Second Phase of UDP Countrywide Tour

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Correcting misinformation, deceit, fabrications and insults

Fellow Gambians, as duty calls, the willing answer. After the success of the first leg of our tour of the country, the United Democratic Party national executive committee has mandated us to go on the second leg of the regional tour. This is to reach out to areas we couldn’t fully cover during the first leg.

Already, the advance party team has arrived safely in Jarra. The teams are headed by former national assembly members, Hon. Alh Modou Sanneh, and Hon Kemesseng Jammeh alias Mandela. I am departing today with the main party delegates to Lower River Region (LRR) to as usual, meet fellow Gambians in their abode as a means of connecting with them. An important element of the second leg of our tour is to continue to hammer home UDP’s requisite measures to expose the two decades of maladministration under a dictatorship in disguise as government. The tour will further remobilize our members to prepare them for the upcoming issues related to electoral calendar so that together we can get prepared to end the dictatorship in the Gambia through elections.

The first leg of the tour has totally unmasked the “fear factor” that has encompassed the life of ordinary Gambians. The party will continue with that pattern of engagement in this second leg to encourage Gambian people to muster the necessary courage and speak out openly against a government that has institutionalized corruption; betrayed the confidence of its people; continues to use deception to divide people through narrow fault lines of tribe and religion; and continually ignoring the plight of our farmers and youths.

Today, the whole country is engulfed in economic hardship with no end in sight. Corruption and corrupt practices continue to be chronically synonymous to the everyday life of the Gambian government where few cabal continue to plunder the nation’s resources. Farmers continue to be saddled in unending abject poverty because of the government’s inability to buy farmers’ groundnut.

The alarming rate at which the economy is declining to a near collapse points to the emptiness of a government that has nothing new to offer. The recent move by the dictatorship to forcefully regulate the free market should serve as a warning to IMF, World Bank, ADB, IDB, EU, USAID, EDF and other donor community that, assisting a failing government is tantamount prolonging the difficult climate Gambians are trapped in.

Today the president and his cabal of enablers have high jacked every facet of the economy elbowing out decent competition. Now almost the entire country felt betrayed by this dictatorship that has no interest of the Gambia at heart.

Now, more than ever, is the time to direct our energy towards demanding resolutely, the end to one man domination and an end to fear dominated politics. We as a people can only take so much. 20 years is the region every society takes urgency in ending strangulation and Mafioso style administration. Stand with us in this important task of taking our country back from this brutal dictatorship. Should there be an obstruction in our legitimate constitutional mandate, we will stand our grounds as always.

On a final note, my best wishes to the Caliph General of Dasilameh Sanghajor and Alkalo Buya Touray for their acquittal and discharge a few days ago by the Brikama Magistrates Court. We are all delighted that the rule of law takes it cause and they are now free men. In a genuine democratic society, such persecution wouldn’t have taken place. Lastly congratulations in order to our sister political party PDOIS for a successful congress in Bansang. We wish them all the best.

Long live the Gambia
Long live the UDP
Lawyer Darboe

Ends

31 Comments

  1. God bless them all. Their noble efforts will never be in vain…….ala barikadeh

    • Thanks Karamo…. ifann ya barka. We are yearning for a change one can trust and can believe in.

  2. Excitingly encouraging… The time is ripe & well overdue for salvaging the motherland… UDP is speaking for Gambians; most importantly reaching out to other opposition parties are efforts adversely commendable… These selfless efforts are priceless & the right moves in right direction… Together we can & will salvage the motherland, while everybody else do our individual bits in efforts, no matter how small or big it may be to terminate the Evil Murderous Satanic kanilai Killer Devil… Forward together EVER, backward NEVER…

    God helps & bless the collective endeavour to salvage Gambia; Ameen.

  3. Lafia Touray la Manju

    Thank you Lawyer Darboe and UDP. Unfortunately, you can’t correct the insults spread by Jammeh but you can re-direct focus and make people aware that there is a credible peaceful alternative to Jammeh and that we do not have to put up with him for much longer. The choice is ours as citizens of The Gambia.

    Thanks

  4. I think UDP should focus on hope and not try to go toe to toe with the Pig

    Take the high road. Politics is about hope for the future. Even children know about the pig’s empty promises like vision 20/20, Gambia will not import rice in 2016, his failures and atrocities are self evident.

    Let’s talk about terms limits, rule of law, detentions without trials.

  5. Lafia Touray la Manju

    “We saw NADD as an Alliance”- Halifa Sallah on Freedomnewspaper on the 7th June 2015 Lereal Show.

    Case close

  6. Lafia Touray la Manju

    and then he said we first thought we are merging but other parties don’t agree with that.

