By Seedy Jobe
A senior official of the United Independents for Transformative Empowerment (UNITE) has accused President Adama Barrow’s administration of obstructing development initiatives by the Kanifing Municipal Council before criticizing the council over its performance.
MC Cham Jr., KMC’s business councillor and UNITE’s national campaign manager, made the remarks in a statement shared with Kerr Fatou on Sunday. He was responding to recent comments by President Barrow in Lamin questioning waste management in the municipality.
Cham Jr. described the president’s remarks as politically motivated and said they were implicitly directed at KMC Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda, even though the president did not mention him by name.
He argued that the central government had made it more difficult for the council to improve service delivery, pointing to what he described as a D13.1 million tax levy imposed when KMC sought to purchase refuse collection trucks.
According to Cham Jr., the government could have waived the levy because the vehicles were intended to provide an essential public service. Despite the additional cost, he said, the council proceeded with the purchase of 23 refuse collection trucks, which he credited with improving waste collection across the municipality.
Cham Jr. said the president’s criticism failed to acknowledge that investment and accused him of presenting an incomplete picture of the council’s waste-management efforts.
He also cited KMC’s D300 million road project as another example of what he described as interference by the central government. Cham Jr. said the council had paid D40 million to the contractor before the project encountered obstacles that he attributed to the National Roads Authority.
He argued that it was inconsistent for the president to criticize the state of services in KMC while, in his view, agencies under the central government had impeded some of the council’s development initiatives.
Cham Jr. further maintained that waste management should not be treated solely as the responsibility of local councils, arguing that the central government also has a role because waste disposal has implications for public health and the environment.
He questioned what support the Ministry of Environment has provided to local authorities to improve sanitation nationwide. He also recalled “Operation Clean the Nation,” an initiative under former President Yahya Jammeh in which the central government worked with councils on nationwide cleaning exercises.
Cham Jr. called on President Barrow to apply the same level of scrutiny to councils controlled by the governing National People’s Party. He questioned how many of those councils own refuse collection trucks or operate comprehensive waste-management programs, arguing that criticism directed at KMC while overlooking other councils amounted to selective accountability.
Turning to the country’s electricity problems, Cham Jr. said the government should focus greater attention on persistent power outages. He noted that a generator was used during President Barrow’s meeting in Lamin because of an electricity outage, adding that many Gambians do not have the means to secure alternative power when the national supply fails.
He also criticized the condition of some recently constructed roads, saying flooding during the rainy season had exposed inadequate drainage. He questioned why roads built with substantial public funds were unable to withstand regular rainfall.
Cham Jr. also accused government officials of applying different standards to public-opinion surveys. He said officials had embraced polls predicting President Barrow’s victory ahead of the 2021 presidential election but were now questioning a recent survey that showed Bensouda performing strongly in the West Coast Region.
While acknowledging the president’s right to scrutinize KMC’s performance, Cham Jr. said such criticism should also take into account actions by the central government that he believes have hindered the council’s work.
He urged the administration to cooperate with local authorities rather than obstruct their initiatives and later fault them for shortcomings in service delivery. Leadership, he said, requires the government to take responsibility for challenges including electricity shortages, infrastructure deficiencies and public services rather than shifting blame to political opponents.
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