Some Theatricals Of Gambian Party Politics

PDOIS: IEC Legitimises ImpunityBy Samba Jobe

‘Enlightenment is always good but illusions of being enlightened can be dangerous. It often leads to headstrong belief in one’s infallibility and self-righteousness,…’

My query here is to look briefly at the narrative of what many  see  PDOIS as socialists. Halifa, Sedia and Sam have fed Gambians theoretical ideas on what it means to be a socialist. However, they demonstrably use their personal lifestyles as a mirror for young people to emulate. Thus, we have the ‘rise of the Afro hair’ among young PDOIS fans and the overuse of the word ‘sovereign citizens’. Since no man is perfect, the outward personalities of the PDOIS trio also disguised their flaws, and some personal shortcoming for proper political indoctrinations. This is what I decipher from their ‘Kairaba Beach Hotel Covention’, remember the word Kairaba as you read along. Not merely about the conflict in the climbdown of the ‘puritant political educators’, but the hostility the trio advance in the past at anything flamboyant.

Representatives of most of the parties of the fractious Gambian political opposition gathered to explore the possibilities of an electoral alliance for this year’s presidential election on Sunday 20th March to the surprise of many. Though the meeting was widely reported to have been successful, one notable absentee was the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS). An organization notable neither for the size of its structure nor that of its voters but for the excess of its rhetoric, on Saturday, 19th March 2016, held what it called a convention to announce that Hon. Halifa Sallah was to be its presidential candidate for the December 2016 election. So PDOIS was not represented in that gathering, just like it was not represented in the Raleigh conference of May 2013 Though the three gentlemen who constitute the leadership of the 40-year old organization cannot seriously hope to win more than five percent of the votes, they formally announced Halifa Sallah as their candidate with a pomp that has left many observers scratching head in bafflement. The party that previously wallowed in its plebian and down-to-earth pretentious now shrugged it off to hold what it called its convention at no other venue than the Kairaba Beach Hotel, one of the most flamboyant of places.

Despite all the waffle of speeches there was no mention of the fact that it was a meeting marking the party’s return to participate in Elections.

Ironically PDOIS and five other opposition parties are returning to the polls under substantially more unfavorable dispensation than when they walked away from it in 2012. Last July the Jammeh dictatorship forced through its rubber-stamp legislature a new set of regulations that will take most of the opposition parties off the political scene and that introduced candidature fees instead of deposits and increased them by hundreds of times. But all these were fully ignored on the occasion held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel. Many had hoped that the reforms would compelled the opposition parties into coming together, but this did not seem to be the case until former Health and Social welfare Secretary of State in Jammeh’s post-coup regime, Fatoumata Jallow Tambajang and his group of Concerned Citizens were able to bring the rest of the opposition into frank discussions.

It sometimes pays to be amateurish, fresh and even naïve in politics because as they say politics is the art of the possible. When one is naïve enough to underestimate the constraints and adversities ahead one at times is lucky enough to stumble into the goal that everyone thought was impossible to attain. That seems to be what happened to Fatoumata Jallow and her team of Concerned Citizens; the fool’s luck!

Since May 2015, the parties had been rumored to have been locked in secret talks that few believed would yield anything concrete and practical. Everyone knows that there is no opposition party that can go it alone in defeating Jammeh and his APRC party in polls here as no free and fair polls can ever be conducted under the dispensation that Jammeh currently presides over until it is pressed into doing that through pressures that can only be mounted and applied by a united and dedicated coalition of citizens aided by the international community.  Any politician or his party who are opting to go it alone is merely helping to perpetuate the Jammeh autocracy.

Halifa Sallah and his PDOIS who claim to be enlightened and therefore ought to be most aware of this fact are this time around not even speaking of coalition building. Instead in his so called acceptance speech, Halifa Sallah said: “To make a declaration of acceptance of nomination, I dare say that all my life from the age of 16.5 I have no other ambition but to give my life to Africa. I just faced death and I am still alive; therefore, I consider myself to have a mission, and I fully accept your nomination.”

