to prevail and grow in strength forever and ever.
To all Gambians, know that from this moment there is only one Chief Servant of the Republic of the Gambia and that is Mr. Adama Barrow. By our Constitution we have decided to give him our power and voice to represent us. By our Constitution, we have given him the task to manage the affairs and the resources of our country. By our Constitution, we have tasked him only two jobs. First to defend the Constitution in which our rights and freedoms are guaranteed under Chapter 4. Secondly we have tasked him to satisfy our needs as per our Constitution as guaranteed in Chapter 4 by managing our budget and resources for the purpose of delivering public goods and services to us, and creating the opportunities and enabling environment for our personal and collective development. This means he should put in place the right policies, laws, institutions and processes and provide them the necessary resources to function efficiently and effectively with transparency and accountability. This is what we have asked Adama Barrow to do according to the rule of law as specified in our Constitution. In respecting the rule of law, it means he must respect and protect the separation of powers principle and the independence and professionalism of public institutions and public officers as specified in our Constitution. This is his job as the Chief Servant of the Gambia. Nothing more. Nothing less.
We did not appoint Adama Barrow as our Chief Servant to begin to acquire huge titles and to speak to us with disrespect. We did not appoint him to tell us lies and give us excuses. We did not appoint him to steal our resources and violate our rights and freedoms. We did not appoint Adama Barrow to divide us and inject tribalism, nepotism, favoritism and religious bigotry in our society. We did not appoint Adama Barrow to waste our time and our resources with empty talk and foolishness. We did not appoint Adama Barrow to look low upon us. We did not appoint Adama Barrow to damage the supreme interest of Gambia and Gambians in any way and at anytime.
We have appointed Adama Barrow as our Chief Servant only to be our Servant. To serve us in the best of his abilities. We want him to be honest to himself and to God and Country. Were he made mistakes or failed, we expect him to accept his responsibilities and tell us the truth. We appoint Adama Barrow to respect us and listen to us. We expect him to bear with us and have patience to hear our concerns and issues and put himself on the path to address them. We will ask him questions. We will be impatient with him. We will doubt him. We will shout at him. But these are our rights and he must accept them as such. He is our Servant and we are his Master. Our Constitution has classified him as a Public Servant, not a Public Master. He must bear this in mind. We therefore wish that Adama Barrow would only use his leadership to generate an environment of fairness and justice, as well as unity and responsibility in our country. These are what we will use to judge him as either a good or bad servant.
From today therefore, my fellow Gambians I want to call on you to reject Yaya Jammeh as a Criminal, a Bandit, a Thief and a Liar who has flouted every rule in our Constitution and polluted our Sovereignty. He has breached our contract with him as specified in our Constitution, hence he is nothing other than a Criminal. He must face justice for damaging the supreme interest of the Gambia and Gambians.
To all Public Servants including members of the armed and security services, from today you are answerable to only Adama Barrow as your Chief Servant and Commander-in-Chief. You are all Servants and your chief is Adama Barrow. You are all appointed by We the People to do only one thing: To serve We the People. No more. No less. Hence take your instructions from your Chief Servant in order to serve the people of the Gambia in line with the Constitution of the Gambia.
By this same token, remember that you are only required by our Constitution to receive and carry out only lawful instructions and orders. You are not required by law to take any unlawful instruction and order. If you have been given an instruction or order by Adama Barrow, which is not lawful, you have the right and authority to refuse that unlawful order and instruction. But if you carry out any unlawful instruction and order, rest assured you shall be personally responsible for the damage that it will cause to the law and rights of Gambians. You are not a servant of Adama Barrow, but rather you are a servant of the People of the Gambia. You and Adama Barrow are all the Servants of the People. This is the New Gambia!
God Bless the New Gambia!