  7. Lafia Touray la Manju

    Halifa also said the beds of the rural folks are infested with bedbugs.

    • La la manju, though I may be a critique of Sallah in many occasions, but I think the bedbug problem is worthy bringing it to attention as it is a national problem and not just rural.
      I remember when I stayed in Banjul to go to school and we could hardly sleep a wee bit in the night due to surface attack from bedbugs and arial attack from mosquitoes

      • Lafia Touray la Manju

        so why did he single out rural beds??

        • That demonstrates Hon. Sallah’s outstanding concern for the rural beds. I think he will come to the urban beds too.
          We need a better household to street and public enironment sanitation systems and the rural areas are probably the priority in his agenda. @Lafia la Manju, you must be aware of the fact, in order to solve a national problem, you must start from the roots victims. The rural folk in general are the most vulnerable to ALL sorts of blood draining parasites. It is always a ground for intimidation and squeezing out of them their canary chop resources by official bandits

          • Lafia Touray la Manju

            but why did he single out rural dwellers?? what about the bedbugs in his native serrekunda??

  8. Thank you Halifa for stating it as it is. Lafia, even urban folks have bed bugs. There is no secret about that. You know we all heard it together and therefore no room for distortion.Thanks to Freedomnews too.

  9. ““We saw NADD as an Alliance”- Halifa Sallah on Freedomnewspaper on the 7th June 2015 Lereal Show.”

    Case close

    Yes, Halifa is right. NADD was an alliance. What is also true is that there was no law that govern the registration of alliances to sponsor candidates for public office.

    It is only political parties that can be registered and can sponsor candidates for political office. Therefore NADD was registered as a political party. Where is the ambiguity here? There is none.

    Also the parties that constituted NADD namely: PDOIS, NRP and UDP sponsored candidates under the banner of NADD.

    • Lafia Touray la Manju

      confused.com lol!

      • Lafia Touray la Manju

        the signatories to the mou that established nadd clearly and explicitly created an alliance. Registration was in breach of the MOU

        • Lafia: Even a bush lawyer knows that no political organisation, entity or party can contest elections in the Gambia without being registered. You should have asked: Why then did they agree to sign the MoU in the first place if they were not ready to register it or if registration was in breach of the MoU? You are very confused and misinformed.

          • Lafia Touray la Manju

            the iec can only register a political party as a matter of Gambian law. you are simply naive.

  10. Lafia Touray la Manju
    June 8, 2015 at 10:15 AM

    and then he said we first thought we are merging but other parties don’t agree with that.

    Reply

    If you want to take Halifa’s statement out of context without any due respect to its conclusion, you can draw whatever inferences you want to make.

  11. Lafia Touray la Manju
    June 8, 2015 at 10:34 AM

    Halifa also said the beds of the rural folks are infested with bedbugs.

    Reply

    What is the context in which Halifa made this statement? And what is the point he was trying to put across?

    Halifa gave a detailed explanation of the lives that our rural folks are subjected too. Not only that but they also subjected themselves to that same living to go through the same experience.

    What he stated is a reality born out of that experience. There is no negative connotation and should not be seen as such.

    If anything it is an affirmation that in a PDOIS government the lives of rural folks will be improved to the level that they will not live under those conditions and circumstances.

    • Lafia Touray la Manju

      so part of PDOIS’s agenda is to get rid of bedbugs in rural Gambia. INTERESTING!

  12. Lafia Touray la Manju

    ok you are not denying that Halifa said these things, just offering your own interpretations which you are entitled to.

    Yerro Bah, as a matter of fact, he did not say urban beds are infested with bedbugs. He singled out that rural beds are infested with bedbugs.

    Thanks

  13. Lafia:I am just qualifying that bed bugs are reality not only in the rural areas but in the urban areas too. The point Halifa is making is that bed bugs are synonymous to poverty and as you rightly asked, it is PDOIS’ agenda to eradicate poverty not only in the rural areas but urban areas as well. He is saying that one major motivation why they decided to take the challenge is the extreme poverty evident everywhere and their conscience could not but dictate them to do otherwise but to take up the challenge. So literally BED BUGS EQUALS TO POVERTY in Gambia.

    • Lafia Touray la Manju

      PDOIS has a programme of eradicating bedbugs in rural Gambia. Interesting lol!!

  14. “The signatories to the MOU that established NADD clearly and explicitly created an alliance.”

    Likewise the signatories to the MOU that estabished NADD also registered NADD as a political party. This is the reason why the UDP, NRP and PDOIS put up candidates that contested under the banner of NADD.

    So are you accusing these parties that they were in breach of their MOU?

