The Stinking Double Standards Under The Barrow Administration

By SCARECROW

It was the news on GRTS tv this week that Religious affairs affair minister Hamat Bah hosted a meeting in his office. use headline and by same design color and logo

The issue: to get one imam to apologize to the Manjago community for remarks he reported made three years ago.

It was learned from the same news item that, strangely, someone else, another person – not the accused imam – had posted the remarks on social media.

And, the imam was now being summoned by the minister to his office, and asked to apologize – which the imam did on camera.

Meanwhile, the person who posted the supposedly offensive statement on social media was not identified in the news report nor by the minister’s office, and seen to be held accountable.

And, you may want to ask why they did not go after that person or the medium which published the supposedly offending statement!

And, about Hamat Bah calling the meeting we want to further ask whether – going by his own record – Hamat Bah was fit to convene and preside at such a meeting?

We heard him in the news item pontificating about making someone apologize for calling Manjagos “unbelievers” – a characterization Muslims routinely utter against all non-Muslims – and prosecuting him should he fail to do so.

And, you wonder under what law, since the Bah himself told us in the same breath that a bill was being prepared for such matters.

And, would it be fair to ask, and here and now, whether Hamat Bah, the NAM Jawara and others before them (Dembo By Force?) should be among the first to be charged and arraigned, under the law reportedly being contemplated by the Barrow administration?

That is, if only it were possible to make it retroactive!

Meanwhile, the accused imam apparently easier to victimize, was now being paraded and humiliated in front of the GRTS cameras (like they did in the second republic) – usually the mindset of government officials – to teach others a lesson?

The meeting shown on tv was attended by the heads of the Supreme Islamic council and Gambia Christian council, among others.

Representatives of the Manjago community in the Gambia, led by its head, identified as one Alhage…Gomez attended.

Thankfully, Gomez in his remarks pointed out that the issue was a not a religious matter, but concerns words directed at the Manjago community as an ethnic group.

Thus you wonder why then involve the Religious affairs ministry and national religious councils.

And, you also wonder whether Hamat Bah was not abusing his power and his office by convening such a meeting to compel the imam to self-incriminate.

For there was Hamat Bah asserting that the man would have been prosecuted, but it was later decided give him a chance and bring him to his office, and make him to apologize.

He went on to declare that the Gambia government was, in fact, right now processing a bill which would address remarks deemed as hate speech etc when uttered in this country.

And, talking of apologizing and prosecution for uttering statements deemed to be unfair attacks on ethnic groups in the country, one wonders if Hamat Bah would – under such law if only it were possible to make it retroactive – be among the first to be charged.

Especially, following and based on his recent and latest attacks on the Mandinkas and Gambians of Lebanese origin – at the recent NPP rally in Farafenni!

The same could be said concerning the remarks delivered in the Kaur area of the lower Saloum NAM Jawara, who on national tv voiced support and amplified Hamat Bah’s utterances at the NPP alliance rally held there.

Jawara it was on Facebook has since reportedly apologized, for behaviour believed by all right-thinking persons as unbecoming of a so-called “honorable” member of the Gambian legislature!

Now, the reader may also not note well that Jawara’s remarks were made during what was supposed to be the ongoing meet-the-people tour 2026 – not during the time for the purely partisan official hustings authorized by the IEC under the laws of the Gambia.

This annual state-funded tour is for Adama Barrow to meet, at least once a year, communities of Gambians in all corners of the country, strictly for the purposes sanctioned by the constitution.

However, it’s plain for all to see that the tour this year – deliberately scheduled just five weeks before the December 5 presidential election – is being misused by Barrow for campaigning for re-election for a third term.

And, this is happening when the official campaigning period is yet to be formally announced by the IEC.

And, so we all see Barrow and his NPP alliance as usual jumping the gun; and, engaging in the latest in a string of multiple recorded instances of blatant abuse of incumbency!

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