In an attempt to strengthen his grip on power, President Adama of the Gambia has sacked his deputy and two other ministers.
Vice President Ousainou Darboe who is also leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP) was sent packing from his post this morning.
Two other ministers from Mr Darboe’s UDP including Amadou Sanneh minister of Trade, Regional Integration, Industry, and Employment, Lamin N Dibba, minister of Agriculture were also removed.
No reasons were given for the sacking of the high profile ministers especially the Vice President who had mentored the president politically.
But a statement from the President’s Office said it was done in accordance with provisions of the country’s constitution.
Meanwhile, Dr. Isatou Touray, Minister of Health has now been appointed to the Position of Vice President. She will continue to oversee the Ministry of Health until further notice.
Lamin Jobe has been appointed Minister of Trade, Regional Integration, Industry, and Employment. The 51-year-old Jobe is a native of Sanchaba Sulay Jobe and holds a Master Degree in Business Administration from the University of Poona, India.
Mr. Jobe worked at the Ministry of Finance and Trade from 1981 to 1996 before moving to the National Investment Promotion Authority and Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation respectively. From 1998, he has been the General Manager of LAMFAM Enterprises in The Gambia and Guinea Bissau, respectively, until his current appointment as Minister of Trade, Regional Integration, Industry, and Employment.
James Gomez, Minister of Fisheries and Water Resources will oversee the Agriculture Ministry until further notice.
There has been a feud between President Barrow and his political godfather, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe.
Mr Barrow used to be an executive member of the UDP but resigned his membership to lead a coalition of opposition parties, which defeated Yahya Jammeh in the December 2016 election.
He was due to step down from power next year as part of the coalition agreement, which would pave the way for the possible election of Lawyer Darboe as president.
However, Mr Barrow has had a change of heart and is considering forming his own political party to contest future elections.
Political dogs fighting lets sees how it played out.
I’m not a big fan of The UDP but if they know how to play their cards, this could spell the beginning of the end for Barrow.
It is clear that Barrow is looking to do lasting damage to The UDP albeit that the UDP still commands a larger following on the ground.
I believe that if the UDP is to make headway, old Wisainou, the lethargic Amadou and the hapless Dibba must take a back seat and be replaced with fresh new faces with lots of energy and bright ideas!
BARRI KAA DOMO DORONG?
Aren’t the party rank file tired of wrinkly old men with little to offer?
I really feel for a party on a rudderless Kulungo/ship. How long will this charade go on?
Didn’t the APRC’s Yankuba Touray mention the words, KULUNGO and JELLEH FENG TENDAA?
Just my two cents!
These sackings were coming and expected.
Thanking Hon. Darboe for his service to the nation and also commending Hon. Sanneh and Hon. Dibba for their refusal to stay in the cabinet without Darboe.
The plan of Barrow has always been to destroy UDP from within. He has now failed in that. The UDP will outlive Barrow.
No cause for concern.
UDP will now be totally free to pursue it’s political party responsibilities and holding the government accountable.
Fundamentally also, the sacking enables a clean break. Barrow and cohorts will now be forced to do their own political bidding. There will be no disguising any longer.
As predicted, most humans once they taste power will not relinquish it easily. Barrow is no exception and Darboe understands this. As we move closer to the 3 year anniversary of this government, it is obvious that Darboe/Barrow is untenable and there is bound to be a fracture in the alliance. The obvious path of least resistance is a amicable separation sooner than later. Darboe was NOT sacked, he chose to walk away like the others. Now Barrow can channel his own course and move full steam ahead with his ambition, and Darboe can concentrate on the UDP party.
God Bless The Gambia.
There are valuable lessons in life:
Patience.
Reverence.
Appreciation and
That no condition is permanent.
Someone is about to end up alone.
Without the presidency.
Without a Party.
Not unexpected, but still, a very surprising move by President Barrow. And a very bold one too, if the trio were sacked, as reported, rather than walked away.
Whatever the truth about the parting of ways, I think this Cabinet reshuffle, more than anything else, has finally laid all doubts about the strained relationship between Barrow and Darboe and his UDP to rest.
There are lessons to be learnt here, and I suggest that Mr Darboe would wish he had done things differently when he came out of prison.
I hope that sanity and common sense prevails, because the next few days and weeks will, undoubtedly, be very trying for our country.
