Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda & Hon. Bakary Y Badjie
By Buba Gagigo
Talib Ahmed Bensouda, the Mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) has urged the National People’s Party (NPP)’s candidate for KM Mayoral Election, Bakary Y Badjie, to focus and run on his own track record rather than that of former mayors.
Mayor Bensouda’s response came after Bakary Y Badjie appeared on the For The People By The People show and said that the previous two mayors performed better than Talib Ahmed Bensouda.
“If I were him, I would focus on his own track record rather than former mayors. People who are not running against me, I think when one is campaigning, foremost you talk about what you have done. Second, you talk about what you plan to do. Because the former will allow people to trust you, then the second will allow people to follow you,” Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda told For The People By The People Show on Sunday.
Mayor Bensouda also argued that he shouldn’t be compared to mayors who have served 12 years and 9 years respectively, while he only served 4 years and some months.
“Thirdly, I think it is an open secret as far as the track records of Mayors. You don’t need anyone to come on a platform to actually tell you what this mayor has accomplished. You are talking about mayors who have served one, 12 years and the other about 9 years. I am just four years and just some months. So, I think it’s difficult to compare. It is like comparing Mbappé and Lionel Messi. Mbappé has just started his career while Messi has been there,” he said.
The Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) mayor said if the previous Councils had done great, they would have inherited a lot of good things.
“I don’t think there’s any comparison between me and the former council that I inherited. So is an open secret how that council was performing. If you remember, we had a waste management crisis when we actually took office. If they had been great, I think we would have been inheriting a lot of good things. I also think we would not have had to start a Mbalit project to do waste collection. If they were great, we would have inherited a fleet. So, basically, the council had fundamental problems, I mean deep institutional gaps, from policymaking to governance, to capacity, to a culture of doing business and of course financial problems. We inherited an overdraft of over nine million dalasis,” Talib Ahmed Bensouda said.
The Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) was speaking on the For The People By The Show aired on Sunday.