The dishonourable Minister of Tourism and Culture, Hamat Bah, was over the weekend roundly condemned, rightly so, for his irresponsible utterances aimed at dividing Gambians on tribal lines for the political gain of his boss Adama Barrow. 

Mr Bah was quoted referring to his opponents as ‘Rats’ and nobody should waste their votes on them. His statement obviously has tribal undertones. I can vividly remember the slain Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, once called his opponents agitating for change as ‘Rats’ and we all know how that ended. In Rwanda, the majority Hutu tribe referred to the minority Tutsi tribe ‘Cockroaches’. And since the war ended, the ‘Cockroaches’ are lording over the majority. 

At a mini political rally at the State House on Saturday, Mr Bah claimed that Fulas have been discriminated and ethnically profiled since post-independence Jawara era, Jammeh era and now Barrow’s. He said they (government) know something about it and will do something about it. It begs the question; how come they haven’t done anything about it for four years? 

If Hamat Bah and his boss Adama Barrow cared about Fulas as they want us to believe, then they would’ve sorted this issue in their first 100 days in office. They waited until elections are fast approaching, and out of desperation, whipping up tribal sentiments. 

The immigration department is under the purview of the Ministry of Interior and at some point, Ebrima Mballow, the president’s brother-in-law and a Fulani was the Minister of Interior. Why didn’t Bah and Barrow task Minister Mballow to stamp this menace out? 

Twenty-four hours later he told Lamin Njie of the Fatu Network in a chaotic interview that ‘our very existence depends on voting for Adama Barrow’. He forgot that Barrow cannot be president for forever and cannot live forever either. So, if Fulas peaceful existence, according to Bah, hinges on Barrow being president, what will be their fate when the inevitable happened i.e. death or Barrow exiting the presidency? 

To conclude; neither Barrow nor Bah cares about Fulas or their welfare. All they want is their votes nothing else. Also, if Bah truly believes all that he is saying about Barrow, why did he challenge him to be the coalition flagbearer? And immediately after he lost, he went to Senegal and missed most of the campaign.