Hello Gambians. What took the three Amigos so long to realize that they are swimming against the tide? That is, assuming that their Surrogates Psycho-babble is based on Facts and Truthful foundation. What most Gambians saw was a Party leader who was more interested in the Party and his narrow base of support and not the Country or Nation he was and is spending his living breath trying to wrestle from his former Mentee. Unfortunately, UDP under Ousainou Darbo has always managed to underestimate or more accurately, took all other Non-UDP Supporters and Gambians for granted. Inibriated on a dangerous false narrative of being the one Party that would from January 2017 onward, Win any and all elections by a share number of an Ethnic group, the UDP PARTY, its leadership and supporters embarked on assault on all other Non-UDP Supporters and Gambians of Opposite Partys. The abrasive, intolerant, unmitigated barrage of insults and sometimes physical attacks heaped on any against those the UDP Militants perceived as a threat to the Party was immediate and sustained to the present. No one is immune not even President Adama Barrow. The Dogmatic and Stalinist Party Rigidity and Dog like Obedience to the UDP Party and its leader in the person of Ousainou Darbo is frightening and dangerous. The Party, that is the UDP, Ousainou Darbo, other Party officials and Supporters can do no wrong. It seemed like the UDP Party’s Motto is: Party and Leader First and Maybe the Country or Nation. Only those Constitutional Reforms that Served the UDP Party and Leadership were of interest to the Party and Leadership. For them all roads to and from Gambia’s Common Good Welfare begins and ends with the UDP and its Party leader or leadership. Examples are the Age issue, the MOU Controversy, the Ousainou Darbo “Yee Banko Taa” sing and dance, the Tactical Elections Gambit for a winner take all affair, Deafnning silence from Ousainou Darbo and UDP PARTY as well as Militants unless the issue at hand is one that affects the UDP Party, Leader and or Militants. All other issues are measured and or caliburated on a Scale of how it affects the UDP Party, Leader, Leadership, and or Supporters. For them and their Party leadership, a diabolical inverted logic and mantra of “UDP is Gambia” and the reverse is not. Party before Nation. The Gambians and Gambia can’t afford UDP as currently constituted. Truth be told, it is too dominated by a single ethnic group that is not Sustainable in the “New Gambia”. What the new Gambia needs is a more diverse and horizontally represented by a cross-section of all Gambian Ethnic groups. The Parents that is able to build and maintain such a Membership and Leadership, would be the Winning Party and the Party that is needed in the “New Gambia”. Now that President Adama Barrow has applied his broom to clean up the mess in the Cabinet, the real work to build a Secure, Middle Income Gambia with all Ethinic groups given a Stake in the Enterprise should begin forthwith. Gambia is more than the Sum Total of One Tribe One Region or Party.
@Sidi, you are a contemptuous menace in a peacemaker’s guise. Step out of your ethnocentrist armor and help younger people step out of darkness. Do you blame anyone taking you for a hop mad ethnocentrist who would clap when Yaya, a certain former president of the Gambia, who faced a group consisting of all cross sections of the Gambian nation in his dark glasses, probably already drunken and bathed down with his herbal mixtures, literally passing a death sentence to a particular cultural belonging. Spooky as you’re, you’re now thinking, “oh he is defending his tribe”, because your writings clearly tell of someone who can’t see beyond tribal or ethnic lines. Isn’t it evident that leadership and people in the present administration actually don’t have a national human capital and infrastructural development plan but rather, a very dangerous tribal/ethnic agenda lurking in the bushes. I am no doomsayer of the country i belong, like a narcissist is quite capable of twisting my views, but a realist who doesn’t pretend to be living in peace whilst imminent unrest is lurking everywhere in the dark around the small country. I think I have to agree now, with those few who, two an a half years ago, have expressed fear of a foreseeable ‘Gambians” crooked forging of another Yaya Jammeh-kind-regime out of any administration that may succeeded his (Yaya’s) regime. Could the surge in crime rate; the stabbings and murders, all be part of a perpetrated agenda to forge around a different political narrative? Police investigators better be widening their scope of investigation in determining what actual possible underlying reasons might have been driving factor of a murder case or any violent crime.
What is clearly transpiring now was what had been in the making . You can estimate the sanity in many Gambians’ mindsets; Yaya is such a dull and silly type though, but he didn’t miss to learn the masterful art of hypocrisy and unscrupulousness of a whole lot of Gambians, and to capitalize from that awful kind of knowledge, to be still sat at his cool corner in E.G meddling in the country’s political affairs, without remorse for his victims or concern for his own fate.
Whatever the coalition’s actual ambitions were, it seems hideous tribal affiliation sentiments, and a ‘number’ inferiority complexity of some of its’ members, have had since loomed over those ambitions. That’s the way in Gambia’s politics: they don’t have national development plans but indeed tribal, cultural, traditional, religious an corruptive agendas. That’s why the country stagnantly sits in gutters and dusty desolate poverty. Gambia’s river, its aerial landscape and wildlife are something that one should feel privileged to be a part of but when it comes to its
human population in mass, I can’t but to say, “I love and pray for us”
Simmer down before you burn yourself Bourne. I am not tethered to any Political Party not have I ever thrown my self into any Ethnic group’s lot. What I have been steadfast on is being against the persistent and naked Ethnic and Party Politics that Yaya Jammeh was accused of being dressed up and rebranded into a new and steroid injected Slogan of The “New Gambia. Slice and burn Ethnic group and Party Politics of the UDP Party under its leaderdhip of Ousainou Darbo is not a Sustainable or Wining formula or strategy. From the get go, the UDP Party under Ousainou Darbo sliced and burned most if not all of its Bridges with other significant Partys of the 2016 Coalition. They went on the rampage against any one associated with APRC especially, and other Opposition Partys and those Party’s leaderdhip. Yet, their is no understanding why they are now Isolated? Endeavor to be a Diverse and Tolerant Party that is integrated from the top to the bottom. Yaya Jammeh has been gone from the Gambian Political scene for over two years and yet, the obsession with his ghost is palpable within certain Gambians. Our current issues of bad, infact, corrupt and dangerous Political environment should be laid on the feet of our Collective inability to be United as one for the betterment and improvement of the economic, social and living standards of the average Gambian. Country first. Not Party and Party Leader first. Gambia is more than the Sum Total of One Tribe, One Region or Party.
They shouldn’t have been in cabinet in the first place. The agreement was to have a politically neutral cabinet that will be shadowed by politicians. Ousainou prevailed on Adama so as to reward himself and other UDP henchmen with positions in order to dominate governance, power and influence. That’s from now on a failed project.
But two wrongs does not make it right. By firing the three men without giving any reasons and recourse to best practices standards, Adama has shown he is ready for self perpetuation and high handed dictatorial maneuverings.
Since Ousainou came out of prison, the whole coalition agenda was derailed by his sense of entitlement to lead and to rule.
In my eyes, he is a greedy visionless politician who should take the backseat in the future of the UDP.
Perhaps people like Kemo (Kinteh) should take up the mantle of leadership to steer the party they so dearly love, in a new purposeful direction.
In order to maintain the peace and tranquility of our little Gambia, pressure should be vigorously mounted on Adama to step down at the end of his agreed tenure of THREE YEARS.
Yours in the service of The Gambia and Afrikka, I remain.
Oops…I mean, “I suspect “, (Not “suggest”)
There was no better timing for Darboe to be relieved of vp position than now. Many among us have urged that the Attempted sacking of a lawmaker by a democratically elected president is too far and too high a price.
Like Solo, the party stands or falls together. How could the party leadership and supporters look into each other’s eyes and pass the assault on Hon. Jaiteh under the rug?
Darboe luckily realized that his position would be untenable in the party if he let that pass without objection. He protested against the president’s decision and expectedly the president reacted with removal.
Bax, I disagree that Darboe would regret what he said after leaving prison. Darboe is consistent on his line and there is enough experience to refer back to know that losing the vp position will not dent Darboe’s standing in the country.
In the contrary by defending resolutely a lawmaker and staying true to his beliefs, Darboe is even back in Centre stage more than before.
The momentary happiness and gratitude in some political quarters is understandable. But they will be short lived. The business of managing the country will continue. And hopefully Dr. Touray ( who is held in high regards even withinUDP) will be a stabilizing hand (adult) in the room!
The biggest fear among UDP membership was the impact of Barrow secrets schemes to divide the party. Today one can say that scheme has failed. The dismissal of the trio is a testimony that isolating Darboe had failed.
As a colleague told me yesterday, the president must now make his own bidding and leave UDP to manage their own business.
A non party member. He said that is the best thing for the country.
A simple but timely and urgent question to the UDP Party, Ousainou Darbo and Supporters. Is the UDP Party for the Gambia or is the Gambia more than the UDP Party? Is Ousainou Darbo the UDP Party or the UDP Party more than Ousainou Darbo? The Gambia and Gambians have been through two Republics of Party Politics and Personality Cult Politics and the results speak for themselves. No matter what narratives and rationalizations the UDP Party Militants offer, until that time that they address the Party’s leadership character and style, its over confidence and underestimating of the Opposition, its Regidity and and One Way Mirror Politics, Policies and Agenda of Strict Party Party Orthodoxy with a Personality Cult leader at the top, wrapped up in a blanket of Ethnic Group Politics, UDP Party would continue to alienate and drive away potential Supporters from other segments of the Gambian population and voters especially. It is high time the UDP PARTY and its Supporters engage in Comprehensive self-examination from within and outside with an expressed purpose of being “Inclusive and Tolerant” of dissenting voices and other ethnic groups members holding real positions not just “Window dressing” positions. The question of UDP’s leadership is a matter for the UDP Party, Leadership and Supporters to decide. However, given the long years of operating from the outside of the center of Authority and Powers in the Gambia, it may be time for the UDP Party to consider a comprehensive leaderdhip change and reform of the Party Structure as it is currently constituted. Open up the UDP Party. Reach out to the “others” across the Gambian Ethnic groups without prejudice and conditions. UDP Party has a role to play in Gambian politics and it would serve it and the Gambia, if it is willing to Change and reflect a Multi-ethnic Gambian Party from the Executive level to the rank and file Party functionaries and members. Tic, tock, Tic tock. Time they say, “waits for nobody” nor Party. Gambia is more than the Sum Total of One Tribe One Region or Party.
Sidi , you are no friend of UDP. Concentrate your energy on making APRC or any other party a better party.
Go ahead creating a Better alternative party so that UDP would die a natural death because of obsolescence. I think that is the best thing any well meaning Gambian should do who is dissatisfied with UDP and the democratic dispensation allows that.
Sidi Bojang
You have forced me to come back from my self imposed sabbatical. As your hatred for anything Mandinka is dripping through your backside like a sludge of molten magma, i must remind you Sidi that the Jola hegemony that existed during the sorry dark days of the Kanilai illegitimate son Yahya Jammeh is over and ain’t coming back. Your ridiculous assertions disguised as a concern for the good of our nation is in actual fact a propaganda to help resurrect a tribal sentiment of hate, division and outright hostility between brothers, sisters of our great nation. Politics is a dirty game and that manifest itself in the manner in which Barrow wielded his axe against those who played a prominent role in his ascension to power. It will be fatal for our nation and its people to be swayed by hate mongers like you and your mad professor SOLI, whose rants are getting uglier by the day. A professor whose partisan thoughts and foolish rhetoric are not befitting even a primary school student more over an adult. It is worth remembering that if marriages can end in divorce, so does political unions.
May Jah protect our nation and its people from the evil of men like you Sidi, your mad self declared professors Jammeh and Soli.
Welcome brother Natty Dread. If I may borrow from @Bourne’s Caribbean dialects, i would say, “please step in Natty and burn this calamity ’bout ya so’ but, please, also keep your ‘sabbatical’ order intact”. Tek it wid a smile!
Eared da I say?
Ousainou came out of prison with a selfish party agenda. He single handedly destroyed a project that has already galvanized the nation in a spirit of unity, reconciliation and progress. Since then, everything that has been happening is as a result of him wanting to weave the tentacles of the UDP into every fabric government. He has partially succeeded in doing just that. As the leader of the biggest “political party” Ousainou has turn out to be the most divisive political figure, second only to Yaya the terrible.
He was defending every corrupt action of Adama, from the trucks distributed amongst some NAMs to signing illegal agreements with European countries.
