NADD or the Birth Throes of a Political Alliance.
   
  The impasse that has gripped the National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD) over the selection of a flag bearer threatens to plunge the Opposition into further disarray and the country into a de facto one party state.
   
  One does not need to be a political science guru to conclude that the squabbles that announced NADD’s birth were going to frustrate the growth of this alliance that has attracted so much fervor from the diaspora.  Support organizations sprung up almost everywhere in the West, online chat forums and newspapers mushroomed, and overnight Gambians became political animals. A simple telephone conversation on any mundane matter could end up with a comment or two about the political situation back home.  Meanwhile, our embattled opposition politicians argued and argued, perhaps uselessly sometimes, over the modalities of putting up an individual against a president whose appalling human rights record and inept economic policies have pauperized over half the Gambian population and ruined countless lives.
   
  NADD’s faux pas was to register the alliance as a party when the Constitution is conspicuously mute on the issue of political coalitions.  In their zeal to emulate their counterparts elsewhere on the continent and create a unified front against Jammeh’s autocratic rule, they unwittingly walked into the trap of registering NADD as a party although its name clearly calls it an alliance. The rest is history.  Jammeh’s constitutional lawyers got to work. A Supreme Court order forced the opposition MPs to vacate their seats and contest bye-elections.  By the time it was over, hundreds of thousands of dalasi, possibly over a million, had been spent by NADD on contesting an unnecessary and seemingly fraudulent bye-elections.  NADD successfully managed to prove to the ruling APRC that they do have political clout and in a level playing field they, under-funded as they are, can beat Jammeh at his own game.  Jammeh on the other hand had kept one of his promises: Hamat Bah came out of it
 licking his wounds.  It is important to note that Hamat had never lost elections in his constituency before.  Instead of capitalizing on the euphoria following their victory, NADD fell back into its characteristic silence over the flag bearer. “We are discussing and will make an announcement soon,” became their mantra.
   
  The APRC government had one more ace up its sleeve.  Before even the dust had settled and out of nowhere, Jammeh’s government filed spurious and frivolous charges of treason, sedition and  other nonsense against Halifa, Hamat and OJ.  Surprisingly, throughout their incarceration NADD did not hold a single successful rally to address the situation and tap into the cauldron of national anger in the aftermath of the arrests.  Civil and political society became brain dead.  Then again, one would have asked too much from a society that went about its normal business while some parents were burying 14 children massacred by Jammeh’s security forces.  Or a society that could not even lay a wreath on the grave of one of its illustrious sons murdered in cold blood.
   
  “We are discussing and the flag bearer will be announced soon,” the immortalized phrase of petty filibuster, self-aggrandizement, and political failure that may soon take its place in Gambia’s history books. 
   
  One is obliged to ask, is the Opposition its own enemy?  Any further delay in the selection of the coalition’s presidential candidate will drive party militants back to their bases and increase the animosity and inter-fighting between the Opposition.  Just like the animal species that we are, each time that we feel threatened we seek refuge with our own ilk.  Since NADD’s stalemate, there has inarguably been an increase in inter-party criticism, especially in online forums.  Angry invectives and intolerance to criticism pervade the postings of most contributors, who ironically share the common goal of introducing an open and free society in The Gambia. 
   
  As NADD is still behind closed doors, one cannot fail to wonder what the APRC government would do next as soon as the flag bearer is announced.  Would they re-open murder charges against Darboe?  Would Halifa, Hamat and OJ be dragged back to court as soon as Jammeh hits the campaign trail? Under the Constitution, no person can hold the highest office in the land if found guilty of any of the trumped up charges as the ones APRC is desperately trying to hang on the necks of the NADD executives.
   
  Even after selecting the flag bearer, it’s most likely that the respective parties that constitute NADD will resort to underhanded tactics and backstabbing instead of focusing on the grand prize. 
   
  Maybe NADD should get a birth attendant; an outside candidate who may just help us all deliver the country from the grasp of a dictator.
   
  Momodou.
  


			
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