The journalist and human rights activist Fatou Jaw Manneh has on Tuesday resigned from her position of Honorary Presidential Adviser on Strategic Communications, Development, and Emerging Social Issues. Her resignation came two months after her appointment.
Explaining the reasons behind her resignation, Fatou Jaw Manneh said President Adama Barrow’s party NPP to ally with Yahya Jammeh’s APRC has many implications for governance and integrity associated with her roles and functions. “I can’t entirely agree with the conceptual framework of the alliance, and it is my firm belief that this particular alliance undermines the integrity of your government and jeopardizes everything I stood for as a journalist, activist, politician, community worker, learner, and educator. “
She added that she was not against some form of amnesty at a later date to Jammeh and his cohorts of abusers in the name of peace and reconciliation. However, she describes the Alliance as unimaginable and an insult to Gambians.
Moreover, Fatou states that from an ethical perspective, allying with APRC is a total miscalculation of Gambians’ spirit of “NEVER AGAIN” and a direct insult to the victims of Jammeh’s 22 years rule of terror.
“I would instead support you on that trajectory and lose elections than you win elections with a formal alliance with a dictator on these fraudulent terms, that not only undermine our quest for democracy but shows an outright abuse of power and your weak leadership.”
According to Fatou Jaw Manneh, the new NPP-APRC alliance clearly demonstrates that President Barrow has no authority and is not in control. “This deal does not only show the lack of will-to-power as a leader, but that your party has been hijacked under your nose, the march to democracy undermined, AND VOTES AT ANY COST MIGHT LEAD TO A POLITICAL GRAVE.”
[…] The Chronicle […]