The outcome of the Niamina West bye-elections, held on Saturday, November 7, in which the National People’s Party (NPP) scored a landslide victory over the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC), has quite a few lessons for everyone who participated in it as well as all those concerned about politics in this country.
While no doubt the NPP and its sympathisers are on top of the moon for winning the seat, but I hope they would be honest to themselves that it was obtained at a great financial and moral prize.
It was quite clear that President Adama Barrow sent to Niamina West a large entourage of his most trusted people, including Hamat Bah, leader of the moribund National Reconciliation Party (NRP) as well as virtually all his advisers and other civil servants, including some other cabinet ministers, and of course the Governor of the Central River Region (CRR) and the district chiefs, who are supposed to be politically neutral. They were not only using their incumbency advantage to the maximum, but also using state resources during most of the campaign. It is alleged for instance, that their large fleet of vehicles were being fueled with official fuel coupons instead of from NPP money.
All the cabinet ministers who went there, including Hamat Bah, who spent all the time there, were not only using their official vehicles, but they were also accompanied by their government drivers and security/orderlies who were apparently paid per diems for the number of days they spent there. Even the fact that some civil servants, paid from public coffers, abandoned their work to campaign for the NPP was abuse of office.
The NPP and its allies must have no doubt spent several millions of Dalasis during the campaign. However, was it really worth all that cost just to get someone elected for slightly over a year before the next National Assembly elections? Of course, President Barrow and his sympathisers would say that just the symbolism of the victory was worth every butut spent on it.
Indeed, they must certainly be congratulating themselves for not only achieving this most symbolic victory, but by implication, also for humiliating their greatest rival, the UDP, who not only declared their support for the GDC, but went all out to campaign for the GDC candidate.
President Barrow had made his intentions for winning the seat known well before the bye-elections and he had been doing everything to achieve that. He was once quoted telling some people from Niamina West that he considered the seat as his “Afo’” (first born in Pulaar) and that winning it would be worth anything to him. Indeed, with the victory, it has become the NPP’s first born, even though in reality, all the NRP NAMs and those renegade members from the UDP and the GDC are technically NPP members as well, in both comportment and action, as was clearly manifested during the debate on the Draft Constitution.
There are even allegations that the co-incidence of the National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) paying their last installment of the NAFA money, which was meant to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on households barely three days before the elections, was deliberately done to help the NPP as President Barrow was recently heard telling the people that he was the one giving them that money.
However, apart from the obvious use of state resources and incumbency advantage, the NPP also received a lot of financial and moral support from several quarters, including some very powerful business interests. The campaign team was there with several brand new pick-up vehicles, no doubt given to them by those powerful business interests, the usual shadowy ‘anonymous’ donors that the Barrow government has been depending on for a number of things.
Another unclear aspect of the NPP campaign was that while many of those on their campaign trail claim to have been President Barrow’s coalition partners, such as the leadership of the NRP, GPDP, PPP and the new entrant, GAP, but everything seems to have been centred on the NPP, with hardly any mention of the coalition partners. They all were urging the people to vote for NPP but never for the coalition, because the reality is that all those parties now merely exist in name only but in reality, they all seem to have all virtually melted into the NPP.
“Our own party leader, Hamat Bah, has mortgaged the NRP to President Barrow for his own position and comfort, leaving us in the cold,” complained a member of the NRP.
As regards the opposition, particularly the GDC and their allies in Niamina West, the UDP, it is certainly time to review what has gone wrong with their campaign strategy.
The results both in Niamina West and the bye-elections in Ker Jarga Ward in Jokadu, have shown that both the GDC and the UDP were outperformed by the NPP. Therefore, if this trend continues, should we not brace ourselves for an easy NPP victory in 2021?
Some people however blame the GDC’s loss in Niamina West to their open alliance with the UDP, which does not seem to have been well embraced by the people of Niamina West, for whatever reason.
In fact, since its formation in 1996, the UDP has never put up a candidate in the constituency. “GDC should not have allowed the UDP to join their campaign as that most have likely put off some of their supporters,” one GDC sympathizer said.
However, while these results are no doubt a good moral booster for President Barrow and his socalled coalition partners, but it would be quite premature for them to conclude that it is an indication of his popularity and the invincibility of the NPP.
They were dealing with a very small area and a less sophisticated voter population who could have been easily manipulated with money and mere promises. However, when it comes to country-wide elections, it is very likely to be a completely different scenario altogether.
With President Barrow’s flip-flopping characteristics, it would be foolhardy for them to under-estimate the level of dissatisfaction with his regime, and that could negatively affect the chances of his NPP in 2021 or any other subsequent election.
Indeed DA, the NRP is not only a moribund party that’s hanging by Barrow’s Waramba for dear life but also has a nominal leadership that’s got little to offer Gambians. It’s hard to see how Gambians can stop the likes of Hamat Bah, alongside Seedy Njai, from not only running their ugly mouths but also displaying unmatched opportunistic tendencies. Sad.
“As regards the opposition, particularly the GDC and their allies in Niamina West, the UDP, it is certainly time to review what has gone wrong with their campaign strategy.”
