Gambia's President Adama Barrow
vowed on Saturday to revive the country's faltering economy with sweeping
reforms as he sought to draw a line under the erratic 22-year rule of his
predecessor.
Barrow was sworn into office a month
ago during a brief exile in Senegal as Yahya Jammeh refused to accept his
defeat in a December election. Jammeh fled into exile days later as troops from
West African countries prepared to enter the capital and force him to go.
Saturday's inauguration event at the
national stadium was ceremonial, timed to coincide with the date that Gambia
won independence from colonial master Britain in 1965.
Tens of thousands of Gambians
gathered at the stadium to watch military marches and brass bands performing
before a giant banner reading #GambiaHasDecided, the slogan of a campaign to
persuade Jammeh to accept defeat.
"Few people would have thought
that I'd be standing here today," Barrow said, wearing a traditional
flowing white robe with gold trim.
"For 22 years, the Gambian
people yearned to live in a country where our diverse tribes will be bridged by
tolerance and our determination to work together for the common good," he
said. "One Gambia, one nation, one people."
Barrow, 51, now faces the task of
lifting the tiny nation -- which straddles the banks of a West African river --
out of grinding poverty, in part a consequence of Jammeh's volatile rule during
which thousands of dissenters were jailed and scores of businesses expropriated.
"We have inherited an economy
in decline," Barrow said
He pledged to introduce free primary
education, which is guaranteed by the constitution but was not implemented
during Jammeh's rule.
Gambia's economy depends on exports
of groundnuts from small-scale farming and on the hard currency brought in by
thousands of tourists drawn to its sun, white sandy beaches and lively resorts.
Barrow said his government would
start work immediately to encourage investment in other sectors such as
technology.
He also pledged to re-build
institutions that had been hollowed out under Jammeh. During his rule, Gambia's
supreme court judges fled the country and the press was muzzled.
Jammeh's cruel and eccentric antics
often made headlines, such as when he vowed to rule for "a billion
years" and threatened to slit the throats of homosexuals.
Barrow, in contrast, is nicknamed
"no drama Adama" because of his calm quietness.
A self-made real estate developer
who once worked at an Argos department store in London, he is softly spoken and
plans to reverse Jammeh's more capricious acts, such as a letter withdrawing
from the International Criminal Court.
-Africanews
AEP
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