One person who was both a neighbour and schoolmate of the PDOIS leader had this to say: “When Halifa was 16 years six months he was in form four and I was in Lower Five. We would trek together each morning  together with people like Momarr Mergan, Amat Jallow, the two Davies brothers, both of blessed memory, and several others from Serekunda to Bathurst. Halifa was timid, withdrawn and looked more destined to become serigne daara than a radical politician. He took no part even in the student politics of the time. If I remember well he was in the same class with Kukoi, Papa Litty, Bala Jahumpa, , Sillah Bai, etc. As far as I can remember he was more of a timid person than someone whose life was dedicated to Africa.”

In the second sentence, Halifa sounded as if he was a sort of a mystic; having faced death, but survived it and therefore considering himself to be with a mission and so fully accepted the nomination. What sort of a medieval-inspired logic! Reminds one of Yahya Jammeh’s January 17th 2007 declaration that he was mandated to cure HIV/AIDS. To Halifa, the road accident on their way back from a funeral of a ward councillor was like a near-encounter with death that has left him psychologically bruised but spiritually somewhat revived.

On the 7th February 2016 the Sareh Ngai Ward Councillor in the Wuli West District of Upper River Region, Mr. Ebrima Menkeh Barrow,passed away after a brief illness. A PDOIS delegation, including Mr. Halifa Sallah, went to the funeral to pay their last respect. On their way back at Jappeni in Jarra the PDOIS vehicle hit a cow resulting in Mr. Sallah sustaining laceration. In the opinion of many the PDOIS leadership looked like people making a storm out of  tea-cup and also trying to construct a cult around the Halifa’s person. The road accident was widely published with innuendos that the accident has reinforced his commitment to the fate of Gambians. But Halifa does not appear to be alone on the impact of this encounter.

Before his speech at the Kairaba Hotel “convention”, his comrade, Seedia Jatta had this to say: “We have two fundamental things to celebrate: the first thing to celebrate is something that you have engaged in for the past three months; that you have never witnessed in this country.

“For the first time in your lives as sovereign citizens, you have the opportunity to exercise your fundamental rights of determining the person you want to be in charge of the affairs of your Republic.

“Three months ago, you started the processes of determining the person you want to be in charge of the Republic, in the aftermath of December 2016 presidential elections.

“This is your fundamental right and duty, to determine the person who should be in charge of the affairs of this country because you pay diverse taxes in order for you to live in peace, security and prosperity.

“I am sure you would like to know the results of the process of determining the presidential candidate for December 2016.”

Mr. Jatta perhaps forgot to say what the second thing to be celebrated was. The first, from what I can understand from his speech, was that for the first time Gambians had, through an attempt to hold primaries, selected a presidential candidate and that was what Mr. Jatta thought was worth celebrating. But the fact was that there were no real primaries at all, because there was no other person on the race for the PDOIS presidential candidature. It was a mere shadow boxing. In fact few Gambians were aware that such an exercise was going on. The long list of names of so called returning officers of the different regions was first published at the end of the exercise. When I looked at it I started getting suspicious because I found some of the names I know of unconvincing. The name Ebou Jaye otherwise known as Samba Sowe in Banjul caused some sudden tightness of the stomach. It was not clear who was and who was not entitled to take part in the contest.

Because it was held in a hushed up atmosphere and few knew it was being held and the terms under which it was being held, Halifa Sallah naturally went unopposed. If for instance, Abbas Manneh was to stand as a contender and won who would have paid the candidature fee ? Manneh himself or the organization?  At the supposed end of the exercise, Seedia and Sam announced: “Having presided over the counting of all the nomination forms submitted so far before the deadline established for submission, we the two appointed presiding personnel responsible for the declaration of results, hereby confirm that Halifa Sallah has been duly nominated as the Presidential Candidate of the Party for the 2016 Presidential election in the first phase of the Primaries.” What a parody!

The second person to address the gathering was PDOIS secretary general Sam Sarr, he is the third man of the group that had been ruling the organization for forty years now. He said: “the day is a momentous one for the party, as there is clear indication that the sun has risen and shining over our country, and PDOIS is a party of enlightenment; and with enlightenment you have clarity, you have hope and confidence to be part of the country’s development process.”

