STATEMENT BY NADD'S FLAG-BEARER ON THE TEN THOUSAND MAN (WOMAN) MARCH
  STATEMENT BY NADD'S FLAG-BEARER ON THE TEN THOUSAND MAN (WOMAN) MARCH

Events of tremendous importance are taking place at the eve of the 2006 presidential elections. The Executive Committee of NADD has taken time to carefully analyse the passionate appeals made by the organizers of the ten thousand man (woman) march for the people to appear in their numbers to embrace the clarion call to say: No to coups and yes to democracy. We also reflected on the address of the president on Saturday 16th April 2006.
  
  NADD SAYS POWER BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE
  The fact that they have organized the demonstration to galvanize popular support at this critical moment when arrests and detention of military personnel have been taking place confirms the decisive role of the people in the making of history and the shaping of the destiny of nations. This affirms with overwhelming thoroughness that people's power constitutes the midwife of every old society that is pregnant with a new one. There, the first fundamental lesson to be drawn from the ten thousand man (woman) march is that governments are not protected by barrels of guns; they are sustained by the might of the people. Power really belongs to the people. The question now arises.

What did the ten thousand man (woman) march sought to achieve? Has it achieved that purpose? What is NADD's position on the issue?

Prior to the march, the organizers made a declaration on radio and television that it was going to serve as an example of how Africa can put a definite end to the culture of coups d?etat on the continent and consolidate a culture of democracy.

To the innocent masses, the purpose of the ?ten thousand man (woman) march? was to say no to coups d?etat and yes to democracy. This is why public corporations, government departments, banks, hotels, private enterprises, women associations, youth organizations, associations of persons with disability, student groups, NGOs, civil society organisations and embassies appeared to give solidarity to the democratic proclamations of the match. One could even see NADD supporters working for certain enterprises wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan ?Say no to coups and yes to democracy.? The banners also floated the same slogans for all to see. Hence to those who were not supporters of the APRC the yes to Democracy slogan meant the assertion of the right of the sovereign people of the Gambia to change their government through the ballot box.

However, once President Jammeh mounted the podium to address the nation, it became apparent that his views were diametrically opposed to the slogan that the organisers wanted the nation to embrace. 

He read one of the slogans on the banners which says no to coups and assured the crowd that if he were to be asked whether people should always say no to coups, his answer would be shocking. His answer was indeed startling. He said that coups to rescue a country at the brink of catastrophe is justifiable. He indicated that he will welcome a coup if he were to betray the country but added that that will never happen. The position of the president of the Republic is that coups may be justified as the right prescription to catastrophe. My position as the flag-bearer of NADD is that no head of state of a democratic society should call for a coup detat as a prescription to any form of catastrophe; on the contrary, the people as custodians of sovereign authority should be called upon to remove a government that can no longer serve their interest and replace it with a government that can address their needs and aspirations. This is the democratic approach. The militarist approach
 of relaying on Coups or armed uprisings are prescriptions for monarchical governments that do provide any avenue for change through the consent of other people President Jammeh therefore has a lot of explanation to do why he said that if he betrays the aspirations of the people a coup will be justifiable instead of saying that the people should remove him from office. A coup detat is a militarist prescription to socio-economic ills. The democratic prescription to socio-economic ills is to empower the people to change a government that has betrayed their aspiration. I strongly maintain that most Gambians prefer the democratic prescription and not the militarist one. NADD aims to attain this democratic agenda of preventing militarist prescriptions being utilised against a NADD government in the future by limiting the term of its presidential candidate to five years, during which the media shall be utilized to teach the people their sovereign rights to be the guardians and
 determinants of their own destiny.

Each Gambian will be taught to know that they have equal power and say in determining how their country is managed. Furthermore, NADD intends to carryout constitutional amendments to ensure that after the five years all subsequent occupants of the office of president would be limited to two terms. This will eradicate the culture of coup d?etat completely. In my view, NADD and not the APRC can lead the country to achieve the democratic revolution of putting an end to the culture of coups and impunity and consolidate a democratic culture. This is the first point. 

Secondly, the president proceeded to indicate that those who have aspiration to be president should be as patient as vultures since he is not ready to hand over the office until he utilizes the oil of the Gambia to benefit Gambians, Africans and the world at large. 
My view is that under a democracy, it is not leaders who hand over power but the people who entrust their power to whoever they deem fit. The handing over of power from one person to another is a monarchical concept. The democratic concept is that authority to govern must be derived from the consent of the people and such authority should be exercised not to usurp the power of the people to become a monarch but to empower the people and promote their general welfare. The president has right to exercise his freedom of expression and he has done so. He alluded to the fact that he intends to be in office for the next 30 years before handing over power to another person. This is his view. Our view is that it is not his prerogative to say how long he will be in office. That is the exclusive mandate of the people to determine. We hope as he goes to campaign for the presidency he will face the Gambian people and tell them that they will not be able to remove him from office in the
 next 30 years and should therefore not waste their time listening to the opposition. 