In my opinion, the political-cultural dynamics are exploited by Adama and his cronies to the fullest. Their Campaign game plan is a tale tale sign of manipulations and corrupt practices we about to witness in 2021. From that vantage point, I dare say there was nothing the UDP and GDC could have done to turn the tables. Adama and co. have millions of our money and thousands of civil servant hours, including other incentives, to sway the election their way.
Win they did. In some very disgusting ways.
Mwalimu.
Money matters in politics but sometimes it doesn’t work out well how much a politician spend . If the money and state resources were considered in 2016 , former President Jammeh would have been in power right now . The recent election cannot be used as a guide for 2021 presidential election. This area is small constituency which is not well diverse as far as the country is concerned. Of course there are lessons to be learned as far as the abuse of state resources and used of public servants is concerned, Adama must understand that the country has demonstrated political maturity in 2016 will continue to demonstrate that in the next elections cycle.
Well Maxs, I have mentioned a number of factors Adama and his cronies readily exploited. The money is either coming from our coffers directly or from the pockets of people in the shadows with obvious business interests.
Money is a big influencing incentive in our politics. Unfortunately.
The 2016 spin against the human butcher is a totally different scenario. He has the money. True. The people however, were economically emaciated and the curtailing of freedoms and liberties all played into the mix.
Gambians abroad also orchestrated a storm of discontent against the regime which in turn translated into votes for the coalition.
Adama became a “saagii batungdoo” because of the irresponsible uttering of one man who thinks, and behaves, as if he has a birth right to be a president of our country. All indications are that he can’t even control his own damage on his own aspirations.
Ndeysan!
Mwalimu , I think you are referring to Hon lawyer Darboe when you suggested that he made irresponsible utterance. I believe Adama Barrow already made up his mind to go for 15 years well before Darboe suggested that the constitutional requirement was five years term. I supported the five year term because I thought that at the end of the five years term Mr Barrow would resign. During this period he would have done all the necessary reforms promised during the last election and put the country on the genuine path of economic development and national security setting but I am wrong . Instead mr Barrow was thinking of entrenching himself in power. If you look at the security situation at the time, five years term would have made more sense because the country was deeply divided and in fact without the foreign tropes, we might have civil strife. But we are disappointed with Adama. The worst thing he did was he brought back the same characters in the government and our struggle became futile efforts. We must not blame Mr Darboe for the failure of president Barrow .
I think President Adama will get a surprise defeat in 2021 because even Jammeh is popular than him .
“I think President Adama will get a surprise defeat in 2021 because even Jammeh is popular than him.”
Unfortunately Maxs, elections in the eyes of many Gambians is a popularity contest. That’s indeed a hopeless macabre in our body politics. Issues of life and death, bread and butter, get relegated to the bottom of our priority lists. The characters contesting for key elected positions take central tenets in the discussions. Beyond that, our sickly economy, poor education standards, peasantry agriculture, lifeless infrastructure, non-existent services sector etc, get no serious deserving attention. The contest was between Sheriff Dibba and Dawda Jawara, then Yaya Jammeh and Ousainou Darboe, and now? It’s of course clear.
This is a problem of mindsets.
Until we overcome that, our women will continue to unnecessarily die from childbirth. Our youths will continue to perish in the Mediterranean Sea. The rest will die from either preventable or curable diseases.
The biggest political blunder ever committed by the UDP under Ousainou’s leadership, and there are many, was to propagate that Adama serving for three years is unconstitutional. You guys provided the “comfort swing” that emboldened Adama to begin to entrench. Now we have an incompetent fool in our hands with the unfettered power to use our all state apparatus to entrench further. It’s a pity Ousainou never deemed it necessary to apologize to the Gambian people for that irresponsible utterance.
Yes most UDP sympathizers were wrong about Adama and a lot of things because they put sentiments before logic. Even today.
Until we rise above emotions and blind loyalties in politics, religion and cultures, our country will be out for the Chinese, the Europeans and Arabs to suck dry.
Mwalima .
I know your main problem is UDP and Ousainu Darboe but you are taking your eyes off the ball . That is Mr Barrow already aimed for more than five years before ousainu was released from prison . In many interviews he highlighted his desire to finish up the work he started . we shouldn’t blame the UDP for the mess we have. Of course the constitutional mandate was five years term which he has every opportunity to resign but he failed to do that. His popularity is low because of poor job performance and his intellectual incapability to run the country. UDP is the only political party which has sacrificed more than any to restore democracy and rule of law in the country. The issues you mentioned above are problems which led to mr Barrow unpopularity among Gambians. Theses are the issues UDP has fought for and will continue to fight for. If your PDOIS leadership were serious about 3 years deal they would have protested against president Barrow’s desire to continue more than three years but they are not. It is just hypocritical because they are very people screaming for three years but when the three jotna started they claimed the same constitutional mandate mr Darboe has highlighted in 2017. They should stop hypocrisy and realize that Gambians are too smart to understand Their retrogressive politics. If Halifa was truly an advocate for three years he would have joined those who called on president Barrow to resign and honor the coalition agreement. Blaming Darboe is just cheap propaganda. In fact UDP took a drastic step and asked Barrow to resign. Tell me the position of PDOIS at the time and did they support those who called on President Barrow to resign ?