The choice of metaphor is revealing of PDOIS tendency to textbook politics. In temperate countries where there is cold darkness nearly half of the year the shining sun can be very desirable but for us in this part of the world it is depressing and stifling and therefore not so desirable. Furthermore, yes enlightenment can lead to clarity, but clarity does not necessarily give hope and confidence. When the prospects are not so good and encouraging, clarity lays bare the facts and they can turn out very hopeless and discouraging. Enlightenment is always good but illusions of being enlightened can be dangerous. It often leads to headstrong belief in one’s infallibility and self-righteousness, making it impossible to be able to step into the other’s shoe for a while and take a glimpse of the world from his viewpoint.

Hence Sam Sarr went on: “The candidate who understands the political situation of the country is what Gambians needs,” I called on all Gambians to make wise decisions, come the December 2016 presidential elections.”

Before Sam walked over to the podium to give his brief address, Chairman Seedia Jatta had said, among other things, ….this is the Republic where freedom of speech is limited; this is the Republic where, even if you are a taxpayer, if you do not support the ruling party you are told that you will not benefit from any development.”

And this is why Gambians are yearning for a Third Republic which because of the current executive illegality can hardly be dislodged through neat logical argumentation alone, nor through single-party politicking alone, but through re-assembly of all citizens, civil society organizations, community-based organizations, professional associations, political parties, religious bodies, youth and women organizations, all together, for another new Republic, where the free and fair voice of the majority will prevail.

Instead, as if the dictates of the current situation is not clear enough for him Halifa Sallah declared:

I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President I will serve only one term which according to section 63 of the Constitution is for period of five years.

I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President, our Cabinet will introduce a Bill to secure the following constitutional amendments:

The establishment of a two four year term limit to the presidency of The Gambia;

The establishment of one-third gender parity in the composition of Cabinet and all other representative institutions through proportional representation. Special interest groups like the physically challenged shall be given special consideration;

The restoration of the absolute majority so that no person shall be elected as President on the first ballot unless the votes cast in his or her favour at the election are more than fifty percent of the total number of votes validly cast at that election;

The abrogation of the upper age limit under section 62 of the Constitution which deters competent people from exercising their right to be elected as enshrined under section 26 of the Constitution which is a fundamental political right; the safeguarding of the separation of powers by giving parliamentarians and judges immunities from removal from office by the executive. Provisions shall be made so that parliamentarians who are dismissed from their parties shall automatically become independent members of parliament. Judges would be appointed by a service commission and removed only through impeachment after judicial and parliamentary inquiry.

I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President, I will do away with all the monarchical privileges of the presidency through constitutional, legal, administrative and cultural reforms.

I, Halifa Sallah, hereby declare before the whole people that if elected President, I will not hold any other office of profit or emolument, whether public or private, occupy other position carrying the right to remuneration for the rendering of services, or directly or indirectly carry on any trade, business or other undertakings.” How theatrical indeed!

 

23 Comments

  1. Deyda Haidara

    “Mbakoko” Samba Jobe how dare you anoint the king of the kings?? I can smell the bees storming your article with stings that no healer, witch doctor or even an angel can calm down.
    Not my take, sir, am gone..LOL!

    • Deyda, Mr. Jobe is not your kind of writer, I think he was very focused when writing this article. Likewise yours, is always full of fictions, which no bad English reader like me would be able to find the head or the tail of your stories. Just like Mr. Ba said to you, if you don’t have anything to say or comment, please stay out and keep reading. We expect someone like Samba Jobe to write often, so that we may learn lot from him, but not a person like you who will call the others “Chemical Ali” and if the person ask you what you meant about calling him such a name, you kept mute. What kind of an elderly person are you?
      Rest in peace.

      • Deyda Haidara

        Pray for Baba Jobe for his soul has not rested yet until Jammeh meets him there for the final divine court’s verdict.
        Rest in prayers

        • Haaa-Haaa-Haaa! “O my God, you are really funny. It’s only the Almighty Allah who decides whose soul will be resting in peace, but not a Muslim illiterate like you has any decision making on that, otherwise, you would not have written such on pubic media. May Allah guide you. [RIP]. I pray for Baba Jobe and all those died before and after him, may their souls rest in perfect peace. Ameen!

          • He has blood, stolen monies and plenty sins on his plate. Since you are not versed in the Koran let me remind you that the final judgement will not take place until the end of the world… you will witness it so pray for yourself since you were also an accomplice of your brother during his time with monster Jammeh…

        • Deyda, please go and seek for help, otherwise, I shall happily call you a biggest liar in our country’s entire history. I left the Gambia February 8th 1978 to abroad. What did I accomplish throughout the 22 years of the APRC Regime? Can you clarify that to your readers? [RIP].

