The Gambia Civil Society body, Tango, has asked President Adama Barrow and his government to recommit to guarantee the continued protection of the rights to free speech.

The body’s call was in response to Barrow’s Eid verbal attack on activist Madi Jobarteh, which raised concerns among Gambians.

“The people are watching. To the Executive, Mr. President and your Cabinet, please recommit yourselves and Government to guarantee the continued protection of our rights to speech, expression and assembly. 

“Let us work together to build our dear motherland. With the new cabinet in place, this is an opportunity to begin afresh to move The Gambia forward,” the body said in a statement. 

“Mr. President, our nation is plagued with a plethora of issues and challenges that are a more potent force to set the nation alight, that we want our government to address, than attack its citizens. 

“The increased corruption allegations without transparent investigations and prosecutions, high cost of living, poor service delivery by Public Institutions, erratic power supply and Internet connectivity, coupled with their outrageous charges, growing crime rate and fatal car accidents, high unemployment rate and so on. 

“The poor are getting poorer and Public Servants continue to erect mansions and allocate land to themselves,” it added.

“Every citizen has an inherent right to criticise its government and that right must be protected and not threatened or taken away. 

“The people defied all odds to elect you into office Mr. President and the people will do all in their power to guard against the infringement of their rights in any shape or form. 

“Mr. President, Gambian Civil Society is diverse and vibrant and has complemented the government efforts since the 70s.

“We have worked with communities and will continue to do so, in different parts of the country, intervening in the areas of Health, Education, Agriculture, Disaster Relief, Gender, Children and Youth, Good Governance, Transitional Justice, Human Resource Development, Elections Monitoring and Observation, Conflict mitigation and Resolutions, Mediations, Support to victims of Human Rights Violations, Food Security, Refugee Support, to name a few. 

“In all these interventions tremendous successes have been registered as the Government continually highlights,” the body continued.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba