Barely a few months after being appointed the national women mobiliser of the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) veteran politician Aja Ndey Jatta Wednesday granted her maiden exclusive interview, using it as an opportunity to react to the recent reports of meetings held by leaders of opposition parties for a possible united front against President Jammeh in the forthcoming presidential election.

Speaking to the Daily Observer at her new office at the APRC Bureau in Kanifing, Jatta described such a move by the opposition as a ‘day dream’, saying it does not pose the slightest of challenges to the APRC. She also declared that victory is imminent for the ruling party. 

The ruling party’s national women mobiliser’s remarks came barely three months before Gambians go to the polls in the fourth Presidential Election in the Second Republic, a poll which many political analysts predict will be swept by the incumbent, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh. 

The APRC strongwoman, who was among those that appealed to President Jammeh [then Chairman Jammeh] to contest in the 1996 Presidential Election after the end of the transition, said the opposition is not in their [APRC]  agenda, but rather the percentage of votes the party will poll for President Jammeh, since victory is already assured for him.

“They have not moved even the last toe of President Jammeh on the ground. The president is far ahead of them and they are hundreds of miles behind him,” Jatta stated.

She described such moves by the opposition as “desperate attempts,” saying it shows how weak they are.  She added: “They do not believe in themselves and that is why they made that move to try whether they can challenge the APRC. All what they do is to lobby funds outside because we all know that they are been sponsored.

These people [the opposition] are in fact not with any agenda to dislodge President Jammeh because they know that it is impossible to achieve it. So it is just a desperate attempt and it is like dreaming in the day.

“Let’s ask what the opposition has done. So, anyone who follows the opposition is just wasting his or her time because they have no future. All what they are doing is bent on amassing funds.”

Please read the rest of Aja Ndey Jatta’s exclusive interview on our subsequent Bantaba editions where you can also know more about the APRC national women mobiliser, how she embraced the ruling party, her agenda for the women, and lots more.