Sheikh,

Thank you for your words of wisdom, and it is good to engage in discussion with you.

In my original posting, I stated my own personal preference for Dr Isatou Touray as the NADD presidential candidate in the 2006 elections. This is my opinion.

However, what should be made clear is that I do not have a role in the selection of the NADD candidate. My views and preferences are my own: the NADD signatories will have their own views and preferences, and it will be them who make the choice of who will be put forward on behalf of NADD to defeat Yahya Jammeh at the polls.

What is important in a democratic society, is that people both have the right – AND EXERCISE THIS RIGHT – to engage in open discussion at all times, and that there should be no attempts made by any of us to put brakes or limits on this discussion. If we want our beloved Gambia to start on the process of re-democratization, then every citizen should be actively encouraged to have a view and to express it at all times.

We should make it very evident to our fellow Gambians that I have never suggested that Dr Touray IS going to be the main challenger! She would certainly be the candidate of my personal choice (and that of many others), but she may well not be your or other people’s. Let us discuss other people’s choices as well as mine. In the last analysis, NADD will select its own candidate.

As to issues of personal safety, then every single supporter of the opposition parties in The Gambia, from party leaders down to the grass roots level, is ALREADY at risk from attack by Jammeh and his APRC thugs. Dr Isatou Touray has already locked horns with the Jammeh regime on the issue of traditional practices, and is aware of the implications of this. Halifa Sallah, Ousainou Darboe, Hamat Bah, Lamin Waa Juwara, Sidia Jatta, Omar Jallow and opposition brothers and sisters the length and breadth of the country risk their lives daily in their struggle to bring about a re-birth of our nation. Some pay a high price for their oppositional struggle – and we remember in our prayers our brother Deyda Hydara in particular. However, they all deem it a price worth paying.

I do take issue with you Sheikh on the matter of personality and politics. I do not think that my views are either "fatalist" or "self-defeatist". To the contrary, I believe that my views are rooted in daily reality as well as political history. The politics of personality is deeply rooted in all political systems throughout the world, including the African continent. Africa is no different from the West, or Middle East or Far East or South America or Australasia: in every country in every part of the world, personalities are crucial in the political backdrop. Certainly, post-colonial African political history is replete with examples of the "cult of the personality" – it is engrained in African society.

Like you, I wish our politics was just based on issues and principles, and not on personalities. But this premise of yours is a fallacy. The Politics of personality will continue to be part and parcel of African politics. We should stop romanticizing and become pragmatic. This is not an era of idealism; those days, at least on my part, are gone. Again, let me stress that no where in the world, America and the UK included, do you have politics based only on issues and principles.

It will be vital that NADD select a personality with the charisma, drive and idealism to take forward the electoral challenge and turn it into victory. The personality of the NADD candidate will be crucial in defeating Jammeh.

I am surprised that you are now suggesting that we should "continue" the debate when earlier on, you - wittingly or unwittingly - wanted to gag me. Clearly, you didn’t want me to touch the NADD leadership issue. In fact, you suggested that we have started the debate "on a wrong footing". I suspect you wanted the leadership issue to be a taboo, left only to NADD to handle.

In your latest e-mail, you asked these two key questions: "Has the issue been raised with her (Isatou Touray)? Has she (Isatou Touray) concurred to be the candidate?" You then said that you were waiting for me to answer these questions. You wrote: "No answer has yet been given to these two questions." But how do you expect me to answer these TWO questions in my earlier mails, when you only raised them, for the first time, in your LAST e-mail. For the sake of an open debate, I have NOT spoken to Isatou Touray, but even if I did speak to her, I was not going to come here online and say so. I am aware of protocols. I can suggest names of potential Presidential Candidates, but it is the task of the NADD to select a presidential candidate as well as announce it.

And just because "Isatou has never been known to be a politician", does this mean she should NOT be considered for the presidency? Well, on a final note, it is worth pointing out that former President Jawara was never a politician by training: he was a Veterinarian by the training before being invited to lead the PPP. However, he did rule our country for almost 30 years!

Let us start to have open discussion about the range of candidates on offer to NADD, and make our suggestions on the people of our individual choice.

This is democracy in action.

Ebrima Ceesay

Birmingham, UK