Nyang and Mboge,
I feel for you. In a sad way. You have become one dimensional thinkers. Matter of fact, you no longer think. Objectively that is. You have become casualities of PDOIS's 30 year miseducation of young vulnerable Gambians; vulnerable because, you became drawn to Sallah at a time when you were too young to underdstand politics, much less have exposure to different political view points. Your exposure to PDOIS is not necessarily the bad thing, in and of itself. But the natural process of intellectual development should have exposed you opposite schools of thought, instead, your political education become ossified around PDOIS's cult-like political demagoguery. I have a duty as an older Gambian to help you see the light, by dissolving your the conctete encasement PDOIS put in your brains, so I can liberate your  minds to wander freely into the frontiers of knowledge; totally freed of PDOIS's poisonous influence.

Look guys, my issues with Halifa are not personal, they are philosophical. Back in the days it was people like me and Habib Sallah, Halifa's older brother, and Abdoulie Jobe and Combrade Sillah and many others who were talking socialism; discussing dialectical materialism and collectivism and there was even a library on Pictin Street devoted entirely to socialism thought and teachings and Abdoulie Jobe was running it. You could expect to find book by many of the third world revolutionaries of the day, from Franz Fanon, to Nkrhumah and to Karl Marx (ofcourse). In a way, I can say Halifa followed our foots steps. Today we have all disassociated ourselves from the deadly pull socialist ideological demogoguery. 
Guys, I am sure Halifa as a person is a nice guy, in fact, intellectually, he is more qualified than Darboe, but it is the ideology that is encased in his brain that gives me heartache, that torments me, that tortures my conscience to the point of insanity. See, the number 3 man in PDOIS, Adama Bah was a close friend of mine before the formation of PDOIS. He, Pa Laity Jagne and myself, at one point were together 24/7. We worked together, went places together, socialized together; in short did everything together. Just before I came to the U.S in late 1996, Adama invited me to B.B. Hotel, I did not know what for but I went. It turns out he had a non-profit organization extablishing in the Gambia fron U.K and he wanted me to run it, but I already had a one way airticket to the US, so it never happened.
Nyang wandered what i did for Gambia. Well, I taught primary and secondary school; from Madina Serign Mass, to St Georges, to St. Peters, Lamin and St. Theresas secondary. I was the third person ever to be employed as a tourist guide when tourist was new; took tourist on a three days river journey to Basse and returned overland in waiting bus at a time when ther were no roads between Banjul and Basse, and when we got to Banjul, it was like we were all swimming in a sea of red dust; then I worked in the hotels as reception clerk, then I went to Norway, to become the first Gambian in a Norwegian University first at the Universitet i Bergen and later transferred to Oslo University, then for for about 12 years worked for  FFHC, Action Aid and the newspapers briefly at Point and later at Observer. In contrast, what did Halifa do. He spent a life time trying to be president, never worked a day in his life; except for the brief period at Social welfare Dept. Now some of my students are university graduates around the Us and Europe.
You remember Halifa giving away part of his salary; just a political gimmick. I did far more than that for poor Gambians, but I did not publicise it, beasue I was not doing it for lousy political showmanship, it cam from the heart. Halifa spent thrity year trying to educate tomorrow's voters, I spent years educating our future leaders. 
Halifa thought he could out-smart Darboe, O.J and Hamat when they formed NADD. He dreamt of riding on the tail of UDP/NRP from an averge 2% popular vote in 30 years to sudden power. Darboe and Hamat are not that dumb. And he has not given up. Sorry guys,if your party cannot make it, propelled by its own force, just pack up and try a different calling.
On the economic front, Halifa should not replace the market place with artificial price controls. Halifa should know thatthere is a place called Chicago Merchantile Xchange where world wide commodities are bought and sold. It is where prices of commodities are decided by (supply and demand) not artificail price fixing in Tankular or Sare Gubu. Our locally produced and consumed commodities are hardly affected by international forces. Normally, locally produced rice should sell cheaper than exported rice, but it does not work that way. The prices are pegged to each other. How would Halifa's economic model deal with price fluctuations. Say I buy gas today at $1.84 and after the Gulf oil leak, or an Isreali rocket fired on a Iranian freight laden with rockets, then two days later the oil leak is sealed or miraculously Isreal and Iran enter in an agreement to settle their political and gas prices plummet down to say$1.56 is Halifa going to hold there price fixing meetings each time prives fluctuate. I can't imagine. Cooperative can succeed at in small scale business models, not at the national level; in order works collectivising national economies has failed in every country it was tried in from Russia to Cuba. My Mboge, I will still take the high ground. In  other words, I will not insult you. I am sure, if i were to meet with you or Haruna or Suntou or Mboge, we will be civil to each other, perhaps even regret the name calling after we each realize we are not monsters afterall. I have never met a Gambian I did not like. We may have different views and some call me arrogant until they know me. Then they let their guard down. You know my two Sereres, as Haruna says, "I love you men," but you really need political reeducation. In order words you were brainwashed, but now you need your brains  washed and nursed back to health and sanity from PDOIS propaganda.

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