Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the mayor of Kanifing Municipality Council (KMC) has urged Gambians to reject politics of hatred, racism, tribalism and division, saying "it's to nobody's advantage except the selfish politicians."
"I am urging all the different political parties in the country and to all sides of the political arena to always ensure that we keep our politics clean, informative and we keep it to the politics of ideas. Let's reject the politics of hate, racism, tribalism, division and to never allow that to create in our societies because it's to nobody's advantage but just for selfish politicians. The advantage of the society is to have peaceful elections, the election of ideas, unity and the election of respect."
Mayor Bensouda, who was speaking in an exclusive interview with The Point recently, said: "We want to encourage the electorates to keep rejecting that type of politics and of course the politics of corruption," he posited, while adding that "the politics of corruption where politicians are engaged in buying votes instead of selling their ideas."
Bakoteh Dumpsite
Commenting on the issues of the Bakoteh Dumpsite which has been an obstruction for inhabitants of the area, the KMC mayor, said: "The best thing to do is to have the dumpsite relocated. However, this is not something that is within the powers of the council. It's within the powers of the government because they are the people that issue lands, and secondly, KM is a built-up area and that there is no abandoned area where we can move the site to. If the site is to be moved, it has to be in a different region."
The government, he added is the only entity that can relocate a dumpsite. "We have worked with the government to a stage that we identified sites but the government is unwilling to pull the trigger because of the push-and-pull they had from communities they have identified. Therefore, the council is constrained on what to do. We are now focusing on what we can do and what we can control. What we can control is to improve the management within the dumpsite. For the past two years, there have been zero fire incidents. This is the first time in over 30 years there hasn't been fire incident at the Bakoteh Dumpsite."
The BMZ project which is mainly funded by the German government, he said, is a partnership between SOS who will contribute 15% and KMC will contribute 10% and the German government will contribute 75%.
Local Government Service Commission
Responding to a question about the Local Government Service Commission, Bensouda said: "The timing of the commission was wrong. It was designed by the initiators to give the council a disadvantage by creating a lot of narrative. We are not against the commission of inquiry; however what we are against is the commission being used as a political tool."
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"If the commission is about finding the truth and facts, we are not against it. Now that the election is over, I will be following the proceedings of the commission. KMC has always been at the forefront of fighting corruption; and we were at the forefront of decentralisation; and we were at the forefront of transparency and accountability. So if this is what the commission is trying to achieve, we will be supporters but we are also wary of the fact that it's initiated by political opponents who were hell-bent on removing us from office through the ballot."
"We encourage the commissioners to be upright citizens and to make sure that there is no interference. Obviously, I will answer to the commission if the commissioners need me."
