From The Point Dr. Jobe Is A Man Of Honour - Darboe The Opposition coalition presidential flag-bearer, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, has congratulated Dr. Momodou Lamin Sedat Jobe for dumping his foreign secretary portfolio with the Yahya Jammeh's government, describing him as a man of honour, principles and integrity. In his words, Darboe said, "My congratulations to Dr. Sedat Jobe for sticking by his principles. I have always considered him as a man of honour, a man of principles and whatever would not be in the interest of this country, he will not subscribe to it. I congratulate him and certainly it didn't come to me as a surprise." Darboe added, "I do not know the reasons for his resignation, but then coming shortly after the order expelling the deputy British High Commissioner, I believe that he must have considered that this was a major foreign policy decision and really it was a wrong foreign policy decision and he cannot support it and he resigned. And I think, that it is a mark of a man of integrity and principle." On whether his recent call for Dr. Jobe's resignation might have triggered his resignation, Darboe had this to say, "Well not necessarily but when I made the call for him to resign, you know, I had known that he was a man of principles. We all come from the same place, you know. I have known him for several years. He is a kind of a big brother, an elder brother to me. Really, I believed he had a mission. I believed he wanted to see the Gambia, at a top foreign policy level, that will be for the benefit of the country. I think the right thing for him to do was to resign." Darboe added that he asked Dr. Jobe to resign in order to assert his principle, pointing out "which I am glad to say that he has done." Further asked what Foreign Secretary Jobe's resignation meant for the Jammeh administration the coalition leader said, "well, I cannot assess what effect it will have on this government but I think one thing that is clear is that those who still are serving with the Jammeh administration, should take a lesson from Dr. Jobe, that if the government does anything or takes any decision that they do not agree with, then the right thing is to resign, rather than hang on and be gossiping on the sides. I think it would serve as a lesson to others. The UDP leader told The point that the opposition coalition welcomed anybody, who have the country's interest at heat. When told by this reporter that, "Some people are saying that you don't visit your home village Dobbo, because it is a taboo that if you visit your village, that might affect your aspiration for the presidency. How do you react to such views?" In response Darboe said, "Well you know these are superstition and I personally do not believe in them, but "I belong to an organisation and I have to listen to what others in the organisation say. After all my father was a member of the House of Representative. He used to start his campaign from Dobbo and that he has always been elected as a member of the House of Representatives. But it is a superstition and people have really pleaded with me not to go there." The coalition leader added, "but certainly, I have absolutely no doubt that my going there and not going there does not and will not affect in anyway my aspiration in becoming president of this country. It doesn't affect it at all. Further quizzed whether he is implying that his party's reservations made him not to visit his village any longer. Darboe had this to say, "well, as of now, yes but then let me say that certainly I will visit the place. Infact, in January, when the mosque was being opened, you know, they had to literally dragged me out of the ferry, because, I was crossing to go, because I thought this is one occasion which will never happen again but I didn't want to miss it but I was literally dragged out of the ferry." Reacting to Joseph Joof's latest pronouncement that he (Darboe) is not eligible for presidency, Darboe said, "what I said, I think, is he is demonstrating his ignorance of the constitution. It is as simple as that." _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------