OJ is OK and sincere politician.  One thing I like him is he does not beat about the bush.  Keep it up.  We like you.

[log in to unmask] wrote:Ladies and Gentlemen,

I will like to share with the following interview with Omar Jallow(OJ) by Omar Bah of the Observer. Thanks you very much O.J for bringing to light the misinformation and distortion of the APRC. Let those who know tell those who do'nt. The leaders of the alternative should continue to engage the Gambian people and in the process educate them. I hope this interview will be lesson one. My fellow Gambians our country is at the lowest point, our only salvation is the eminent coalition. I will give credit to the APRC for peddling all kinds of rumors obout the caolition for thier only hope is to derail it. The APRC party is well aware that the caolition will win come 2006. Read on.

From http://www.observer.gm

Bantaba
Omar Jallow (OJ)
Interim leader, People’s Progressive Party
By Omar Bah
Aug 28, 2004, 10:37



Omar Jallow, alias OJ talks to Bantaba on the Jawara years, the PPPs ‘stolen’ policies and projects, the fallen educational standards, the Jammeh government scandals and his special relationship with a Nigerian magistrate. The former PPP Agriculture minister is married with children and grandchildren.

Tell us about the factions that erupted within the PPP lately?
OJ: Well, that I cannot explain because in every big organisations and families, you have to find people with differences.

But you will agree that the BB Dabo faction (which you belonged to) and the Saihou Sabally factions, caused the final stir that sent the PPP packing?
That is a serious mis-representation. I have never belonged to any faction, I belonged to the PPP. I am on record as the only minister who openly disagreed with Sir Dawda for him to return when he decided to retire in 1992.

Was that not because of the fact that you were eyeing his position?
No. Nobody in The Gambia can tell you that I have ever shown interest in leading the PPP. My interest was not leadership, but the programmes that were in place.

PPP has not built even a single high school in 30 years, why do you think The Gambian people should vote you back to power?
Well, I think that is a wrong notion. When we had independence, there were only two secondary technical schools in the country - Crab Island and Latri Kunda. All the other schools were built during the PPP. We created the proper environment for other people and organisations, religious organisations and private institutions to establish schools. We did not want an educational set-up that would produce half baked, quasi illiterates.

You want to say the educational standard has fallen?
Of course, the present educational cycle was 1988 to 2003. That was the programme of the PPP. So all these schools that were built, were part of a programme that was prepared by the PPP.

When we talk about, Kombo Coastal Road, TV, schools, you say it was PPP programme, why didn’t you build them and not only talk about programmes?
Because, on record, these were there for us to implement. But as a responsible government we wanted the development to go in pace with the resources available and with the aspirations of the people. Why should a responsible government spend D111 million to maintain a TV when you cannot provide seed for the farmers, when less than one per cent of the population enjoy that facility.

Don’t you watch GRTS?
I watch it, because it’s part of my tax being spent on the maintenance of GRTS as much as I know that it is a propaganda tool for the APRC and Yahya Jammeh. Now, even the minister going round the country is not shown, but everyday, they tell you about Yahya Jammeh on his farm. It should be called Kanilai TV station.

Didn’t you foresee an internal revolt being staged against the PPP, even if the 1994 coup wasn’t staged?
It’s unfortunate that we don’t have people who sit and sincerely and honestly analyse the PPP history. There has never been rampant corruption. And I challenge any Gambian who can come forward to prove that the executive in the 30 years of the PPP were corrupt.

I can remember last year this time when Yankuba Touray said you could not contest elections here because of their anti-corruption commission?
Yankuba Touray is now history and it has been proven that I have never been charged before a commission to pay even D10,000, when he himself, under the very regime that he was protecting, is now being charged to pay D3 million back to government coffers. So when it comes to corruption, then he is a thief, he is more than corrupt. And he has just gone to the (Paul) Commission and told them that he has built a house for D3.2 million, and he is telling us that his wife is one of the richest women in the world. She is not from a very rich family, he is from a poor family, so Yankuba cannot just insult The Gambians’ intelligence. The APRC lied for accusing the PPP of corruption. The report of the commission they took me to has never been published. They came to enrich themselves.

But you would at least applaud the setting up of the Paul Commission.
My friend, it’s white-wash! It’s a kangaroo commission. It’s diverting attention. How can you set-up a commission for a family and have the family head away.