We paid all of them fat salaries and other expenses. My question is: what value have they added to their portfolios? All of them!
So long Ousainou stays on the political scene, we should not be surprised if one day his model of politics leads to bloodshed. And am not saying this lightly, he has proven himself to be incapable of watching over his flock.
He is on record that he will sue anyone who dares to demand Adama to step down at the end of three years. I hope he is reading the situation well.
As for Adama, the woes of the nation just continues with a president who has a brain the size of an ants. Who wins in such a scenario? I see only losers, which is the Gambian people.
@Sidi: your obsession with ethnic politics is bewildering. What is the difference between udp’s ethnic political rhetoric and that of Yaya Jammeh threatening to wipe out a particular ethnolinguistic group?
You see a change of mindset is what will salvage Gambia from decadence and medieval practices. And you are doing a bad job of indicating how that change will ever come about.
Relying on ethnic diversity to sow the seeds of discord should be a thing of the past and it’s only befitting for the lowest of the lowest. We have in Gambia and by extensions languages and cultures that have the same roots. They have fertilized each other for thousands of years. How is that suppose to be a source contention just beats my imagination and make me vex beyond words. Those who don’t have constructive words should rather keep quiet than make a bad situation worst.
That’s my message to you Sidi.
Simply, because two wrongs cannot make a right. Infact, three wrongs in the annals of the Gambia’s Political history cannot make a right. The First Republic and the Second Republic were all guilty of the same Party and Ethnic group Politics that resulted in the State of affairs as we are witnessing in the “New Gambia”. Until these difficult issues of Party and Ethnic group Politics that is ping ponged from one regime to the next and from one dominant Party to the next is examined, dissected and delicately but seriously mitigated, Gambia and Gambians Politics and Governance would be found wanting. We must remove our blinders and confront the age old prejudices and subliminal messages imbeded through certain socializations which is holding many hostage to their learned prejudices and false narratives. Sweeping dirt under the rug and pretending that you cleaned your house or room, is not a sustainable way to live. Let’s cleanse ourselves of the undesirable socializations of prejudice and false pretenses of ascribed and unearned Social and Economic Status. Civility, Humility, Hard work and Honesty in all life-events is needed in the Gambia and among Gambians.
You very much have a problem with a particular cultural identity being a majority among the various cultural identities than what the actual demolishing factors of our civil society building efforts could be. The poverty of our mindsets have its proportionate indication on all the countries cultural/traditional or ethnic/tribal lines, a circumstance that can be perceived by a minority as threatening. In that kind of a situation therefore, why can’t we desist from getting high on tribal/ethnical and cultural/traditional ignorance and get set towards portraying a civilize society.
If I belong to a cultural, social belief or identity that may happen to be one that is not even counted or recognised as one among the various, there is a sign at my gate – PLEASE DON’T TREAD ON ME IN THE HOOVES-RACE!!
Sidi,
I want to tell Kinteh(kemo) that there is no soul that hates the UDP more than Babu Soli. My reason is simple. It is an enthnocentric party. Its tribalist tendencies are only comparable to its benefactor party, the defunct UP (United Party) of Pierre Sarr Njie, Ousainou Darboe’s lodger and benefactor while a student at my Alma Mater, Saint Augustine’s Secondary School in Banjul in the 60s. Ousainou was my class prefect. In those days, senior students in Lower 5 and Upper 5 forms, served as prefects in the lower forms.
The UP was the worst tribalist partY ever, that’s why it died a natural death after the death of its founder, Pierre Njie. Pierre concentrated his energy and resources on the Banjulians whilst cajoling the provincial people for their votes. When his tribalist tendencies were uncovered, the PPP (another ethnocentric party, though on a lesser scale) swept the polls of 1963 thus sending the UP to its downturn death route.
Let the UDP stop fooling herself. The number of parliamentary seats were secured in 2017 at the intimidation of APRC which couldn’t contest in all the constituentcies, the failure of PPP to get candidates in all constituentcies as well, the near-extinction of the NCP. The GAP didn’t exist then. GDC was concentrated in URR
I bet any good political analyst:with Barrow breaking ranks with the UDP, there will never be any dominating party in the Gambia. The UDP will never again secure that number of parliamentarians. Some of his seatS will go to Barrow, who will soon form his party; and the APRC, the largest single party that is making a spectacular comeback.
UP died away with Pierre Njie, the PPP almost died away when Jawara left, the Gambia Muslim Congress died away with Garba Jahumpa, PPA died away with Sheriff Sisay, GPP died away with Assan Musa Camara, NCP almost died away with Sheriff Dibba. But it’s amazing to learn that the APRC gained more strength when President Jammeh left. Why? Because it isn’t a one-man party where the party loyalists love material wealth. They love the personality of the party leader. It’s presumable that they will come back to power. In Shaa Allah!!!!!
“…the Attempted sacking of a lawmaker by a democratically elected president is too far and too high a price…How could the party leadership and supporters look into each other’s eyes and pass the assault on Hon. Jaiteh under the rug?…”
Kemo; Was Ms Jaiteh sacked out of the ordinary? According to reports (if true); Ms Jaiteh reportedly was quoted to have said at the Gunjur rally that “…President Barrow’s mother isn’t the only woman to have given birth to a (prominent?) son?…” This DEFINITELY IS an ABUSIVE INSULT traditionally in connotative INFERENCES in any respectable community; particularly in our little Respectable Gambia of all places…?
