I'm glad that Ousainou gave his version of events leading to and ending the NADD run and I hope we can move on to dealing with the Elephant consuming the living room - Yaya.  A word of caution to partisans supporting this and that version / rendition of events.  Folks, each of the party leaders can write volumes on what transpired and I hope we do not get side tracked with that futile effort that does not address Yaya and what is happening to Gambians and the need to get rid of Yaya NOW.  Thus, I would advise anyone aspiring to lead Gambians to desist from a ping pong game that serves no purpose to help the plight of Gambians.  The Gambian issue is what Yaya is doing to them.  Party leaders should focus on measuring what they have done to address the excesses of Yaya, since 2006, not to mention since 1994.  We are all witness to the impunity of Yaya and we are also witness to the lack of bone by the opposition.  Thus, as a leader, folks should focus on being a front leader in the opposition by convincing Gambians to rally behind them by action.  Just getting the opposition vote will not cut it.  One needs to challenge the APRC and to show Gambians that they are willing and capable of leading Gambians against anything Yaya can throw at them.  There are many who seemingly support the APRC because they do not think the opposition is serious or has shown them a fighting spirit.  These folks will join a strong opposition.  That is what Gambians expect from the opposition and that is not going to be accomplished by finger pointing on milk that was long poured and dried up.  One thing is certain, Gambians are not going to support mediocrity.  Leaders are also better served to know that in the end, you can only lead if Gambians support you by their vote and financially.  Each has an opportunity to win the hearts and minds of Gambians and they should focus on that.  Build it and they will come.  The bottom-line is, Gambians are closely watching the opposition and what they do, individually and collectively.  By my gauging, diasporans have little appetite for any politics of accommodation or avoidance of Yaya.  Now, I can hear some to quip, the opposition leaders are the ones risking their lives and we are not on the ground risking our lives.  Well, that is what it takes to lead and if your guy is not willing to risk that we need a person that is willing.  Actions are what any opposition leader is going to be graded by the voters and those that wish to support them financially.  

 

No one or two parties can defeat this tyranny, and it would be fool hardy for any to think that.  However, if one is convinced that they can defeat Yaya with just a few good men and women, I wish them luck, for they will need lots of it and then some.  The opposition must gang up on Yaya and they cannot do it being fragmented and Gambians by my reading will not waste their time with a fragmentated opposition.  

 

Joe 
 
> Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:41:03 +0100
> Subject: [>-<] UDP leader respond to OJ's untimely statement
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
> 
> [ This e-mail is posted to Gambia|Post e-Gathering by suntou touray <[log in to unmask]> ]
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Lawyer Darboe Explains Reasons Behind NADD’s Failure
> By Saikou Ceesay
> 
> The leader of the biggest opposition United Democratic Party has
> cleared the air over assertions of other opposition members that
> Gambian oppositions are in a state of "coma", saying that even though
> he respects the expressions of opinions of by any individual, he does
> not see that as a fact.
> 
> "What he [OJ] said is not a fact but an opinion and even if he was
> stating facts, those facts are not applicable to the UDP Party. If
> there is anything, it is his party that is in a state of ‘coma’. How
> can one say that a party is in a state ‘coma’ when UDP party has four
> elected National Assembly Members, one of whom is a member of the
> ECOWAS Parliament? How can one say that UDP is in a state of ‘coma’
> when the party is actively engaged in grassroots mobilization?
> 
> In an exclusive interview with The Daily News, Darboe said UDP Youth
> Wing have recently concluded a nationwide tour. A women wing has also
> just mobilized a rally at Bakau. "It is because of the popularity of
> the UDP that even those members of other opposition parties lay claim
> to membership of UDP when they switch allegiance to the ruling APRC
> party. With all due respect to OJ, his assertion that the opposition
> is in a state of "coma" is incorrect in so far as the UDP is
> concerned, and I know as a fact that the NRP is as active as it was in
> 1996", Darboe explained.
