Gambians Call for President Adama Barrow to Resign

Aljazeera reports that yesterday, thousands of Gambians who are part of of the pro-democracy movement Three Years Jotna (Three Years Enough), took to the streets to call for President Adama Barrow to resign. This comes after the statesman committed to a three-year presidential tenure after he took office back in 2017.

After twenty-three years in power, former President Yahya Jammehwas defeated in the presidential election held in December of 2016. However, because Jammeh would not concede to defeat and step down as president, Barrow (along with a coalition of several other political parties and civil society groups) eventually managed to end the political deadlock.

At the time, Barrow had committed to serving a presidential term of three years and not the full five-year term. He has now reneged on his decision and is determined to serve the full five-year term. As a result, Gambians are now protesting against the decision although constitutionally, Barrow is allowed to serve the full term as a democratically-elected president.

Three Years Jotna has issued a petition to President Barrow, part of which reads as follows:

"Your excellency, the Gambian people desires for such a democratic foundation in the Gambia, which you agreed, promised and pledged to deliver for them after 3 years. We send you this petition, as members and supporters of that course, to remind you that, it is now 3 years, which marks the end of your transitional government."

Describing President Barrow's tenure, Madi Jobarteh, one of The Gambia's prominent human rights activists says, "In my view, his time has been a missed opportunity." He adds that, "What we have come to see is Barrow going against his own promises and adopting some practices of the former regime, not in terms of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, but with the disfigurement of rule of law, lack of transparency and misuse of public resources."