PPP’s Sidia Bayo Launches ‘We are Barrow’ 2021 Movement

Sheikh Sidia Bayo, a French-Gambian businessman and a people’s Progressive Party (PPP) political activist, has declared his full support to incumbent President Adama Barrow ahead of the December elections.

Sidia Bayo was a vocal activist within the Gambian diaspora struggling to end the long-term reign of Yahya Jammeh.  Bayo said he’s back into the Gambia to support President Adama Barrow, who, he said ‘liberated’ us from 22 years of tyranny.

“Aware of the major conflict of interest in the 2016 coalition, blocking any action by the transitional government, I Sheikh Sidia Bayo decided to integrate the Gambian political arena to prepare support of the one who liberated us from 22 years of tyranny, President Adama Barrow,” he said at a press conference.

Bayo, a member of the People’s Progressive Party, said he carefully considered the need to establish his political movement to support the incumbent Gambian President over the last 4 years. “We choose to support Adama Barrow. And from that initiative I decided personally to set this movement I called ‘we are Barrow’ 2021” said

“What I also want the president to understand is that we’re a new political base from that movement to prepare the next policies of his government after 2021. I am very confident that a new coalition could be in the pipeline with PPP,” he continued.

The faces behind ‘We are Barrow’ 2021 Movement.’

“I cannot mention all their names, but you already know those eight MP’s that were dismissed from the UDP, Hon Saikou Marong, Fatoumatta Jawara, and others. What I can tell you is that I am going to meet the President, with Saihou Marong, to discuss the strategies”.

Bayo said he wants to make a difference, not for his personal interest but to help the president. “Because I also think that there are some people around the president who are not telling him the truth.”

Sidia may consider a position if Barrow wins.

“After the presidential election, anything is possible. I would never accept a position if I cannot be independent. I would never accept a national position or duty if I cannot have freedom of expression and if I cannot prepare my generation to come after President Adama Barrow,” he said.

However, Bayo told local newspapers in 2018 that he has ‘no political ambition’. Rather, he was in the country to promote peaceful democracy to consolidate the defeat of dictatorship.