Leading human rights activist Madi Jobarteh, has told President Adama Barrow’s advisor, Duo Sanno, that it is necessary to let him know where he belongs and who he is so that he will know where to engage himself and what to say or not.
Jobarteh class for the outspoken Presidential advisor was made available on Thursday claiming that Sanno’s attacked Gambian civil society, activists and blames them for the denial of the existence of Corona virus in the country in a local newspaper.
Sanno was quoted in the newspaper saying “if CSOs had educated the people about the virus then today we would not have the denial syndrome.”
He went further to lambast CSOs and activists for criticizing the Government and threatened that they must stop abusing the democratic space. Pathetic to say the least.
“For that matter presidential advisors are public servants. As public servants they are guided by the Constitution in terms of their conduct under Section 222. Similarly, public servants are guided by the Public Service Act and the General Orders. I have no doubts that Dou had not read and understood these documents quite well otherwise he would not have said that entire BS he stated on the local newspaper,” Jobarteh said.
Starting his lesson with the Presidential advisor, Jobateh put it to Dou that in the wake of the Corona virus, CSOs and activists were the first to launch public sensitization as well as provision of hand sanitizers and hand washing materials to members of the general public.
“Well before President Barrow issued his first State of Public Emergency on 18th March 2020, it was CSOs and activists who rushed to social media asking the Government to close the borders. Today any good action that this Government does right one will find that CSOs and activists have already advised them to do so but they refused until it is too late,” leading human rights activist Jobarteh said.
He pointed out that civil society organizations and activists are not enemies of the Gambia Government or President Adama Barrow, stressing that main issue is that CSOs and activists only want to see the success of the Gambia Government.
Jobarteh continued that the role of CSOs in that regard is to provide support directly to individuals and communities across the country as well as to the Government itself.
He added that it is open secret that CSOs are engaging actively to support farmers, women, youth, persons with disabilities and other members in the communities on a daily basis.
“CSOs have built schools, clinics, provided farming tools and seeds to farmers and provided knowledge and skills to an array of citizens to empower them gain self-employment or obtain skills to enhance their livelihoods. CSOs support small and medium scale businesses with capital, skills, and tools. At the same time CSOs have embarked on massive sensitization of communities about climate change, HIV/AIDS, malaria, harmful traditional practices, human rights, and Corona virus, among others. Above all CSOs have provided training, equipment and resources to uncountable public institutions and security agencies at central and local levels all the time to enhance their capacity,” he pointed out.