> 
> According to Darboe, he had known from the Chairman of PPP Yahya
> Ceesay that PPP is not interested in supporting a candidate. "Infact
> the majority of those who signed the documents for the registration of
> PPP have made it clear that they are not interested in supporting a
> candidate but instead, to regain their assets seized", he said. But at
> that selection, Mr. Omar Jallow was nominated, and when my deputy
> Yahya Jallow told him that, "look your party PPP is not interested in
> supporting a candidate", OJ responded that he is NADD and not PPP.
> 
> Mr. Yahya Jallow nominated me and there was no representative who
> seconded his nomination. Mr. Halifa Sallah was nominated but later,
> his nomination was withdrawn but someone from NDAM said OJ is the one
> nominated. And I said, "But look there has to be consensus and we said
> we (UDP) have not agreed". The following Saturday when they convened,
> Mr. Halifa Sallah was nominated by Mr. Sam Sarr, editor of Foroyaa
> newspaper and they said that it was a mistake to have withdrawn
> Halifa’s previous nomination.
> 
> Darboe explained that the re-nomination of Halifa Sallah to him showed
> something different. He said there were few members of his executive
> who were against his resignation and they tried to convince him to
> stay on so that they can work out a solution to the impasse.
> 
> "On the 7 February, I tendered my resignation from NADD the political
> party and indicated that the UDP was committed to the Memorandum of
> Understanding signed in 2005 and that it would be to the UDP to decide
> on its continuous membership of the alliance. The Chairman Mr. Hassan
> Musa Camara said he was not accepting the resignation letter because
> he wanted to work on me to reverse my decision. I however promised
> that I will withhold the copies of my resignation to the press and
> IEC, which I did".Below is the excerpt of the interview…..
> 
> Is it true that the opposition parties are in a state of “coma” as
> stated by Omar Jallow alias OJ?
> 
> Every person has a right to his opinion and I always respect
> expressions of opinion by any individual. I do have respect for
> Mr.Jallow and I appreciated his expression of opinion about the state
> of the opposition. What he said is not a fact it’s an opinion and even
> if he was stating facts those facts are not applicable to the UDP
> Party. If anything it’s his party that is in a state of “coma”. How
> can one say that a party is in a state “coma” when UDP party has four
> elected National Assembly Members, one of whom is a member of the
> ECOWAS Parliament. How can one say that UDP is in a state of “coma”
> when the party is actively engaged in grass root mobilization. Our
> youths have recently concluded a nation wide tour. A women’s wing has
> just mobilized a rally at Bakau.It is because of the popularity of the
> UDP that even those members of other opposition parties lay claim to
> membership of UDP when they switch allegiance to the ruling APRC
> party. With all due respect to OJ his assertion that the opposition is
> in a state of “coma” is incorrect in so far as the UDP is concerned
> and I know as a fact that the NRP is as active as it was in 1996.
> 
> What can you tell us about the country’s multi-party system as we speak now?
> 
> The Gambians are struggling to have a real multi-party system in the
> country; the fact that we have many registered political parties does
> not in itself guarantee multi-partyism.The environment within which
> these parties operate is the factor that determines the existence or
> non existence of multi-partyism.It is obvious that the current
> environment is very hostile to the growth of multi-partyism.The
> opportunities accorded to the ruling APRC party in the dissemination
> of their views through the national media is denied the opposition
> parties. The independent press which could serve as a credible medium
> for dissemination of opposition views is under very serious threats,
> intimidation, harassment and cajoling. Other institutions that are
> supposed to serve as bulk-walks to support multi-partyism all bow to
> the wishes and dictates of President Jammeh and his ruling party. What
> is required is to create conducive environment which allows for the
> operation of multi-partyism.
> 
> In one of our editions published Gambians have expressed lack of
> confidence in the opposition parties as they have failed in the
> formation of NADD coalition. What is your opinion on this?