  2. What an excellent and sensible article. I thought all of them are dead! But fortunately, we still have some in our society. Be truthfulness, is everyone’s duty as a good human being. All these years, I have been reading favouritism in the Gambian politic, which will take us nowhere. Below, just read this wonderful statement from Mr. Samba Jobe and learn from it!

    [Furthermore, yes enlightenment can lead to clarity, but clarity does not necessarily give hope and confidence. When the prospects are not so good and encouraging, clarity lays bare the facts and they can turn out very hopeless and discouraging. Enlightenment is always good but illusions of being enlightened can be dangerous. It often leads to headstrong belief in one’s infallibility and self-righteousness, making it impossible to be able to step into the other’s shoe for a while and take a glimpse of the world from his viewpoint.]

  3. A ghoulish reckoning with the absurdity playing out on the Gambian polit-stage theatre …orchestrated by people who claim to know better.

    You have a grim sense of humour! I hope you succeed in rousing some stage performers from their hibernation. It is high time lest the audience slip away out of boredom.

  4. An excellent article . It has Well described the pdois party and its big three ,( sallah ,Seedia and Sam) SSS. S to the power of three equals to socialists power of speech meant to Indoctrinate confused disciples .
    There seem to be a cult personality surrounding these three gentlemen as indicated by the author. Their infallibilities and self-righteousness display by their political supporters is the most dangerous thing one can see.
    The big three lack political innovations and are unwilling to learn new strategy to advance the common interest of Gambian people which is regime change . Instead of working with various Gambian organizations such as those in the diaspora or in the country , their self-righteous belief prevent them from attending any meaningful political meeting . This is evidenced by their failure to attend Raleigh meeting in North Carolina and New York meeting both held in Diaspora. Recently they also failed to attend meetings organized by concerned citizens in The Gambia . From these evidences , It can be assumed that pdois will only attend a meeting organize and lead by themselves . This is why self-righteousness becomes an integral part of their political philosophy and personal characters . The big three can be compared to three young pigs in ” Animal Farm ” Such as the intellectual snowball ( Seedia ) , dominant Napoleon ( Sallah ) and eloquent Squealer ( Sam). Since Seedia is virtually irrelevant in the Gambian politics because he is constitutional barred from contesting election , though he is the intellectual power house of the organization , dominant Sallah become automatic heir and leader of the party . Sam Sarr will continue to play Squealer like role as the chief propagandist to confuse fanatic and indocrinated disciples who always believe that comrade Napoleon is always right . The big three continue to violate their commandments which includes “not living extravagant life styles ” As evidenced by holding their convention in the most expensive hotel in The Gambia . Their party slogan of ” all sovereign citizens are equal ” will soon become ” all sovereign citizens are equal , but some citizens are more equal than others” because they failed to recognize equality in their fellow citizens when they are invited to a meeting , hence they always failed to attend meetings .

  5. There we are again; another classes for enlightenment…..

    Gambians will continue to maintain the sanitized sterilized surgical procedure for healthy communal consumptions, no matter how infectious the illusionary officials & disciples’ attempts to infest or distort the national politics….

    Thanks very much Mr Jobe

  6. Janjanbureh

    Thank you Mr. Samba Jobe for really enlighten all of us about what is going in the Gambian political theatre. I do agree with you that unity of the political parties will help in getting all of their demands and force the international community to offer their help in bring about democratic changes in the country. Unfortunately, we have small parties with big egos who believe that nothing will happen without them and consistently creating confusion in the political scene.

  7. Very entertaining, no doubt, but as always, lacking in substance and serious interrogation of PDOIS politics and policies….Not unexpected though, because we have become used to this type of posturing..In a way, it mirrors the posturings on the political stage on the ground, where the substance is avoided for trivialities..

    I am curious to know when the Afro hair do made a comeback in The Gambia.. (among PDOIS fans)…Was it at the beginning or currently in fashion..?

