By Pata Saidykhan
Isatou Touray is the most disgusting pieces of body parts I have seen that constitutes a human being. She is arrogant, entitled and devoid of grace and wisdom. And this is the Doctor, the learned and most qualified to lead a country?
For two decades, patriots and selfless Gambians face the deadly dictatorship. They lost everything including lives. For three election cycles, the opposition parties have been invested in getting an alliance of all parties to aggregate their efforts to bring a halt to tyranny and they failed. Until April this year, all their efforts were geared towards leveling the playing field for all. In the process Solo Sandeng and Solo Krummah got murdered, hosts of women belonging to opposition United Democratic Party tortured and allegedly sexually assaulted. Consequently, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe and his executive got persecuted and sent to jail for no reason other than protesting against state-sponsored tyranny. These did not deter the committed opposition parties, as they rallied around a cause and started consultations to proceed with what matters the most to Gambians. They gave us what majority of Gambians want.
While all these was going on, where was Dr. Touray? Nobody heard this lady ever say a word about or against the tyranny, brutality and murder that strangled out nation for two decades. You know why? She was being difficult working with no one, fattening herself and paychecks. She was selfishly working on accumulating personal wealth while babies and mothers got murdered, mothers, wives, sisters and daughters got raped. She is a self-centered, egotistical, angry and entitled soul.
Isatou Touray is the lowest form of greed that universe created. And this is mirrored in her demeanor and utterances in this silly press conference where she purposely aimed to tarnish images of well-meaning Gambians, especially in the person of Mrs Fatoumatta Tambajang, and collapse our efforts. Are you serious? That woman is miles ahead of you in every positive human trait and attribute. She is honorable, content and gracious. When nobody was wanting to stand up for the Gambia in April this year, she was in the streets with the oppressed demanding justice and fairness. You were busy figuring out where to grab the next cow to milk after FGM and Early Marriage got banned.
Isatou Touray was welcomed as a breath of fresh air at a time the frustrated nation needed Unity. Her only appeal was her non-partisan affiliation. Period. It was never that she was the most qualified beacuse she is not any more qualified than any of the people in that room. She ran an NGO that was supposedly working to end harmful traditional practices for three decades, and her political adventurism tells us why she failed, even after registering minuscule progress. You were not convincing Gambians to drop a knife. You were yelling, screaming, demeaning and insulting them. That was why they built resistance to your campaign. This attitude that ‘I’m better than you all’ as she bragged of her ‘technical and professionalism’ in her pursuit to forceful coronation is offensive and a trun-off. Halifa would wrap circles around you in ALL fields. Ousainou would let you swim in his fountain of humility, professionalism and respect for decades, and still be content. OJ Jallow would smack you with arms of eloquence, patriotism and commitment. Amat buries you before the sun sets. Adama’s youth appeal and relatability as an everyday Gambian leaves you for dead in the wilderness. So WHO are you?
No process is perfect, and we were never expecting the convention to be. But this is the closest to perfection we could have. It was the most transparent selection process between parties of different ideologies, beliefs and personalities. They sacrificed and compromised for our collective interest. To want to question the unfairness and lack of transparency because you could not succeed in shoving you self-centered ambition down their throats is disrespectful. Absolutely disgusting to ask Gambians not to come on board the train for change because you felt marginalized. You are throwing sand in the food. Check yourself. Go look in the mirror and correct yourself. You are an imperfect soul, with all signs and attributes of a dictator. Learn humility, ‘Dr’! Clearly, these people are not wrong. You are not going to be electable even if the whole Gambia and Senegal back you.
Go in with your nomination and run solo. You were never interested in the struggle to free Gambia anyway. You saw what you thought was a political opportunity, and pounced on it. You want to self-perpetuate, and we are not stupid to have missed it. Adios, doctor!
Ends
Well said my dear brother. Isatou and Kandeh are opportunists who should be shamed by all Gambians. Gambians should jealously safe guard the unity demonstrated by the majority opposition parties.
I’m glad you’re not overtly generous to spare the truth when it comes to critiquing our learned doctor, like most in our intellectual circles who still think we should go and literally beg her to come back.
In my own humble assessment, Dr. Touray’s candidature is highly over-valued. I thought I was alone but now I know I’m not.
I agree. Dr touray is too arogant and lacks humility. Fatoumata Tambajang is a GIANT. A woman of substance. Her silence to Dr touray’s accusatiins is dignified and mature. Leave the little girl (Dr) to rumble and bumble. She is a spent force. Missed the train.
Pata, thank you for saying it as it really is. My conclusions about the woman can be summarized thus: She is not fit for the position of President. In saying this, I am not being gender-biased (as a Hilary supporter). Isatou may be a star in gender activism but running a country is far removed from gender activism. Beyond her obvious lack of political maturity, the lady, in my view, has exhibited qualities that do not befit a good leader:
1) She is intellectually haughty, as you rightly pointed out. I wish she had shown some degree of humility in dealing with and referring to her colleagues.
2) She is overly opportunistic and her conspicuous silence in the face of extreme brutality meted out to women, mostly UDP supporters, this last April, is very troubling, to say the least.
3) She appears very individual in outlook and has a very high sense of entitlement. Globally, leaders have moved from the “I” mentality to a more inclusive/collective “We” mentality. Dr Touray appears to be stuck in the past as far as this one is concerned. From the Press Conference given, it was abundantly clear that Dr. Touray went into this convention believing that she was the best candidate and should, as a matter of entitlement, be selected. When that did not happen, she went wild in a typical Bull-in-a-China-shop fashion.
Despite the above, I think we still need Dr. Touray and her handful of supporters. Every vote matters in the December 1st elections and I hope Mrs. Tambajang and her team will, yet again, demonstrate maturity by ignoring her rants and woo her to re-join the Coalition. After all is said and done, she is still better than the outright tribalist and con leader of the GDC.
Bro Pata, though your first line looks like some kind of a CRIME SCENE, your article defininately seems to be quite revealing, to what I would still call allegations, that Dr. Isatou Touray’s sudden plunging in into politics is marred by power hunger, desire to accumulate more wealth and dictate in a presidency of hers.
BEG her is not the question in my point of view but REACH her is it. Let her not be convinced she is being marginalised all the while. Come on gee!, its the first of its kind in the Gambia’s history a woman did aspired for the apex of the country’s political authority.
As you have said of the right Hon. opposition leaders like O.J, Halifa, Ousainou, Amat and others, I am optimistic that those statesmen on the ground still are not short of a know how to liaise with Dr. Isatou Touray in a matured manner. They should only try making it better and better out there. We can’t be any bad to this cause out here.