> 
> I appreciate the fact that every Gambian has right of opinion on every
> particular issue and Gambians are entitled to have their views on
> opposition alliance. I have in the past resisted to answer any
> question or make comment on why I resigned from NADD.I have always
> referred people to Mr.Hassan Musa-Camara who was Chairman of NADD.I
> have always believe that Mr.Camara will give unbiased and an impartial
> view of events to the Gambian people from the first day of the
> negotiation to establish (NADD)to the day I resigned.However,recent
> comments in the Foroyaa Newspaper by Mr.Halifa Sallah in his way
> forward as well as Mr.OJ urging the Daily news to ask Hamat Bah and I
> why we resigned, I can no longer be silent and leave Gambians with the
> belief that Mr. Bah and I were the obstacles to an opposition
> alliance.
> 
> Mr.Ceesay in 2004, all the parties agreed on the need to form an
> alliance for opposition parties and this need became more urgent and
> apparent when the constitution was amended by introducing a simple
> majority for Presidential elections. Hitherto a Presidential candidate
> would be declared duly elected if he obtains more than 50% of the
> votes validly cast at the elections. We all felt it made more sense to
> have an alliance of opposition parties so that we do not have split
> votes to the opposition. The UDP was very committed to the idea and
> because of that we agreed to be at par with all other opposition
> parties. We agreed to have equal representation and equal voice with
> even an untested party like NDAM,we agreed to have equal voice and
> equal representation with a party such as PPP which had a committee
> only in Serrekunda.We also agreed to be at par with PDOIS which did
> not even poll more than 5% at the 2001 Presidential elections. I know
> as a fact that non of the leaders of these parties would have accepted
> this sort of arrangement if they had the political dominance UDP
> enjoyed. We conducted all the negotiations on the basis of having an
> alliance of opposition parties. We did not discuss and agree on the
> merger of political parties or the creation of new political parties.
> The opening words of the preamble are “We, the undersigned
> representatives of opposition political parties, who seeked to
> establish an alliance…….” Under part one of the Memorandum of
> Understanding (MOU) the alliance was established and article one
> states “an alliance is hereby established. The name of the alliance is
> National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD) with the
> acronym (NADD).Then article four states amongst other things “all
> opposition parties who are signatories to this MOU shall be founding
> members of the alliance. The selection of candidate for the alliance
> for Presidential, National Assembly and Council elections should be by
> consensus but if there is an impasse then selection must be by Primary
> election which will be restricted to party delegates and there would
> be equal member of delegates comprising a chairman and youth leader of
> every party from village, ward and constituency.
> 
> These are some of the most important provisions in the MOU, what we
> have opted to do by MOU is to set up an alliance of opposition
> parties. Obviously the criteria set for the selection of candidates
> could be met only by the UDP. PDOIS did not have the following to meet
> the criteria, nor did the PPP or NRP.It was only UDP that had the
> capacity and following to meet this criteria. It is common knowledge
> that the MOU was signed in 2005.At that ceremony something happened
> which would have aborted the signing ceremony. The UDP delegation
> comprising me and my deputy Mr.Yahya Jallow went to that ceremony to
> sign the MOU on behalf of UDP and make a statement that is appropriate
> on such occasions. Before the commencement of the ceremony I was given
> a document virtually an oath declaring commitment.OJ told me he was
> seeing it for the first time and I was going to either walk out or
> refuse to sign the declaration. But there were four gentlemen in the
> assembly, Mr. Sam Johns,Dr.SJ Pama,Alagie Ba Trawalley and Dr.Sheriff
> Ceesay to whom I deferred because I have enormous respect for these
> people and I think it would be out of place for me not to conform with
> this unexpected development. This development to me showed insincerity
> and a lack of openness on the part of whoever might have drafted that
> declaration and brought it to the ceremony without consulting my
> party. Nonetheless UDP remain committed to the MOU. After the signing
> of the MOU some members of the alliance conscious of UDP’s dominance
> came to the conclusion that if a Presidential candidate were to be
> selected under the MOU, the UDP being the dominant opposition
> political party would produce a candidate and they did not want to
> support a candidate running in the name of UDP.So they flouted and the
> discussion to register NADD as a political party really took at least
> three months. In fact I presented a scenario to them if the
> Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) were to invite me to a meeting
> as leader of UDP while I am also a member of NADD,a registered
> political party and an issue arises between UDP and NADD which one
> will I support. I continuously advised them against the registration
> of NADD as a political party. During one of the meetings when I came
> very hard in my arguments one of the party leaders walked out of the
> meeting called some people in the United States to say that Darboe and
> UDP are creating obstacles for us. And before we left the meeting it
> was on the Freedom Newspaper, and me and my party are being portrayed
> as anti-united opposition when infact the anti-united opposition are
> those who refused to accept the reality of the fact that the MOU
> signed did not call for the establishment of a new political party.
