Supporters of the United Democratic Party (UDP) have huge task at hand. We must not allow others to paint us black. There is misinformation making the rounds that Ousainou Darboe is the stumbling bloc to forming a coalition in the forthcoming parliamentary election. We must stand our ground and let the whole Gambia know that the story is unfounded, groundless and baseless. It is only designed to tarnish the good image of the Gambia’s Nelson Mandela, the man who sacrificed himself for our freedom. The UDP’s agenda has always been to unite our diverse people. Love the party or hate it, the UDP has been at the forefront of the fight against the Jammeh dictatorship since day one. We have paid a heavy price for standing on the way of a callous dictator. Our members have been murdered in cold blood, jailed and exiled in droves while the sword of damocle hangs over those at home. But we neither retreat nor surrender. Our love for our country is unquestionable.
We are the only party whose leader has lost all to Jammeh’s dirty politics. Even his sources of income have curtailed. During the heydays of the political fight, majority of our members were kicked out of the government service. And instead of cross carpeting to the dictator’s camp, our members fed each other with courage and comradeship. On a monthly basis, our private sector employee members met with their unemployed comrades at the bureau and share salaries. What is more touching than that? Most of our foot soldiers such as the late Momodou Lamin Shyngle Nyassi have not worked throughout the Second Republic government. These people preferred to die in dignity than to submit to the APRC’s rotten principles. Even inhumane tortures would not coerce them to switch sides because their blood is too good to mix with a party of heartless people.
Despite being faced with huge security challenges, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe throughout preached us to exercise maximum restraint. As a constitutional lawyer with a wealth of knowledge and experience, Lawyer Darboe wanted prevalence of the highest atmosphere of political peace. He had the potential to set the country on fire but he comported himself within the confines of the law. That is typical Ousainou Darboe, a man who would not even kill a fly.
The UDP has not issued any official statement about the outcome of the negotiations; the party has not made its negotiation position public either. So the question becomes: who created the disingenous fabrication filling the air that Ousainou Darboe is the one refusing to unite with others? It is ungoday and unfair to taint the good image of a man who has just been removed from the shackles of dictatorship. Lawyer Darboe will remain our Iconic Hero whose legacy cannot be wiped away by haters whose single goal is to put the UDP on the defensive. We will not sit by and allow anyone or party to wash our hard earned credit. We toil for it.
Evidently, some people are using the coalition government to raise their profile, but their larger goal is to undermine and scheme the UDP into submission. The enemies, hiding behind the cloak of hatred and jealousy, want to derail the party leader’s initiated agenda to unify the Gambia. Allah will be the judge between Ousainou Darboe and the haters and their agenda setting media.
For those who don’t know, the UDP was built on a sound structure and operated in principles. How can it be a one man party? Being the party leader does not guarantee Ousainou Darboe to dictate at will. Ours is a party of compromise as evidenced in the way and manner crucial decisions are being made. Where there is disagreement, the issue is put to vote. What is more democratic than that?
Baba Drammeh, former UDP National Youth Secretary General under Shyngle Nyassi.
Ends
Baba, when I read in thegambiaecho.com that PDOIS wants to contest for about 20 seats, I suspect that there is cynicism behind the move. In fact the initiative not to accept any ministerial position was the beginning of such moves.
In the first place the party is one of the smallest of all the parties if not the smallest. If they take 20 nothing is definitely left for others. We must be very careful about Halifa. He has a very cynical personality with attributes of ASD.
Morro Touray
Thank you for the article. It really shows the democratic nature of UDP and its leadership. We cannot allow few bad elements to pass false information against UDP without correcting them.
For the Gambia our homeland to go forward each and everyone of us must own him or herself, be honest and open minded and above all always put the country first before any other interest. Lets refrain from accusing innocent people who are sacrificing everything for us of things we don’t have any knowledge of. Otherwise we will obviously be guilty of whatever we might be accusing them of. Gambia is bigger than any person or party. This fact is what we must all acknowledge at all times.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Ousainou Darboe has a disputable track record of offering selfless services and sacrifices for his country and people. Human beings easily forget. It’s now they are accusing him of being selfish after all his protest was the beginning of Jammeh’s end. We know what the spin doctors want. All they want is to reap the benefit of what they have not deserve.