    NB: You make me laugh my head off with your remark about PDOIS having a program to get rid of bedbugs. I didn’t know that you can be funny. You should by now have been an expert in PDOIS’S programs and policies. That one certaInly is not among them. Who knows. If there is a cottage industry to make foam matresses to replace the grass matressess, you might as well claim a right to the idea.

  15. Lafia Touray la Manju

    Other parties have no hand in the registration. Udp was vehemently opposed to It. The condition of unanimity as required by the mou was not met. You are just naive and ignorant of issues regarding Nadd.

  16. Lafia: The registration was done before the inauguration at Palma Rima and the launching at Buffer Zone. Why didn’t the UDP object to all that before the state took the case to court if they were indeed opposed to the registration?And why did they still allowed Kemeseng Jammeh to stand under NADD banner after the court declared Nadd as a party if they were opposed to NADD as a registered party? UDP’s vehemence against registration was just a scapegoat.

    • Lafia Touray la Manju

      No, the registration was done much later and well after all those events you mentioned. You lot are just ill informed.

      The registration took place shortly before the Supreme court case which is like 2yrs after the launching of NADD and the signing of the MOU.

      Assan Musa Camara told Sam Sarr to withdraw registration since parties were objecting. Halifa told Sarr to ignore the old stateman. REGISTRATION WAS SOLELY A PDOIS AFFAIR.

      UDP tried hard to keep NADD in tact despite the difficulties but they did warned that they will consider their position in NADD in the light of the registration. A long and protracted debate ensured within the party since then. Some for withdrawal, some against. At the end, the withdrawal camp won the day.

  17. I may be naive and ignorant of issues regarding NADD, but you are not in a better position either because you were not a party to the negotiatons and decisions that govern that initiative.

    You claim that there was no unanimity to register NADD, but the principle of unanimty requires that all those who have claim to a decision must agree before that decision is binding. Why then would the other parties who do not agree for NADD to be registered, turn around and agree to sponsor candidates under NADD as a registered political party? Does this make any sense?

    Why would the UDP vehemently opposed the registration of NADD as a political party, and then turn around an sponsor a candidate under the banner of NADD as a political party?

    • Lafia Touray la Manju

      UDP did not sponsor a candidate under NADD. It was NADD that sponsored the candidates. I have already explained that a protracted debate ensured within UDP after the registration. This intensified after the supreme court ruling. At the end, those in favour of withdrawal won the day. The NADD sponsored candidate, Kemeseng Jammeh, remained part of NADD even after this withdrawal.

      I am better informed than you as far as NADD is concern. I have even gone through minutes of meetings, not just the MOU.

      Thanks

  18. “UDP did not sponsor a candidate under NADD. It was NADD that sponsored the candidates.”

    UDP was part of an alliance of political parties called NADD. A member of UDP vacated a seat in the national assembly won under the banner of the UDP, which otherwise would not have been the case if UDP did not support the registration of NADD.

    If that same member of the UDP contested the same seat under the banner of NADD, the use of the word “sponsor” can be interchangeable whether it is used with respect to the UDP or NADD. It simply means to support.

    “I have already explained that a protracted debate ensured within UDP after the registration. This intensified after the supreme court ruling.”

    In essence you are saying that UDP was still part of NADD after NADD was registered. It still continued to be part of NADD after the supreme court ruling. So this established the fact that the issue of the registration of NADD was not the problem with the UDP.

    ” At the end, those in favour of withdrawal won the day.”

    So if the issue of registration was not the problem, then the question of withdrawal was for something else.

    To further substantiate the fact that registration of NADD was not the issue with the UDP, we have to look at the content and intent of the MOU that established NADD. The intent of the MOU was to be able to sponsor candidate under NADD for political office. This is the only logical inference that could be drawn since all the political parties that constituted the NADD alliance can sponsor candidates individually and on their own. Anything different would have made NADD redundant and unnecessary.

    The question then becomes: what was the motivation of the UDP’s withdrawal from NADD other than the issue of registration?

    “The NADD sponsored candidate, Kemeseng Jammeh, remained part of NADD even after this withdrawal.”

    Before the withdrawal of UDP, NADD was registered. The supreme court ruling only determined the manner of its registration. That it was a political party and not an alliance for it to be registered. There was no law that govern the registration of an alliance. But there was a law that govern the registration of a political party.

    Since the UDP had allowed Kemeseng to vacate the seat that was won under the UDP, and to contest the same seat under the banner of NADD consequently Kemeseng remained part of NADD after the withdrawal of the UDP. And also reelected under the banner of NADD.

    “I am better informed than you as far as NADD is concern. I have even gone through minutes of meetings, not just the MOU.”

    You are then admitting to having insider information. Someone was making you privy to information that may not have been in the public space. I hope confidentiality agreements were respected.

    Thanks

    Reply

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