On my part I am only mandated to stay in office for five years if elected. I am not to seek a second term or support the candidature of any other person in the next following elections. I intend to honour this mandate. Unlike President Jammeh I dare not say that I will be in office for any number of years. I will humbly go before the people to say; you are the sovereign owners of this country. Your power and say determine who should govern this country. Listen to what all the candidates have to say and make your informed chance. This is what I will say to the people. It is left to the people to listen to what the president says, what I say and what others may say and support what suits them. This is the second point.

Thirdly, the president said that he is not opposed to having opposition parties. According to him, the purpose of an opposition party is to criticize what is wrong and acknowledge what a government is doing right. In his own language, the opposition may issue yellow cards to a government so that it will change its ways. This is his view and it should be respected. As far as we are concerned both ruling party and opposition parties are participants in a contest to enlist the confidence and support of the people.. The people are the referees. What each is trying to do is to give their best performance. The battle of politics is the battle of principles, policies, programmes and practices. The duty of the opposition is not to serve as backbenchers of a ruling party who criticise given policies without making any attempt to change the government. The role of the opposition however, is to elaborate on alternative policies that could form the basis of establishing an alternative
 government. Here and there the ruling party may rely on the criticisms to reform its policies. We respect the president's expectations from opposition parties to engage in backbencher politics. He should also respect our position that an opposition is an alternative government in the making. It is our duty to defend our own policies and it is the duty of his party to defend its own policies. We shall not be found wanting in exposing why we feel the APRC government should be voted out and a NADD government elected by the Gambian people. This is how matters stand on this score.

Forthly, the president said that the Gambia does not have an opposition, that what we have are those who are tribalist, greedy, hungry for power and parasitic and those who pretend to be knowledgeable but are not intelligent; that such people cannot even become village headmen (my emphasis). In my view every Gambian is important since it is their votes which make a person a President or national assemble member i therefore have high regard for each voter i do not subscribe to giving significance to people on the basis of the position they occupy in managing the affairs of a state. Such positions can be vacated at any time. In the Gambia we have seen former heads of states, Secretaries of Stete, National Assembly members performing other functions. This should teach the lesson that we should respect people for who they are as the sovereign building blocks of pours democratic foundation and not the room they occupy in the edifice of the state. However, to rebutt the arguement
 of the President using his own logic regarding status, I would say that even though I am not a headman of a village I am a Member of Parliament and minority leader. I am also a member of the Pan African parliament. Moreover, the president has offered me ministerial posts twice. Why would he offer some one he knows to be unintelligent ministerial position? Clearly, the conclusion that those of us in the opposition will not even be headmen is incomprehensible to me. This is why I will not take the derogatory remarks made by the president against NADD as relevant. Rather it is increasing NADD?s visibility. It is conveying to the electorate that APRC is fully preoccupied with NADD as a major factor in Gambian politics.

On the other hand, the president?s reference to NADD as a National Association of Donkey Drivers after his party has signed the MOU under the auspices of President Obasanjo is equally incomprehensible. What i can tell the Gambian people is that i am fully committed to the MOU will never use the type of language the APRC that Prasident has uttered against NADD. I would therefore call on the Gambian people to criticize me harshly if they hear me make any derogatory remark against any political opponent.

However in order to contain this descend into the politics of character assassination and insults we will submit a report of our grievance through the normal channel established by the Memorandum signed by political parties for redress. 

Finally, the president did indicate that some non Gambians who are benefiting from the country are working against its peace and development. He called on Gambians despite our differences to close ranks. We have studied the situation in our sub-region. There is no doubt that militarist options are being taken to settle age old problems. The president of Guinea Bissau is in Mauritania to build relations at a time when a joint military mission had been undertaken to dislodge the MFDC forces near the Bissau Border. There are claims and counter claims of existence of trans-boundary anti government forces. The relation between countries is visibly strained. Any keen analyst could detect from the President?s speech that there is a storm and stress period in the relation between the government and our neighbours. 