    Halifa did actually spot what certainly looked like an Afro hairstyle, back in the days, but Seedia…!!! He hardly had any, even in the 80’s. (No disrespect meant)…How that (Afro hair style) was meant to serve as “role model”, to be emulated by the youths, when not everyone can show it off, is beyond me..? I thought what is to be “sold” as an example worth emulating should be visibly demonstrated by all..

    Yes, frugality is being sold and visibly demonstrated by all, but since many are only interested in personality changes but not in ending the practice of lording it over the people, even this modesty and simplicity is attacked…

    And the tendency to misinform and distort is ever present, isn’t it.?

    When the PDOIS says “No to parasitic leadership that feeds off the taxes of the people”, a convention held at Kairaba Beach Hotel is flashed across as a “shrugging of its plebian and down-to-earth pretentious (whatever)…Did PDOIS ever state that conventions, conferences, seminars etc will not be.held, even.in.the most “flamboyant hotels”….This is a joke…

    Great piece for entertainment .I’m sure the crowd will enjoy it, but otherwise, absolutely disappointing for me…

    • Buraama maaneh.

      Everyone is entitled to their opinions but it is more important that we present such opinions with honesty and integrity. It is good to hear from all shades of opinions but there is no point critising for the sake of it. Kalifa was chosen by the people unanimously. He did not put himself up. He has always said that he has devoted his life to serving the people. That commitment would have been meaningless had he refused to accept the nomination. Had a younger person with equal commitment and integrity put themselves up for nomination, who knows, the story might have been different. Until you or someone else can come up with such a person, please let’s hold our breath for now. It is easy to say “get someone younger to be the flag bearer”. But finding one under the existing circumstances would not be easy. If you or someone you know can do it, join PDOIS and am sure they will be all ears for you. As for the venue of the congress, I do not think you are serious with regards to your criticism. I take it you are winding up some dudes. You may wish to know that kairaba hotel was once part owned by the government and for an oposition party to be able to hold a congress there is a testimony to how bold and fearless PDOIS is. You cannot compare the PDOIS to the other parties. Night and daylight. Gambians hate progressive people. People with concrete ideas. We describe them as arrogant and claiming to be all knowing. That’s why we are where we are. The government is a reflection of its people. You only get the government you deserve.

  8. Mr Jobe or whatever you call yourself. You pay every attention to the non mention of a unity at the PDOIS convention but you were deaf to their year long unity proposal and strategy that all parties go on the ground to build there support base from the apathic non voters and the aprc. Then come together with their support again the incumbent. Or you were deaf, dumb and blind to their proposal for all parties to identify their flag bearers who would work together to select a single candidate. Should their demand for reform be honoured, they can go to a 1st round then rally begin the runner in a 2nd round. Or to you, the only reform is the repeal of the upper age limit for Darboe and OJ. Why can’t we see the country at least for once.

    I wonder if u had made the same scrutiny of the other parties who until your this write up have not put a single plan on how they intend or propose a unity of opposition parties.

    Some party leaders said at their Congress that other opposition parties are insignificant. Have you given the same scrutiny to their speeches as well?

    You have today given much prominence to the Fatoumata Jallow meeting. The same Fatoumata few weeks earlier said on freedom radio that he had made uncountable attempts to contact other party leaders and even went to their homes and saw their wives severally. But they chose to avoid her. They don’t even pick or return her calls. May be those were insignificant to you but the venue of a PDOIS convention is.

    Who were in attendance at that meeting? Waa Juwara and co. The man who abandoned them and joined aprc n made a minister. Had he not been fired and being prosecuted, where would he be. Recall he was the one on TV defending the arbitrary execution of the mile 2 nine. When did he become your Darling unity partner?

    Again, another PDOIS hater. Instead of wasting your time and energy on analyzing where PDOIS held their convention and what their leaders said and said not there, why not use the same time and energy to ask why one party refuses to belong to any coalition unless it leads it. We all know this had been the primary cause of apathy in Gambian elections since 2006.

    • Gambia, I expect Mr. Jobe or anyone for that matter, to cross examine UDP and NRP as well. I agree that the dormancy of these two big players, cannot be entirely blamed on pdois’s “perceived” solo-adventurism.