> And I remember, I think it was on the 16 April 2005,I said since you
> are insisting go and register it. When the constitution of NADD, the
> political party, was presented by Managing editor of Foroyaa Newspaper
> Sam Sarr to the IEC for registration he reported he was asked certain
> questions. This made the Chairman Mr.Hassan Musa Camara to ask Sam
> Sarr to go and withdraw the document he submitted at the IEC for
> registration but it was too late.
> 
> Now what followed the Registration of (NADD)?
> 
> All the opposition seats in the National Assembly were lost, although
> three of them were regained following the bye-elections. And in fact
> when the court made the ruling I told all of them that with my little
> understanding of the Gambian constitution I know this is what would
> have happened. I also hinted that I will be considering my position in
> NADD viz a viz UDP because it is legally impossible for me to be a
> member of two different political parties and I cannot abandon UDP for
> a new party.
> 
> In 2005, before I left for the United States, Musa Drammeh of the then
> PPP and Mr.Hassan Musa-Camara invited me to a short discussion at
> which they also requested the presence of Alhagie M.C Cham because
> Musa Drammeh knew Alagie MC Cham could influence my decision on
> certain matters. Musa Drammeh pleaded with me that I should continue
> my membership of NADD because my departure from NADD would have some
> adverse consequences on candidates who were to contest those
> bye-elections.Mr.Drammeh initiated this move because the previous day
> OJ was on BBC network Africa programme saying that anyone who resigned
> from NADD would be committing a political suicide. This was an
> apparent reference to me because I had earlier indicated to the
> executive of NADD that I would consider my position in NADD.Out of
> respect for Hassan Musa Camara, Alhagie MC Cham and Musa Drammeh I
> acceded to Mr.Drammeh’s request. I was the only political leader who
> went to all the constituencies and appealed to the UDP supporters to
> vote for the NADD candidates. And I personally met all my expenses; I
> don’t even rely on even my party to meet the cost of my travels and
> other expenses. I did so because I wanted to see that candidates
> running on NADD ticket won their seats notwithstanding my earlier
> disagreement to register NADD as an opposition party.
> 
> Around December 2005, there was talk of celebrating the first
> anniversary of the founding of NADD and I insisted you cannot go to
> the public and celebrate without NADD having a leader. My insistence
> led the way for them to select a flag bearer. I had known from the
> Chairman of PPP Yahya Ceesay that PPP was not interested in supporting
> a candidate, infact the majority of those who signed the documents for
> the registration of PPP have made clear that they are not interested
> in supporting a candidate but instead to regain their assets seized.
> 
> But at that selection Mr. Omar Jallow alias OJ was nominated, and when
> my deputy Yahya Jallow told him that look your party PPP is not
> interested in supporting a candidate. OJ responded that he is NADD and
> not PPP.Mr.Yahya Jallow nominated me and there was no representative
> who seconded his nomination.Mr.Halifa Sallah was nominated but later
> his nomination was withdrawn but someone from the National Democratic
> Action Movement (NDAM) said OJ is the one nominated and I said but
> look there has to be consensus and we said we (UDP) have not agreed.
> The Following Saturday when they convened Mr.Halifa Sallah was
> nominated by Mr. Sam Sarr editor of Foroyaa Newspaper and they said
> that it was a mistake to have withdrawn Halifa’s previous nomination.
