President Adama Barrow has emphasized that former President Yahya Jammeh’s tenure is ended and urged him to acknowledge his status as a former head of state.
The past president is the only job he has left, and I want him to keep it. At a meeting with Foni villagers over the weekend at his home in Mankamang Kunda, President Barrow declared, “It is an honorary position.”
That is now his only title, whether Jammeh likes it or not, Barrow continued, calling Jammeh’s recent declarations that he will return to The Gambia “mere politics.”
“If he really wanted to come back, he would have attended his mother’s funeral,” Barrow said, noting that Jammeh remains in self-imposed exile in Equatorial Guinea. “Nobody chased him from this country. The Gambia belongs to all of us.”
The president also counseled Jammeh to pray for national peace and maintain his composure. “We should exercise mindfulness as humans. He warned, “Today is here, but tomorrow is coming — and we don’t know what it brings.”
President Barrow’s remarks follow Jammeh’s recent assertion that ECOWAS officials told him that the coalition government’s members were uncomfortable with his staying in the country because of his “massive support” from the military and the general populace.
In direct opposition to Barrow’s claim of self-exile, Jammeh also claimed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been established that permitted him to return to The Gambia without any restrictions within six months.