Bajaw too, will do just the very same in President Barrow’s shoes in this particular circumstances…
There’re still other UDP nominated NAMs continuing serving in the House of Parliament; one would wonder why they too weren’t given the marching orders, if we are to buy into the alleged general ‘witch hunting’ cry wolves advances?…
Being a woman herself (if she possesses any self-respect & dignity at all for herself) that act of Ms Jaiteh’s indeed was unwise steps too far in any GENUINE ordinary politics aspirations alternatively to better our collective community TOGETHER (which politics is supposed to be all about)…? I believe she will still be serving in her nominated capacity if she only carried on in ordinary politics against Barrow had she not fallen this lower in her purported capacity which is to act & stay ‘Honourable’ at all times…?
Nominated capacity IS DIFFERENT from elected NAM…
“Being a woman herself (if she possesses any self-respect & dignity at all for herself) that act of Ms Jaiteh’s indeed……”.
Soooooo what does being a woman have to do with it. Or perhaps.
Because our society is male dominant and completely screwed up. Thanks to you shallow minded and violent MEN.
Because we are thought to discount women and girls.
Our writing, our actions and unconscious thoughts are clearly and evidently
MISOGYNISTIC!
Mualimu, this analysis of yours is rather hopeless. Why would Darboe singlehandedly derail the country? He is not president and not in the government.
I expect you and pdois to replace the vacuum and work with Barrow to rescue the Coalition MOU.
Here is a chance to catch and I hope people won’t be standing by and continue to blame Darboe although he is not govt. that would be tragic for the country. Darboe and UDP are not the country. Let other citizens step in to guide barrow well or depose him.
Dr Sarr, with all due respect you happen to miss the point I’m trying to emphasise here…
The blonder Ms Jaiteh made wasn’t expected of ANYONE particularly a woman who MUSTN’T engage in slanderous drawing of & belittle our glorious Women folk & decent Mothers in anything for that matter…
PLEASE next time, I expect you to simply ask for my clarification if you misconstrued any of my postings instead of attacking…
Thank you…
Brother Jack,
Nuff respect continually. Natty Dread hereby proposed the shadow cabinet of our republic and the candidates are as follows:
Shadow President and Minister of Women Affairs- Her Excellency Dr. Isatou Sarr
Shadow Vice President and Minister of External AFFAIRS – Brother Mwalimu
Shadow Minister of Education and Linguistic Excellence – Brother BOURNE
Shadow Deputy Minister of Education and Linguistic Excellence – Andrew PJALO
Shadow Minister of Interior and Territorial affairs – Brother Jack
Shadow Deputy Minister of Interior and Territorial affairs – Brother Bajaw
Shadow Minister of Defence – Brother Bax
Shadow Deputy Minister of Defence – Brother TAFEL
shadow Minister of Tribal cohesion and pension affairs – Professor Babu Soli
Shadow Deputy Minister of Tribal Cohesion and pension affairs – Sidi village idiot Bojang
Shadow Minister of Justice – Omar Baldeh
Shadow Deputy Minister of Justice – Njundu Drammeh
Shadow Minister of Prisons – Natty MAD ASS Dread
Shadow Deputy Minister of Prisons – Babu Solo
Shadow Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs – Brother Kinteh Kemo
Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance and economic affairs – Ebrima Darbo
Shadow Minister of Information and Technology – Brother Yorro Jallow
Shadow Deputy Minister of Information and Technology – Saidina Alieu Jarju
Shadow Chief Justice – Brother Madi Jobarteh.
Shadow Minister of Local Governments – Sister Fatou CAMARA.
Brethren and sisthren wha yuh say?
Brother Natty, thank you for selecting me for one of the post. Before I accept I want to up 2 important conditions:
1. Would I get a job contract legally binding;
2. What guarantees are there that you will not sack me if I voice disapproval of your actions e.g. setting up a foundation and would you provide me a legally contestable reasons for dismissal?
I know I am not the only bright guy in a country of 2 million people but the above modest guarantees are prerequisites for me to do my job.
Kinteh(Kemo)
OUR nation should have gone far with distinguished men like you brother… Please continue your good works of enlightening our people. Nuff respect always.
Simply, Simmer down Natty Dread.
Natty Dread, this plan here is a Disaster!
You mean…, “Education and Linguistic Excellence? Terrible! More so for Bourne who have not gone to school with much regret today.
Please for God sake, draw another shadow-cabinet-work-team plan.
Bourne
I Admire your humility and have great respect for your linguistic prowess. Keep enlightening bro.
@Bajaw you are smarter than most on this platform. Don’t act like this is a non sequitur for this discuss. The ingrained thinking is the issue. I am simply pointing out the obvious. Unconsciously perhaps, but it is glaring to me. Also the use of the word “particularly” should make you reflect further on my point. Those are yours not mine.
Nonetheless I get you point.
So Bra Natty, why leave out Agriculture and the Environment?
Less important in your book?
Feeding a hungry and insolvent nation must be a priority!!
Brother Andrew,
That is why we have great intellects in our homeland. Me bad cos I love food and don’t know HOW can I forget where food on our plates come from. LOVE my bra.
DR Sarr, for your understanding, the “particularly” is just an emphasis in expression…
TRUE, some insentive men folk do belittle the women folk but certainly Bajaw isn’t & can’t be any part of those men; not this time & never before anywhere; you will come to know, as a Gender Focal Point before, I was one of few men who spearheaded the integration for the uplifting & advancement of the women folk in the Gambia some time in the 90s; I still continue to do so in everything I do everywhere possible including on the here…
The expressed (particularly) emphasis is meant to say as – a woman herself, Ms Jaiteh isn’t expected & shouldn’t be any part of those slanderous to women when she should have known better being herself a woman, experiencing the unequal (unfavourable) treatment in a male dominated society like ours…
I hope this satisfy your comprehension…
Thank you…
While I mostly sit on the fence with Sidi Bojang’s positions and offering, I do agree with what’s captioned below:
“UDP Party has a role to play in Gambian politics and it would serve it and the Gambia, if it is willing to Change and reflect a Multi-ethnic Gambian Party from the Executive level to the rank and file Party functionaries and members. Tic, tock, Tic tock. Time they say, “waits for nobody” nor Party. Gambia is more than the Sum Total of One Tribe One Region or Party”.
