Barrow Accuses Political Rivals of Looking Down on Rural Gambians

By Makutu Manneh

President Adama Barrow has accused some of his political rivals of looking down on rural Gambians, casting himself and his coalition as more attuned to the concerns of provincial communities as the country moves closer to the Dec. 5 presidential election.

Speaking in Passy Chally in the Lower Niumi District during his annual Meet the People Tour, Mr. Barrow said some politicians neither understood rural communities nor had confidence in their people.

“There are politicians who look down on provincial communities,” Mr. Barrow said. “They do not know provincial communities; they don’t have hope in you, and they do not respect you.”

Mr. Barrow argued that effective leadership required familiarity with the people being governed. Invoking religion, he said that even prophets were chosen from among their own people because they understood the communities they were sent to lead.

The remarks came during a 19-day nationwide tour that began on Oct. 1 and includes public meetings, visits to development projects, and inauguration ceremonies. The annual tour is a constitutional requirement, but this year’s exercise is unfolding just weeks before the presidential election, giving Mr. Barrow another platform to promote his government’s record.

Mr. Barrow also pushed back against opposition arguments that improvements in rural electrification were financed by taxes paid by Gambians and should therefore not be presented as a special achievement of his administration.

He questioned why, if taxes alone were sufficient to deliver such projects, previous governments had not provided comparable electricity access over several decades.

Mr. Barrow attributed his administration’s expansion of electricity access to what he described as strategy, expertise, confidence, and a commitment to national development. His government has made infrastructure, including electricity, a central part of its case for another term.

Turning to the December election, Mr. Barrow portrayed the vote as a choice over the country’s future direction and urged Lower Niumi residents to support his coalition.

He described his political alliance as a group of experienced strategists who believed in the country and its rural communities.

Mr. Barrow has increasingly used development projects and his administration’s record as central themes in his campaign for another term. In recent appearances, he has similarly urged voters to judge political leaders by their records and their engagement with communities.