Thank you very much Baba. I trust both you and Darboe. Darboe deserves national gold medal.
Taking twenty seats is theysure that they’re going to win all this twenty seat the reasons of not taking a position in the coalitions government is they don’t want to share the work with the people in the government people we’re saying that the Pdois didn’t want any position. why want to occupy the twenty constituency they want a position. Thet don’t want to to eat pepper with the people in the new government period.
Undoubtedly, there are people who oppose the UDP and would use every available opportunity to direct criticism, genuine or not, against its leader. You have to respond to those criticism and defend your party and leader, as much as possible.
But it has to be said that regardless of the sacrifice and effort he (Darboe) put in the political struggle against Yaya Jammeh’s dictatorship and the price that he and his supporters paid, he is not and should never be above criticism, where people feel that he bears a certain degree of culpability. And this should not be equated with hatred, unless it is abundantly clear that hate is the motivation.
And regardless also, of what some online radio show panels and participants are alleging or how they are conducting their “debates”, the fact of the matter is that there seems to be another political impasse with regards to the forthcoming NAM elections and the revelation that the alliance partners have been locked in discussions does seem to lend credence to rumours that there are disagreements within the group.
In fact, we now know that the UDP and NRP want to abandon the alliance strategy, of all party independent candidates, for their own sponsored party candidates for the NAM elections. This is not some unfounded, groundless and baseless disingenuous fabrications intended to undermine and derail UDP’s Agenda of unifying The Gambia. Far from it, it is a fact which raises serious questions about obstacles and people’s commitment to a united all party alliance strategy.
This is the issue that UDP and NRP militants need to address to defend their parties’ positions, but moreso the UDP, because the NRP leader is known for his flip flopping. Why do the two parties think that abandoning a strategy which has proved so successful against all odds, for one which has repeatedly failed, is a sensible political decision ? That is what Baba and all of you guys should be addressing and not be distracted by what online radio discussion forum says. We know that those guys, especially PaNderry and his buddies, have laughed off the very idea of contesting elections against Jamneh. So who takes those guys seriously ? Not serious people, for sure.
I admire Lawyer Darboe and I think he has been a fantastic leader for the UDP and servant of The Gambia, but I have to say that as far as a winning alliance strategy is concerned, he has demonstrated very bad judgement and I think Yaya Jammeh would have won the last elections comfortably, if Darboe had been the UDP candidate, because he was incapble of seeing any alliance beyond a UDP led one, which would not have happened in 2016.
I can therefore understand why some might be tempted to point a finger at him as the obstacle, as the UDP under his leadership, once again, reverts back to its old position of doing things under its party ticket. We remember that the UDP considered a non partisan proposal only with the ascension of Mr Adama Barrow to its presidential candidate position. So there is circumstantial evidence to suggest a degree of Lawyer Darboe’s culpability here, unfortunately.
Bax , all politics are local and therefore it is the responsibility of each party to fill in their candidates for National Assembly. Coalition is not a political party but an alliance. It is in UDP best interest to fill in their candidates because they have the best structure and biggest political support base throughout the country and diaspora. Why is PDOIS is so fixated with coalition independent candidates? Because Halifa is looking for political influence, capital and support base during the transition. There was no agreement within the coalition on National Assembly election, so let each party put their candidates where they think they can win . UDP is a force to be reckoned with and the evidence of such a force and support was demonstrated in the last convention for nomination of president Barrow, that was landslide victory. In fact even PDOIS delegates voted for him . UDP is better positions to Win majority of places president barrow won . PDOIS needs to focus on how to expand its political support base throughout the country rather than engaging in deception to confuse people about the coalition agreement.