It is therefore necessary to indicate what NADD?s position is on people from other African countries who are settled in the Gambia. In our view, every African country should be home away from home for every African visitor. In this respect, we will be promoting the acquisition of an ECOWAS passport, or African Union passport, and/or other documents to enable Africans to visit and reside in Gambia without paying for any alien identity card. In order to promote peace and security each visitor shall be introduced to an association of nationals of his/her country. Such associations would meet annually to select leaders who would be able to take up their grievances with government authorities. They would promote a sense of community to their groups and to the nation this serve as a democratic instrument to contain any threat to the interest of the people. This is how NADD intends to encourage Africans to make Gambia their home without any security threats.

In our view the Ten thousand Man (Woman) march did not serve the popurse for which it was proclaimed. It was transformed into an APRC rally by its organisers. They became partisan in their speeches. NADD had no place in such a gathering. NADD?s position is clear. It demands a respectable relation with the APRC at all levels. If the APRC parliamentary majority wants the support of the NADD parliamentary minority in moving any motion in parliament NADD must be consulted at the drafting stage so that we can agree on both objective and content before it is tabled before parliament. Furthermore, we have an inter-party committee. Hence if the APRC wants a cross-party activity like the Ten thousand Man (woman) march it has to be jointly planned managed and owned so that when it come to speeches all parties will be given equal time to present their views. Of course it party has the prerogative to organise its own programmes and invite others. They should not give such programmes
 the cloak of a national event and accuse those who cannot be deceived as being unpatriotic and least interested in national unity. This is how matters stand on the Ten thousand man (woman) march.

In terms of the current situation we would what it to be addressed at four levels. First and foremost Gambia must be at peace with itself before it can be at peace with its neighbours. We therefore wish to call on the government to set up the right machinery to complete the investigations it has started on the coup it has announced to have foiled, and take people before courts or release them. This chapter should come to a close with immediacy. Keeping people in custody for over seventy two hours without court appearance is unconstitutional and unlawful. This practice should cease if public outcry is to be averted nationally and internationally. It is clear that the media in particular is very concerned with the non court appearance or release of the three Independent Newspaper journalist, i.e. Mr. Madi Ceesay, President of the Gambia press Union, Mr. Musa Saidykhan the Secretary General and Mr.Lamin Fatty. With the release of Lawyer Antou Gaye the female lawyers especially
 are awaiting for actions on Lawyer Mariam Denton's case. In our view there is a lot of advantage in a state displaying magnanimity when issues of state security are concerned. Security is about people when their rights are protected and are seen to be protected and when justice is done to all and is seen t done the security of States is assured.

Futhermore we would want those in the security forces in the Gambia to bear in mind that this is an election year. The role of soldiers is to protect the sovereignty of the people and the territorial integrity of the country. They should acknowledge that sovereignty resides in the people and should be ready to protect the people as they express their sovereign right to determine their manner of government. They should become allies to the democratic process, perform their duties according to law and protect the sovereign Gambian people. 

The people in the neighbouring countries, their media houses and governments should recognize that Gambia belongs to the Gambian people. They should establish a bond of solidarity across borders and do things that will enlarge the power of all the people in our sub-region so as to protect their collective sovereignty and destiny. The governments, media and civil societies of the sub-region should be able to promote sub-regional integration of the people. All hostilities and hostile remarks should cease. The Senegalese media should capture what Gambians themselves are saying about their country including the opposition so that they will not be seen to have any agenda other than the dissemination of truth in good faith in the public interest. The Gambian media should also cover what the Senegalese people are saying about their country including the opposition. In this way, the people of both countries will benefit from critical opinions in order to become a critical mass.

We would also like to take this opportunity to call on all Gambians who are supporters of NADD to abandon the old trail of combating derogatory remarks with derogatory remarks. Our duty is to be preoccupied with critical opinions that will enable the Gambian people and the masses at large to form enlightened opinions

The Gambian people want positive messages that can restore their hope in themselves, their country, continent and the people of the world at large. This is the time for exchange of mature ideas to draw together the collective intelligence of the people to guide our collective destiny. NADD is on course. It will not be distracted by insults. It is ready to wage the only battle worth waging, that is the battle to liberate the minds of our people from ignorance so that they can take ownership of themselves and freely come together to emancipate themselves from poverty, ignorance, fear and powerlessness. 

Halifa Sallah
NADD's Presidential candidate. 
30 Papa Sarr Street, Churchill?s Town, 
[log in to unmask] 
Tel: (220) 9902864

Nadd Exe

    
Posted on Friday, April 21, 2006 (Archive on Thursday, April 27, 2006)
Posted by PANDERRYMBAI  Contributed by PANDERRYMBAI
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