{"id":32121,"date":"2017-01-27T01:13:47","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T01:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/adama-barrow-returns-to-warm-welcome-as-gambia\/"},"modified":"2017-01-27T01:13:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T01:13:44","slug":"adama-barrow-returns-to-warm-welcome-as-gambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/adama-barrow-returns-to-warm-welcome-as-gambia\/","title":{"rendered":"Adama Barrow returns to warm welcome as Gambia turns a page"},"content":{"rendered":"

{President Adama Barrow may have been waiting to take power in The Gambia for nearly two months but many in the west African country have been longing for a change of guard for years.}<\/p>\n

Yahya Jammeh held on to power for so long that many Gambians almost began to believe his claim he would rule for “a billion years” if Allah willed it.<\/p>\n

But after 22 years in the saddle, he lost the December 1 election but refused to cede power. Jammeh only left the country on Saturday and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea under threat of a regional military intervention.<\/p>\n

“We have waited 22 years for this. We give him (Barrow) all our trust,” said Ibrahima Jahama, plastering a billboard on the way to the airport in the capital Banjul ahead of the new president’s arrival on Thursday.<\/p>\n

{{Heavy security }}<\/p>\n

At Banjul international airport meanwhile, marching bands were preparing to welcome a different president home amid heavy security provided by Senegalese and Nigerian special forces.<\/p>\n

When Barrow finally arrived from neighbouring Senegal, where he has been living for safety reasons since January 15, dignitaries on the tarmac almost seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that Barrow was safe and sound.<\/p>\n

“I’m a happy man today. It was part of the struggle and I think the bad part is finished now,” Barrow told journalists before climbing into a reinforced vehicle and waving to fans out of the sunroof.<\/p>\n

His supporters packed onto vans and taxis to follow him, immediately blocking all traffic and replicating the mobile rallies that he held as a candidate in November, where the streets filled with Barrow fans: a defiant gesture in a country where protest was largely illegal.<\/p>\n

PEACE, LOVE, UNITY!<\/p>\n

The long wait gave Barrow’s supporters a chance to begin the party early in the kilometres of gridlocked traffic that stretched back from his convoy.<\/p>\n

“Peace, love and unity!” shouted Binta Makah, swinging her legs off the top of a mini bus.<\/p>\n

“We have freedom of speech”, her friend Mariana Darboe told AFP, shouting down from the roof.<\/p>\n

Once it became clear no one was moving on the one road back into town, perhaps for several hours, engines were switched off and the dancing and drumming began.<\/p>\n

“The moment I saw the president, I felt like I was entering paradise,” said Musa Kitteh, a young man wearing a Barrow T-shirt, who had driven to the airport with a dozen friends, “because he brings freedom to us.”<\/p>\n

{{Keeping political opinions secret }} <\/p>\n

With tears pricking his eyes, Kitteh continued: “We cannot even emphasise… during Jammeh’s time, we were in a dictatorship. Nobody say your opinions because whatever he decides, we are going to do.”<\/p>\n

For Gambians, Barrow’s arrival means the end of looking over a shoulder at all time for the secret police, and of keeping political opinions secret, even among friends.<\/p>\n

“You can go home at night and sleep without worrying you will be arrested before daybreak,” pensioner Ibrahima Gaye told AFP earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Gambians ranging from ministers to farmers have disappeared due to the actions of Jammeh’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and his feared “Jungler” death squad, locals and rights groups say.<\/p>\n

The relief that this era was over was clear.<\/p>\n

“I pray for him: let God help him, said taxi driver Amadou Ba, speaking of Barrow.<\/p>\n

But everyone admitted the new president faced an uphill task having inherited a dysfunctional economy, a highly politicised security force and a drain of young talent seeking better lives in Europe.<\/p>\n

\"Adama<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{President Adama Barrow may have been waiting to take power in The Gambia for nearly two months but many in the west African country have been longing for a change of guard for years.} Yahya Jammeh held on to power for so long that many Gambians almost began to believe his claim he would rule […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32121"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32121"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}