--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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his nomination was withdrawn but someone from NDAM said OJ is the one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

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