The hypocrisy among some so-called civil society activists in the Gambia is beyond rational comprehension. It is no open secret that all the major political parties in the country have been courting and wanting to flirt with the Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (APRC). The party of the former President Yahya Jammeh was like a hot political cake. Hate or like it, the APRC still has a lot of political muscle and wealth of experience under its belt. Any political party that discounts the APRC will do so at its own peril.
If the APRC doesn’t have the political wherewithal why would the United Democratic Party (UDP) have the highest number of former APRC elites and key players within its rank? Did we hear the our civil society general Madi Jobarteh react to that? He hasn’t simply because people like him become myopic when it comes to their interest or political leaning.
Like any other political entity, the APRC is a legally registered political party in the Gambia with five national assembly members. What is the crime if the party whose members are Gambians chooses to have an alliance with the NPP?
It is everyone’s knowledge that the UDP had done everything under the hot sun to forge a coalition with the APRC. In fact, almost all the political parties in the Gambia wanted to tap into the political capital of the APRC. What is clear is that most of our so-called civil society activists cannot hide their hatred for President Barrow to the extent that they (civil society activists) lose their rationality anytime they talk or write about Mr. Barrow. They all hide their true colours by parading themselves on social media as activists and anti-APRC. These loudmouths would have said nothing had the UDP that signed an alliance with the APRC.
Haven’t we seen how the likes of former APRC political kingpins – Almamy Taal, Tombong Saidy, Lamin Teddy Jammeh and Abdoulie Suku Singhateh – have easily been co-opted into the UDP. That is ok to these bunch of myopic activists hence their silence.
Can someone tell Madi Jobarteh to give us a break. It was about time that he understood that activism calls for fairness and not playing sides. His unacceptable behaviour is pushing us to the conclusion that your allegiance lies with the UDP. That’s Madi’s civic and political right but such an allegiance only succeed in compromising your job. The problem our loudmouth social media activists have is to underestimated potentials of President Barrow. If they think ordinary Gambians care about their nonsense elitist beliefs, then they are making a colossal mistake. Who doesn’t know the Truth that all our elites care about is their personal comforts and pleasures? They masquerade themselves as civil society activists struggling to protect the interest of the masses. We need activists of all kinds but not majority of the ones we currently have in our country.
Alagi Barra
Ends