What happened between UMC National President Ebrima Dibba and the First Lady Fatoumata Bah Barrow was unfortunate but difficult to ignore!
Therefore, we must revist and contextualize the situation to the best of our knowledge based on what we heard from news media without taking sides.
Ebrima said that the First Lady called him and demanded apology for false claim he made about her years ago when he was on employment for state in Saudi Arabia.
Even though Ebrima initial mentioned that he asked the first lady the sources of her accusation and basically was denying the claim, video footage on social media revealed that the claim was valid. Ebrima did mentioned that First Lady used to write letters through her foundation to ask Arabs for lamb and money donations during Tobaski.
Fast forward, the issue of security officer being sent home for allowing Dibba to ride the Banjul Barra ferry simultaneously with the First Lady was believed to have resulted from the confrontation earlier between the two. Mr. Dibba said he insisted he must ride the same ferry with the First Lady despite First Lady’s request not to allow him to board the ferry according to Mr. Dibba.
However, Team First Lady denied Mr. Dibba’s story as unfounded. The team further denied she was trying to stop Ebrima to board the ferry the simultaneously with her.
The situation shouldn’t have gotten that far if both parties had taken emotions aside and talk through the issue amicably in my humble opinion!
My thoughts are that, the clash perhaps may have stemmed from something else other than what was claimed to be the issue.
Evidently, emotions and sentiments of the past seems ro have triggered the incident while interventions weren’t readily available to mitigate the situation.
The situations then got out of hand and went viral on social media!.
My advice to leaders or associates to leaderships to be more cautious to confront situation with professionalism and dignity.
We are citizens entrusted with responsibilities regardless to social status. We must not overlook privileges or opportunities to make us think or act otherwise!
We hope this is a lesson learned and such mishaps wouldn’t surfaced between people in corridors of power or privileges.
Let’s hear your takes?
Thank you for reading this far 🙏!
Your humble servant,
Alhaji Dr. Momodou S. Sawaneh