> 
> I discussed the situation with senior members of my executive in
> Pipeline here and I told them that I think it is time for me to resign
> from NADD because I did not believe that the other party leaders are
> sincerely committed to the idea of a united opposition as I was. I
> also felt that I was an obstacle to those who were aspiring to be flag
> bearers for NADD.I told members of the executive that if their was
> sincerity among the leaders they would have worked out a consensus
> around the candidature of Mr.Jallow but the re-nomination of Halifa
> Sallah to me showed something different. There were few members of my
> executive who were against my resignation and they tried to convince
> me to stay on so that they can work out a solution to the impasse.
> 
> On the 7 February I tendered my resignation from NADD the political
> party and indicated that the UDP was committed to the Memorandum of
> Understanding signed in 2005 and that it would be left to the UDP to
> decide on its continuous membership of the alliance. The Chairman
> Mr.Hassan Musa-Camara said he was not accepting the resignation letter
> because he wanted to work on me to reverse my decision. I however
> promised that I will withhold the copies of my resignation to the
> press and IEC which I did. Prior to that NADD set-up a committee to
> work out the qualifications to be satisfied by anyone before being
> selected as NADD flag bearer. My deputy Mr.Jallow refused to nominate
> anyone to represent UDP on that committee but the chairman prevailed
> Kemeseng Jammeh to do so. And when this committee met they came out
> with seven point criteria to be satisfied by anyone. On the day I
> tendered my resignation I made it quite clear to all of them that
> there was clear lack of sincerity and I and my party will not
> subscribe to any qualification or criteria that is not contained in
> the constitution of the republic of the Gambia. Since I am an obstacle
> I resigned, you can go ahead and do what you want.
> 
> Even when I resigned from NADD and OJ conceded to Halifa Sallah, Lamin
> Waa Juwara put forward his candidature in opposition to Halifa Sallah.
> You see the lack of sincerity and lack of commitment on the part of
> those who professed to be champions of the united opposition in the
> Gambia. This is synopsis of what led to my resignation from NADD.I
> have omitted from this narration, the various campaigns launched
> against me in the US when the leadership of NADD went to the US
> supposedly to sell NADD to Gambians in the US whilst I was busy in the
> Supreme Court trying to save the Parliamentary seats that were lost. I
> have also omitted to mention the various clandestine efforts made by
> some members of NADD during the period that I was defending some of
> them against the charges brought against them before Justice
> Paul.Hamat Bah resigned from NADD to join the UDP in an alliance
> because he faced an accepted reality that in politics it is the number
> that matters and UDP had the largest following and it made more sense
> for anyone really committed to restore true democracy that we yearn
> for should give his support to the UDP and that is what Mr. Bah did.
> 
> What do you think is the way forward for the country’s opposition parties?
> 
> Those who are in leadership position of parties must accept the fact
> that Gambians know that the ultimate decision in electing any
> government is theres.We the political leaders must also accept the
> that we do not have all the ideas that can take this country out of
> this hostile political environment and move the country forward. We
> must not be presumptuous and we must disrobe ourselves from the
> clothes of self-righteousness believing that we are the only ones
> capable of doing things right. Self perpetuation or a
> self-perpetuating government must be eschewed. When we talk about self
> perpetuating government does the Gambia have such a history? Now was
> the PPP government a self perpetuating government? Why would anybody
> think that if Hamat Bah is voted into office he will run a self
> perpetuating government? Why would anyone think that a UDP government
> would be a self perpetuating one?
> 
> These are some of the thinking some of the political leaders must
> discard and come to terms with the fact that there is no party leader
> who would perpetuate himself in power. My own personal history shows
> absolute and uncompromising adherence to constitutionalism. Thirty-six
> years of standing in support of the constitution of the Gambia at all
> levels demonstrates and provides testimony that if I do not enforce
> the present constitution I will not do anything that would not go down
> well with the wishes of the Gambian people. The executive of the UDP
> is meeting to consider proposals submitted to it for a united
> opposition front and for me it will not be proper at this stage to say
> what such a united front should take.
> 
> Source: The Daily News
> 
> 
> 
> 
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