Let me say this.
NNA YAA and SAA MUTA NYO as coded in Manding, no longer holds value in an ethnically diverse nation like The Gambia.
Especially where the Mandinka do not exclusively hold wealth in the nation.
The fact is that Ousainou Darboe, in his person, has for too long subscribed to the notion of NNA YAA. Meaning the ill conceived Mandinka hegemony.
It’s unfortunate that Ousainou hasn’t been captured on tape or otherwise with ethnically divisive offerings because no one ever thought to do so. The fact that one of Ousainou’s wives is of Wolof or Kasinka origins doesn’t change a thing in Ousainou’s thought process on the subject of ethnicity. He’s a chip off of the block that B B Darboe also belongs to. Just as the late Alhaji Faa Bala Kanutay, Banna Kanutay and other prominent Kora Jalolu offered in their CODED lyrics.
If I do come out against Ousainou and BB, it’ll be purely on account of the divisive tendencies that they both harbor.
Let me say this in Manding.
MUNA MO BIKA MO KORMA KUMA NO in this day and age.
In Wolof it is equally said that, SANTA DEKA U TUL FENN!
When volunteers of foreign origin can decode our lyrics and play our instruments better than Jalibaa Kuyateh, what else is left to decipher?
And I’ve long been saying that, KAMBIYA MU NYO LONG KUNDA LETI!!
On another note, I feel saddened that Kinteh (Kemo), a fine young man would readily compromise his core beliefs for cheap party propaganda on top of what’s afoot for him. You’re better than that Kemo.
So NATTY, don’t offer too much credit about what the Poularr would call, Engiliishi Nong. Wonna Nong Bourne? The substance is what matters but I feel flattered. Smile!
Kemo (Kinteh),
You can’t defend the indefensible. Ousainou was in jail when the coalition that toppled his jailer was formed. This coalition arrangement succeeded and availed Ousainou and his party executive the chance to be free in their lives. PDOIS as a party was the architect of that coalition from A-Z.
When Ousainou became free, that was the first setup he attacked to demonstrate his clout. So logically you can see he is a destroyer not a maker. There is nothing to defend about that. Trying to do so will only expose your insincerity.
PDOIS has no interest in positions or responsibilities that are just symbolical. PDOIS would like to see a complete overhaul of the system without any traces of the old decadent systems that has been in place for the last fifty four years of self determination.
Adama has only the coalition MoU and manifesto to refer back to, to get a clear direction of where he has to head to. But I believe he is already too rotten a good to even realize that, because UDP has made a total fool out of him. His only salvation lies in his resignation after three years.
@Brother Natty Dread: I love the trenches too much for an executive position. Thank you for the consideration but gorilla warfare is where my strength is best utilized.So I pass.
grins
Andrew, there is no reason to be saddened about my “sorry plight “. Apart from politics, my circles of friends are a bunch mix of Gambians and non Gambian alike. They all know my stance and politics is a very small part of daily life.
With my father ( a primary school headmaster ), I had the chance to rotate with him in the late 90’s in many different distinct communities and cultures.
My political affiliations is well anchored. UDP is entirely a broad sectional Gambian party. Mayors of BANJUL and KMC both do not hail from the Mandinka community ( to dismiss Sidi point of cosmetic positions for “other” communities). The president himself is of a bi-ethnic offspring. The National Assembly speaker Denton is likewise not a Mandinka.
That is significant to note. The codes you imply to emanate from Darboe are not in public consumption so I don’t know if they are true. However, the same could come from Halifa in private situations, it could come from Kandeh in private situations or in close door meetings etc .
As I highlighted above, I spent 3 years primary school in Kerr Ardo a village along the border with senegal. The languages were Wolof and Fula. Here I made long lasting friends but inevitably some families were also suspicious of me and the whole school teacher community in the village.
What I want to underscore here is that in all these distinctive cultural entities, there exists fringes. These fringes (minorities within their own group), know and live according to what was passed down from the generations. These pass downs may be good neighborliness as practiced centuries but inevitably also prejudices towards neighbors who do things differently.
These fringes are also represented in all parties. If you examine the 2016 election results, it would not escape your eyes to see that Kandeh’s vote came from predominantly Fula settlements while Jammeh carried Foni in its entirety.
Barrow also profited from these fringes in Mandinka dominated settlements.
In nutshell, casting UDP as beholden to Mandinka hegemony is not fair. The party consists of myriads of beliefs and interests but the elected positions are a testimony that it wants to represent everyone.
Just a reminder. The flagbearership to replace Darboe was contested by Barrow and Mr. Jarju, a Jola by ethnic belonging.
Finally, i am for a pluralistic democracy. I wish that pdois, GDC, NRP, etc are strong. I want them now to fill the vacuum left by UDP in govt and guide Barrow for the common good. Let UDP utilize it parliamentary majority well and hold the executive accountable. If that happens, we would not be pointing fingers at Darboe and UDP. I enjoin you and especially the pdois crew to take the chance presented yesterday and make best use of it.