  9. “When Halifa was 16 years six months he was in form four and I was in Lower Five. We would trek together each morning together with people like Momarr Mergan, Amat Jallow, the two Davies brothers, both of blessed memory, and several others from Serekunda to Bathurst. Halifa was timid, withdrawn and looked more destined to become serigne daara than a radical politician. He took no part even in the student politics of the time. If I remember well he was in the same class with Kukoi, Papa Litty, Bala Jahumpa, , Sillah Bai, etc. As far as I can remember he was more of a timid person than someone whose life was dedicated to Africa.”
    A good recollection Mr Jobe. I knew Halifa too way back. Was shy.

  10. “Halifa sounded as if he was a sort of a mystic; having faced death, but survived it and therefore considering himself to be with a mission and so fully accepted the nomination. What sort of a medieval-inspired logic! Reminds one of Yahya Jammeh’s January 17th 2007 declaration that he was mandated to cure HIV/AIDS. To Halifa, the road accident on their way back from a funeral of a ward councillor was like a near-encounter with death that has left him psychologically bruised but spiritually somewhat revived.”
    Didn’t fully comprehend, How many days was Halifa hospitalised? It must be a serious accident.

  11. Enlightenment is always good but illusions of being enlightened can be dangerous. It often leads to headstrong belief in one’s infallibility and self-righteousness,…’

    “My query here is to look briefly at the narrative of what many see PDOIS as socialists. Halifa, Sedia and Sam have fed Gambians theoretical ideas on what it means to be a socialist”

    Samba Jobe, your statement above lacks merit. I can tell you without any fear of exaggeration that you do not have the evidence to back your assertion. That Halifa, Sedia and Sam have fed Gambians theoretical ideas on what it means to be a socialist. What are the theoretical ideas on what it means to be a socialist?

    On the contrary, since PDOIS emerged on the Gambian political scene they have talked about the Gambian economy; they have talked about the Gambian constitution; they have talked about the Gambian political situation; they have talked about the Gambian social and cultural realities.

    They have also talked about civil and political rights; they have talked about the sovereignty of the Gambian citizen. They have in essence talked about everything Gambian: social, political, cultural and economic.

    They have organized symposiums to discuss these issues; They have held political rallies on these issues. And they have created a political party that seek to represent the Gambian people on all these issues.

    I want you to tell us since the founding of PDOIS, and since the time Halifa, Sedia and Sam have been actively engaged in Gambian politics, when and where did they organize a symposium to talk about socialism.

    Can you tell us when and where did they hold a political meeting to talk about socialism?

    Can you also reference any article, any newspaper publication in which the trio were talking or discussing about socialism?

    Can you reference any political blueprint these three gentlemen have written in which they were feeding Gambians theoretical ideas on what it means to a socialist?

    NB: Because of the volume of your write-up I will respond to it in pieces.

    . :