Maybe Jammeh is clean?
Well, maybe, but I would like him to prove to us how he got the money he is building all those things in Kanilai; how he got the money to bring animals from South Africa; how he sent hundreds of people to Mecca; how he got the money and vehicles he gives to institutions and departments, and how it was possible for his wife to go and deliver in America. All Sir Dawda’s children were delivered in RVH for 30 years and all my children were delivered at the West Field Clinic during my 14 years as a minister. He should submit himself to a panel of MPs as required by law through the Constitution, so that they will investigate him also, because the present Commission cannot investigate the very person who established it, just as Kemeseng Jammeh, the then minority leader requested.

What will a PPP government in 2006 do to Yahya Jammeh?
We will win! We are not going in as PPP. We look forward to having an alliance of opposition parties. This Constitution has been subjected to amendment more than any constitution in West Africa since Independence within ten years. Because he is now fearful of what will happen to him as an unpopular leader and a leader who is supervising the most corrupt regime, he changed the Constitution. That is why we as a party are working closely with other opposition parties to build a formidable force through a coalition whereby in 2006, we get rid of the despotic corrupt government of the APRC.

During your 14 month detention in the early days of the coup, were you tortured?
Of course!

How?
Seriously! All of us! I lost my left eye.

You mean this eye I’m seeing is not seeing?
It was from 1996 to 1998. I went to Ghana when they give me back my passport and it was reconstructed by a consultant there.

Who beat you?
A soldier in Bakau Barracks. I know him, he is Something Bah from Niumi, who was then with the training unit. I know they are just zombies who were given instructions.

Let’s go back to my previous question on what a PPP government will do to Jammeh?
We shall make sure we set up a process of law and I will bring in the experience of South Africa. Let us have a truth and reconciliation commission.

What about the economy?
My priority, first and foremost, is to heal the wounds that have taken place among Gambians?

I mean the economy?
The economy is here to serve the people, the people have been so divided like never before. The economy can progress if there is unity. We have to create an environment that will be acceptable to both external and internal investors. Can you imagine putting in place a Constitution that anybody who is above 65 cannot contest for president. That means you are violating the rights of about one-quarter of the Gambian population.

How effective was the judiciary during the PPP days?
Very Independent! And this was manifested in 1981 when we arrested Sheriff Dibba and charged him for treason. 80 per cent of those who were sentenced went home free and none of those who were sentenced spent more than ten years and they were sentenced to death. And we have seen people take the PPP to court and win.

But were Dumo and co not freed just recently?
But they were re-arrested at the gate of the court and the judge had to protest. We have seen people languishing in jail without being taken to court, we have witnessed the sacking of judges and magistrates.

What was your relationship with magistrates like?
Well, I knew a few of them, but I had no business with them.

Is it correct that we used to have Nigerian magistrates here?
Oh, up to now, we have Nigerian judges and magistrates.

Where you not using your position to influence their decisions?
No!

Didn’t you have any personal relationship with any magistrate?
Oh, I had personal relations with them.

What type of relationship was that?
I knew them.

And what?
I knew them. They are my friends. But I’ve never been involved in their judicial service work.

Your intimacy to some Nigerian magistrates was very special, isn’t that true?
I’m not aware, If you can come clear, tell me. Then I will know what to answer. I can have a wife who works as a magistrate, but that does not mean that because she is my wife, I should tell her what to do in the court.

Coming back to politics, why do you think we need to have PPP and UDP? What is fundamentally different between the two?
They are two parties. The PPP is one of the longest serving parties in The Gambia, UDP is one of the newest parties. The PPP, GPP and NCP were banned.

And those are the three that formed the UDP?
We didn’t want to leave the field open to them (APRC). People decided that they should come forward and form a political organisation that would contest the elections, that is how the UDP came into being.

It is the people of these three banned parties who formed the UDP?
Some of those people came to be within the UDP, some NRP and some the APRC.

Why can’t the PPP just join the UDP and continue to be one party?
Why then should the UDP not join the PPP. Every Gambian has a right to form his or her party.

You and Ousainou Darboe, who do you think is more popular?
Ousainou is a popular politician. He is a good and calm man. And, I think he has the sense to run this country far better than Yahya Jammeh.

What about you?
For me, it is for you to go and ask Ousainou. I cannot praise myself.