What I don’t understand Kinteh (Kemo), is why the UDP seems to be mute after more than 24hrs of the termination of THREE key officials’ positions in Cabinet? Having just finished watching a short clip on YouTube about the reactions of people to the Supreme Court ruling in Hon Ya Kumba Jaiteh’s injunction, I think a statement from the UDP is necessary and overdue, just to calm the situation down, if for nothing else. That necessity is even more urgent now, given that the video in question was shot prior to the departure of the UDP trio from Cabinet. Prolonged silence is NOT a choice here for the UDP.
Also, I don’t know what you mean by saying that PDOIS should grab the chance that this situation presented and work with Barrow to rescue the MOU. Really? And why PDOIS? Here are two questions:
1. Isn’t it clear to you that Barrow is too far gone from the MOU for any rescue missions to be successful?
2. Shouldn’t that be the responsibility of Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, being the one who derailed the MOU, in the first place?
Bax, Point 2. Darboe is no more “IN”. What do you expect him to do? He cannot rescue the Coalition or MOU dear to you and pdois. Isn’t it wise if someone else step in? Like mai Fatty or Halifa? For National interest? Let’s now look into the future.
Well written Kemo! I’m confident that Bax would agree with me too.
Here’s the reason(s) that I believe that you don’t belong to the UDP and I am confident that you have, on many occasions, quietly questioned your affiliation with the UDP. I also truly believe that you do embrace the basic tenets of a pluralistic society as I keep seeing pointers in your writing on this medium.
You’ve gt a good head on your shoulders but I’m not convinced that the UDP leadership knows exactly how to spot and utilize good talent.
Can I recruit you to my camp? You’ll bring immense skills at putting out fires and selling a shared vision. Now you can shake your head all you want! Smile and a big one!
The next target for recruitment is Babu Soli that I know is not only great at messaging but also has a good heart under all that raucous! The APRC camp will do him no good going forward.
Agreed. Kinteh (Kemo) has my utmost respect and always a pleasure to read his views. I know he has refused to accept the power struggle that is obvious to many, but that’s understandable. He’s got a different set of glasses on, so to speak.
Right, I have different glasses on on this matter. It is a case that President wanted to pave a different agenda than UDP was willing to go with. He tried to isolate Darboe and apparently failed. Then the logical outcome is parting ways. That is why you haven’t heard any surprises. As according to Amadou Sanneh, they packed their belongings sometime ago. The question was not “power struggle “ but how the parting could come about. Here some delicate balance was needed. Many times on this forum i represent the opinion that Barrow must do the sacking. The word “ A- Bayi Le” and “Aye fonio Le” have different connotations and both have political implications.
Since barrow’s target is the UDP political base, any of above wording will resonate differently and generate different reactions from the political base. I am sure you have heard the reactions and that is in Darboe’s favor for the moment. This might change if Barrow would muster the courage and explain to the country why he has removed Darboe. Until then, “A bayi- Le” will stick.
Maybe you would not understand it. But that is significant because Political narrative of Barrow, Gitteh etc are implying representing the interests of UDP and being loyal to the core ideals of party and leaders. If that should continue, then they have some hard explaining to do.
If Darboe walked out, it would have been very easy for them. The narrative would have been quite easy.
Raucous talk that is.
Kerr Ardo is in Badibu, land of the mighty. I proposed to a friend yesterday that we should cede from The Gambia by means of a referendum for an autonomous region…….in good humor.
And we will take the famous durango/maafeh/domoda with us.
______________________
A ya bayii lé, ayee ifoñio lé, abataa ta lé, eemang beng né, naafikoolu lé dungta iteema, anning wo naa ñiung, na ñiung,
is inconsequential.
The point is that Ousainou and his fellow UDP ministers have been purged out of the government of Adama for alleged sabotage of his “development agenda”.
That can neither be a benediction no a vindication for Ousainou. Am talking to you Kemo. It should be devastating for the following reasons:
1) UDP unjustly imposed itself to be THE GOVERNMENT of the day without any moral basis.
2) Ousainou derailed the whole coalition objective which has the potential to institute very PRUDENT REFORMS and transform the country in a very shot period of time.
3) He failed to acknowledge the efforts of those who succeeded in forming a coalition and subsequently saving him from obvious death. As if that’s not enough, he claims ownership of the victory that dislodge his would-be-assassin had the coalition loose the 2016 presidential elections. Remember, he was still under lock and key.
4) Instead of trying to replicate the success that guaranteed his liberty, he decided to go it alone in the parliamentary elections. That betrayal is why the APRC is still breathing, for the momentum of the coalition would have swept even all the NA seats in Foni. That would have nailed the APRC coffin.
5) Under his watch, corruption and nepotism became entrenched and even celebrated. Don’t tell me he is not the president. He has the option to resign if he did not want to soil his name.
6) He shamelessly destroyed the lives of Gambian youth who became a target all over Europe because of his tactless negotiation abilities. If he or you (Kemo) deny this, let them make all the protocols public. That will be Selbstmord. You know what am talking about.
7) Four more points to add to the above another day.
Take the advice of Andy Pjalo and Bax to heart. We (Gambians) don’t have to loose such a personality and a brain like yours to a cultist political party that relies on ethnocentric ideology to strengthen its support base.
Your potential is better utilized differently than your support for Ousainou.
Mwalimu, indeed the method of purging or relieving or sacking is inconsequential at least to the political opponents. For them barrow and Darboe are birds of the same feather. Best outcome would have been taking them both out with one stone.
Again the sacking is no surprise and reactions to it confirms this.
But you have to take into perspective that both Barrow and Darboe appeal to the same political base and hail from the same political party. Thus, both want to claim the soul of that party for their political careers. That is why the nature of the “divorce” matters.