  12. Samba Jobe, I have seen that your write up has revealed that you have an inferiority complex by saying illusions of being enlightenment can be dangerous. Deep inside you, you have the believe that the PDOIS is more enlightened than you and since you cannot challenge them in an open forum you decided to hide behind the phrase ‘they think they are infallible and self righteous.
    Secondly, you are of the opinion that holding a Convention at Kairaba Beach is indulging in flamboyance. You should tell us how much PDOIS spent on holding a meeting at Kairaba. Is this the first time this party hold convention or Congress at a Hotel. How many times did it hold its meeting at Atlantic. You are pretending that you do not know about that.Are you the one who is going to decide where PDOIS should hold its programmes? PDOIS has attached great importance to its programmes and knowing the calibre of invitees it decided that it should hold it in a place that befits the meeting and you have qualms with that even though you know that no single butut comes from the tax payers’ money.
    You said the so-called meeting of the opposition was reported to have been successful but PDOIS was absent. That statement is true but you’ve not told us the success it has brought since you are an observer of your own.
    Samba, the PDOIS was established in 1986 and therefore by 2016 it has attained 30 years and not 40 years. I wonder why you want its age to be older than it is. Is it to suit your arguments for the sake of it?
    Unless you are dumb you cannot fail to hear that the party has nominated Halifa Sallah as flagbearer for the 2016 Presidential election and he has accepted the party’s nomination.How then can you say “despite all the waffle of speeches there was no mention of the fact that it was a meeting marking the party’s return to participate in Elections.PDOIS is a soverign party and its members decide what it is going to do and will not do. Its not for outsiders to decide that.
    The problem with many of you is that you have no faith in the people and that is one reason you easily get lost in the struggle. How can intelligent person listen to Halifa’s pledges that day at Kairaba and not hear what he said about the reforms he intends to implement regarding legislative, governance and so on which is diametrically opposed to what we have now? What you failed to note is that those who made all these amendments mentioned by you did so because they got the mandate from the people. So if you want to change those bad laws you have to get the mandate from the people to effect them. PDOIS as a party out to bring democracy must by necessity do the painstaking work to win the people before it could effect any such reforms. So Halifa was addressing the people who have nominated him as a candidate and was assuring them of the changes they envisaged when that change comes. You said that is ironic to you.Interesting!
    You are so clued to Fatoumata and her Concerned citizens. Can you tell us who those other concerned citizens are? Don’t they have names or are we not entitled to know them? You are very naive indeed.
    PDOIS is very much aware of the constraints and challenges that lie ahead but PDOIS will not leave any stone unturned to see that the country of their birth is liberated to accord the people the liberty, dignity and properity they deserved like all other human beings on this earth.Call it amarteurish or what have you.
    Politics is about what you make it. This is why PDOIS comes up with a programme as a proposal to all other entities so as to galvanise their efforts to put up one flagbearer for the opposition to convince our people that we mean business but others who do nothing and don’t want others to do anything but criticise every effort except what serves their individual selves would not want their fellow citizens who are the real owners of the country to know what their true intentions are.
    Halifa must accept first the nomination of his party and then proceed to the wider realm of coalition building. The gathering at Kairaba is precisely to accept the nomination of his party. You are very innocent otherwise you would not even mention this because you have right before your eyes the proposal on Coalition Buiolding from PDOIS flagbearer calling on all other partners to select their flagbearers before June so that discussions can take place in earnest.
    Samba, at the age of 16 to early 20s is when a person decides what he/she wants to be. Those are the teen years when the person is critical of everything and is searching for answers in life. Many decide their careers at that stage.Many a times parent will prepare their children to become this or that but often times they fail because the child as a human being knows himself/herself and decides otherwise. You don’t have to be a sociologist to know that.If your socalled informer thinks Halifa was going to be a sereign and he turns out to be a radical politician you should not be surprised.
    The first stage of the PDOIS Primaries was to find out if two or more contestants would emerge with each having more than 20 percent. If that happens the two with the highest number of nominators would contest in the second stage, in which case each would have the opportunity to campaign and convince nominators to nominate him/her. And you would have heard about the campaign loud and clear but that was not to be because Halifa came out with over 50 percent. So he is the outright winner of the first stage and therefore no need for the next stage.This is democracy and is accepted by the members of the PDOIS. How did your party intend to do it, allow a committee of five to select the flagbearer or self appoint oneself as Interim Secretary General for over ten years without a Congress? Which is more democratic?
    Samba, for your information, Sam Sarr is the Secretary to the Information Bureau and not the Secretary General.You said Sam prefers enlightenment to darkness but you preferred darkness to enlightenment. May be because you were born blind and all you know is darkness and only used to groping in the dark and therefore afraid of enlightenment cause with awareness goes with responsibility which you are running away from.
    Thank you for reiterating Halifa’s pledges once more for readers to guage whether these are reasonable and attainable promises that can be achieved within the time frame and compare it to others who just indulge in empty rhetorics devoid of any substance worthy of citing.
    The rest of your opinions are respected and i hope you will respect mind.
    Thanks

  13. ” Enlightenment is always good but illusions of being enlightened can be dangerous” Is like one needs not read throught all of Mr. Samba Jobe’s volume of write-up inorder to have your ‘hot chunk’ of realities in the Gambia’s political predicament.

  14. To add to my comment not yet published, I think I have forgotten to thank Mr. Jobe for his simple and straight forward, and writen article. Called it; ”benefit from it even if you think you are enlightened”.

  15. Max…

    Please read this piece again and do not allow your prejudice against PDOIS to cloud your mind and good sense of judgement… Perhaps then, you will realise that Mr Samba Jobe’s article is unfactual, biased, untruthful and that it also betrays, what seems to be, a belief that deceit is sometimes accepted in politics.I do not think you will associate yourself with any views that would suggest that deceiving people is acceptable, regardless of the excuse…

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