It was ten years ago, following the declaration of the national
assembly election results, in which Halifa had lost. A group of us
from Kanifing west,  formed a delegation to pay a courtesy call on
Halifa, at the PDOIS Churchills town Political Bureau. We were there
primarily to urge him not to make good on his threat to quit politics
if he lost that 1997 parliamentary elections. We arrived at the
Bureau after a 40 minute walk. At the Bureau, we had to wait for a
few minutes for Halifa to wrap up another meeting with what appeared
to be another group. Now it was our turn to meet him. Ours was a
serious business and for that matter, no time was wasted on the usual
traditional greetings.

We appealed to Halifa to reconsider his threat of quitting politics,
continue the work of promoting civic education and be available as a
candidate next election. The discussion took some time and at the end
of the day, we left with pretty much what we wanted from him. In
2002, the people confirmed the message we delivered to Halifa 5 years
earlier. As a matter of fact, the people had to re confirm the
message again in a bye-election; thus making me feel elated doing
what the people expected us to do.

Given the developments that are taking place in the Gambia today, i
am convinced that Halifa has demonstrated beyond all doubts that he
work for the people. It is in this light i write to thank him for the
services he has rendered to the country thus far. He was there with
Sam Sarr in the early 80's to develop and inject a sense of pride
among poor and dejected kids like Current President Yaya Jammeh by
drafting the latter for drama activities to raise fund . These funds
were used for the education of poor kids like Yaya Jammeh.

Halifa was there in the difficult 80's to provide civic education
among citizens so that we become responsible for our destiny rather
than failed leaders who are bent on promoting aristocracy. As a
result, they exposed corruption, ineptitude and a general dereliction
of duty by the Sir Dawda regime. This expose' provided a litany of
crimes which Current president, Yaya Jammeh and his fellow army
officers unofficially extracted from Halifa's writings, rehearsed it
and used to justify the widely acceptable coup. Needless to say, Yaya
and others owe it to Halifa and PDOIS for their writings that were
mainly used to justify the July 22 revolutions.

In was no surprise when Jammeh and his military colleagues attempted
to reward Halifa and Sam Sarr by offering Halifa the Ministry of
Health position and Sam Sarr, Yaya's former Science teacher, the
ministry of Agriculture. However both men humbly declined on the
grounds that it was not mandated by the people. Yaya saw it
differently as a sign of disrespect and henceforth proceeded to
arrest Halifa and Sidia Jatta on treason grounds and locking them up
at Banjul Police Station. But the persecution made these fine men
stronger and liked day in day out.

In fact, Halifa, soon stole the day from Yaya, the popular military
leader. Yaya on a wild card gamble to make himself the most popular
Gambian engineered a spectacular programme of development,
construction and reconstruction of projects. One of these laudable
projects was the establishment of Gambian University under the
tutelage of St. Mary's University of Canada. It would be Yaya
greatest nightmare because the university became a nucleus of
intellectual power and prowess, with Halifa, capturing most of the
limelight. Of cause, Yaya does not belong to this class,
nevertheless, we still thank him for letting this become a reality.
Halifa soon became an unofficial guest lecturer in Economics,
International developmental Studies and of cause Sociology. It was
the Sociology Professor who insisted on calling Halifa Dr. Sallah
after a single encounter. Dr. Paul Shrenan had initially scheduled
Halifa as a guest lecturer in the course outline he issued on the
first day of class but quickly abandoned it after Halifa's impressive
lecture. Not only did he start calling him Dr Sallah, but has
rescheduled him for further lectures.

But if you think Yaya has laid down his arms, you are wrong. He made
a surprise comeback in 2005 charging that he now had strong evidence
to proof to all Gambians that Halifa has never been certified and
that he is falsely referred to as a sociologist. This is damming and
am sure Dr Paul Shrenan would be embarrassed if this is true. Halifa
responded by opening his files, and there lies all the proofs that he
is indeed certified.  As a decent man, he demonstrated that he only
fight good fights and does not wish to pursue Jammeh further. Even
though Jammeh lost the day, he still had some dirty fight ahead. At
the time we all thought Jammeh conceded, we were wrong again. 

He again swung into action by calling on his supporters to come to
the beach and celebrate what he called the defeat of
"intellectualism". Well, it sounds like a stupid idea, but Yaya won't
budge. He wants all his supporters to join him at the beach to
celebrate the defeat of Halifa. I bet you, don't be surprise if you
find some UDP diehards tossing wine with Yaya by the beach. These
arch enemies are united on one front; defeat Halifa and throw a party
to mark this historic moment. Call it a marriage of convenience if
you wish. One sure thing i can guarantee you is that the beach will
be all green. The clothes, the drinks (wine, coco-cola, Guinness,
etc) and of cause the food.

Halifa, the fact that Yaya will spend millions and the fact that UDP
will sell their pride to form a united front against you indicates
beyond every doubt that you are the greatest. Because, the law cannot
be used against you. You did not steal from the state coffers, you
did not bribe voters, you did not kill Koro Silla or Dedya Hydra,
etc.  Moreover, you cannot be intimidated to run into the Senegalese
Embassy for sanctuary. Essa Bubacar Sey calls you his hero. I bet
you, you were my hero long before Essa nominated you as his. 

 Finally when the beach party is over, and everyone is sober the next
morning, Halifa will still be great, still be an intellectual and
would still be doing the things he knows best. Sober up guys!

LONG LIVE INTELLECTUALISM! long LIVE HALIFA! LONG LIVE GAMBIA

PA-Pierre

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