If you and Darboe should be put forward, who do you think would be voted in?
Let us leave that to the Gambian people. I cannot speak for them. Because now we are talking about UDP, PPP, PDOIS, NDAM, NRP.

So who is going to be the leader of that coalition?
When we finish we will come and hold a big press conference. Then everybody will know the process that we have been through.

I know the process.
Then why are you asking me about it.

Is it true that there is a leadership crisis?
We have not reached that stage yet. We are discussing about the M.O.U. (Memorandum of Understanding), leadership is secondary.

But the leader will come from among the leaders of these five parties?
We have not even come to the qualification of leadership.

Was it not recently agreed that each party leader must be nominated by at least 5000 people from every division before he could qualify to lead the coalition?
That is news to me.

If I should tell you that the UDP has held meetings with its central committee members who unanimously agreed that if Darboe, who has the biggest party does not head the coalition, they would then disown him, how would you react to that?
Well, I think I have high respect for Ousainou and the leadership of the UDP and I don’t think that type of issue... I will not believe anybody who tells me that, because I know the objectivity of Ousainou, his sincerity and commitment to the welfare of this nation.

Why not select him then?
I am not to select. How can we select without putting in place a mechanism? Omar Bah, how can we do that? The whole coalition doesn’t evolve around leadership. That is most secondary.

But you should agree that leadership is more fundamental in this and I would like to know whether you don’t foresee a leadership crisis in this?
So far, I have not!

Is it true that you have personally vowed that Darboe will never lead you in that coalition?
Then I would not have selected him to lead me in 2001.

But there are talks in the grapevine that you said you have regretted that act and that you hold the same bone of contention against Darboe as Waa Juwara?
I see that enemies of the alliance are at work and they are sending spins into the spokes of the alliance but we are too mature to be distracted. These are all misinformations and misrepresentations that are being bandied around by the enemies of the alliance.

What are the latest developments in your discussion?
As much as we are discussing and we have not yet signed the memorandum of understanding, we keep it to our chests.

When is the PPP going to call for a congress and do away with the word, ‘interim’?
Whether it is interim or acting, the leadership is the PPP. The British don’t have a (written) Constitution, but they still operate as a state.

How would you react to critics’ assertions that you can’t hold a congress?
Oh, we can hold a congress. We make sure that whatever we are going to do, does not interfere with the peace and stability that exists among the opposition parties. We are effectively participating in a process that will bring about meaningful change to the Gambian people. We are doing what we should do if we hold a congress.

But why should you not hold the congress?
Why should we spend money, resources when we are doing the same thing that we can do if we hold the congress.

Who selected you to be leader of the PPP?
The very people that selected other leaders. We have a central committee; a party secretariat.

His Excellency, Omar Jallow, the president of the republic of The Gambia, when will your name bear this tittle?
You are trying to put words in my mouth. I have never ever told you that I’m going to be the person who is going to contest against Yahya Jammeh.

The corruptions in the PPP and APRC regimes, compare them, which one is more lethal?
All that was recovered from their assets commission is below D10 million. But now we have seen the Babagate case; Ebou Jallow and the $3 million; we have seen the numbered amount in Switzerland of US$24.7 million; the Abacha Oil Saga; the Obasanjo Oil Saga recently; we have seen how Babanding, an international crook was given our international passport to go around the world tarnishing the image of The Gambia. Questions were asked about US$35 million given to us by the Taiwanese. So many.

But going through the activities of the two regimes, is it not true that the activities of the PPP officials were more arrogant?
How? can you name me few?

Didn’t a PPP minister impregnate a Nigerian magistrate?
Does that have anything to do with corruption?

Let’s go to the activities then.
No, you are talking about comparing corruption between the two regimes.

But is it true that impregnation happened?
Yes. It is true. Yes!

Who was that?
I was the one!

Who was that magistrate?
No, I don’t give names. I think it will be unfair. You can investigate if you can.

Why did you do that?
Well, that’s part of life. It is a mistake in life that people accept.

Where is that child?
Well, around with the mother somewhere.

In The Gambia?
No, they’ve gone home. I talk to them.

And you say that is not corruption?
No!

How can you convince people that it is not?
When we talk about corruption, it is you taking things that belong to the state, that could have been used for the livelihood and development of the people and you use it for your personal interest.

© Copyright 2003 by Observer Company





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