Jammeh Attacks Barrow, But He Stays Silent: The Political Strategy Behind the President’s Calculated Approach
By: Pata Saidykhan
Adama BARROW is not intelligent but he’s intentionally smart when it comes to politics or the art of winning. He’s from the “any means necessary” school of thought.
On multiple occasions, Yaya Jammeh had called him out of his name. He called him a donkey and in the latest release he said Adama is a congenital liar and Satan’s grandfather. He has no respect for Barrow.
Now, why do you think Barrow never responded to Jammeh with the same energy coming at his direction, besides the passing dare that he won’t come back to the Gambia?
It certainly couldn’t have been cos he’s lost his tongue. It was not that he does not have/know what to say. He does.
The only reason he is not responding to all the shots coming from Jammeh is what defines his calculated smartness – NUMBERS!
Adama is NOT interested in Jammeh but he WANTS his supporters. And that perhaps explains why he never antagonized Mama KANDEH.
Politics in a multi-party democracy is a numbers game. In our case where the mathing isn’t as difficult cos the winner only needs ONE MORE goal than the rest to walk away with the “trophy”. The march to the trophy is multi-pronged but the most basic variable in all this is the AGGREGATION of the individual votes. EVERY and ANY vote counts.
In a country where party and leadership supports are almost inseparably conjoined at the hip, pissing off the leader/face of the party certainly infuriates, alienates their supporters. Adama understands this. He does not want, crave Jammeh’s support or endorsement. Would he take it if Jammeh throws his support behind him? GLADLY! Adama has no shame in how he beats his competition. He wants, craves and hunts Jammeh supporters’ VOTES. Kandeh is not able to do anything extraordinary for Barrow but Kandeh’s supporters that migrated with him are guaranteed ballots for Ado.
So Yaya gon call him all names and he’d be pissed as hell but won’t want to do anything that’d cost him even the low hanging fruits amongst Jammeh’s supporters.
There’s a genius to Barrow’s madness! At least on this one.
