The leader of the United Democratic Party UDP Honorable Ousainou Darboe gave an eloquent and outstanding speech to his supporters in the UK and around the world. In his video address to delegates of the UDP UK Chapter Congress at the weekend, Mr Darboe was well collected throughout the entire speech. As usual his message has been put out of context both by his supporters and his foes, which is why I want to make a personal opinion on the speech. Darboe has never been and will never be a controversial leader. He had proven to be responsible, candid and straightforward party leader who cares about his supporters, the UDP and Gambians in general. His Crawley speech was mainly directed to his supporters and must never be seen as an admonition of certain members of the party. After carefully listened to Hon. Ousainou Darboe’s speech, I understood he was basically saying, “WHEN THEY GO LOW YOU GO HIGH” and that UDP members must not stoop low to the level of “irresponsible, immature Facebook fanatics.” How can such a carefully crafted advice become an attack on UDP members? Hon. Ousainou Darboe is well aware of what is happening on the social media today. As a responsible party leader, he can only address and influence his camp which shows the quality of leadership Ousainou Darboe possesses. He is simply telling us that the UDP IS GOING TO LEAD WHILE OTHERS FOLLOW.
Other party leaders should equally strive hard to guide their members to be responsible by carefully measuring their utterances. I hope that these leaders will also adopt the example of Hon. Darboe by reaching out to their various supporters and teach them on lessons of good values and responsibility.
Fellow UDP members both at home and abroad, let us embrace the content of our leader’s speech whose central core is about remaining united, working together as a family and welcoming new members into our peace-loving party with open arms. Ousainou did his best to demonstrate to us the logic behind coining the UNITED DEMOCRATIC PARTY. As the name symbolises, we are united for a clear goal to build a better future of the Gambia and UDP. And as such, Mr. Darboe clearly stated his disdain for condoning bigotry, tribalism or castigating of others with malice. Politics must be based on engaging each other on important issues but not on personal attacks. Since inception in 1996, the UDP had been a diverse political party whose members care about each other. This is not an open secret but prophets of doom keep trading false narrative, painting the UDP as nothing but a Mandinka party.
I end this piece with congratulations to the UDP- UK chapter for organising a very meaningful congress.
Long live The Gambia
Long live the UDP
Love Hon. Ousainou Darboe
Alhagi Touray
Stockholm-Sweden
Ends