I refer you to a very enlightening analysis by Demba Baldeh in Gainako ( on Darboe’s removal).
On my political affiliations, I believe in UDP and I believe that Darboe is a fine man who courageously maintained the pressure on Jammeh to the very end. He risked everything for that cause and nearly died for that cause. Others died in that struggle. So I don’t see any political leader in country with the same courage as Darboe. He is no saint but the character is just good and consistent.
I accept other view points and I am for plurality. Thank you for the kind invitations but I am just fine where I am.
My final words, Greeds, lack of honesty, power hunger, corruption, mismanagement, lack of transparency fails equal field play, nepotism and high life style. Cannot be a good examples leader. Anyone fall into this category shall not be trusted.
Kemo, this is in response to foregoing piece where you said that, “Ousainou Darboe is no longer IN” and by extension insinuating that he can’t do much about spilt milk.
While Ousainou and the UDP may believe that silence is golden and may in this instance serve the party well, he must come out to do the following to clear the air in a show of good leadership:
1. Address the nation to lay out a formal UDP position on the exit of the trio.
2. Present a road map for the UDP post this whole debacle.
3. He burnt the bridges of goodwill after his release from detention. So he must seek to make amends to the parties to the coalition that only served him well.
4. Use this opportunity to present the REAL faces of the UDP and not just the MANSARINGO, A KONTONGO DARBOE at all national events.
The UDP as a party must, going forward, resist the temptation to engage in the politics of denigration but commit to telling the average Gambian, including the teeming youth population, how they can bring about a change in fortunes. Otherwise, do a better job of selling the party road map!
We know that Haadam Barrow and his advisers are tinkerers that leave little doubt as to their cluelessness. So that shouldn’t be the gist of the conversation here.
Give the party a facelift for God’s sake!!
I saw a recent video clip of Ousainou, the deputy party leader and a band of sympathizers at a pity forum where Ousainou sat in the middle with his Grand Boubou, rubbing his chest and stomach like the proverbial prince from Shonghai.
This change is not about Ousainou Darboe, Amadou Sanneh, Ya KUMBA Jaiteh or Lamin Dibba but all about what a UDP with supposedly good heads can do to salvage the party that must not lose sight of the arduous task ahead! And while you’re at it, figure out strategies as to shoring up the financial position of a party that’s almost penniless.
You see folks, FISSIRRWALLAY YAA, in the absence of a well thought out plan B, has a nice way of making a comeback to bite where it hurts most!
Hence investigations and commissions have become the order of the day, any minister firing if justified should be investigated.
Ousainou was dishing out diplomatic passports to anyone with a name and a date of birth.
Sanneh bought his wife an SUV worth half a million dollars, whilst the investigations into the fertilizers OJ is alleged to have misappropriated appear to stall somewhere.
I mean this entire government is a JOKE. A bunch of charlatans fighting each for a piece of the kill that does not belong to them.
KK, you are very right, I have longed to see Ousainou where he is today. Out and far from any position of influence and power. The man is just too dangerous for the country. I would equally like to see Adama where he is obviously heading to. Out of power at the end of the legitimate three year tenure that was sold to the electorate. He is too dumb to be occupying the highest office of the land. Always the last person to talk to him, will be the one making the next decision to be made in his line of presidential duty. Just tragic.
Both are up to no good. Why should we mortgage the future of the country by having them in power? You tell me KK.
Or is a question of rewarding him with the presidency for his sacrifices for the country?
I think we are all for political prularity, yet the party that has proven itself incapable of handling diversity and multi culturalism is the United Democratic Party.
How? To win votes, it depends on the typical negative -isms to entice voters.
@ Mwalimu/Karamoko,
” I would equally like to see Adama where he is obviously heading to. Out of power at the end of the legitimate three year tenure that was sold to the electorate. He is too dumb to be occupying the highest office of the land. Always the last person to talk to him, will be the one making the next decision to be made in his line of presidential duty. Just tragic”.
Tragic indeed Mwalimu. You’ve hit the nail on the head!
@Sidi, your writing didn’t come with even a grit of crap. Why don’t you simmer down with your ‘burn’ business and buy yourself some beef or mutton to grill? Then catch a scent of the burning flesh that you missed so much. Haven’t you just elaborated above how worried you’re about the tendencies of creating a Jammeh clone?! Indeed, the latter should be everyone’s worry as his(Jammeh’s) ‘burners’ are still crawling in the shadows.
I will never come to say anything that will harm the Gambian proliteriat. I was born in the era of the TUBABO, started my secular education under colonial rule, lived to witness the transition to Internal Self Rule under David K. Jawara, independence under Dawda Kairaba Jawara and Republican status under Alhaji Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara. I heard about the insane bloody Kukoi Samba Sanyang revolt of 1981 while here in Holland, which I condemn, though I want a thorough investigation into its consequencies. On and off, from afar I saw the 22-year rule of President Jammeh.
With my childhood and adolescence marred and on occasions enlightened by the colonial and Jawara administrations, I will never accept any government, political party or individual that will not WORK strenuously to ameliorate the conditions of our people and ultimately create a better, sustainable living condition. NEVER
Two years ago, I warned about Ousainou Darboe, his UDP and their ethnocentric behaviours/tendencies. They cannot work with anybody if they are not at the helm of affairs. If they don’t command. NEVER.
I care very little about his firing, though I appreciate it for his SELFISHNESS. Ousainou works for the UDP, his militants and family, NOT the Gambia. Just fancy the appointments at the Embassies during his tenure as Foreign Minister. It clearly shows his bias in the sharing of our national cake.
I should be investigated for the whereabouts of the 50 million dollars the Chinese donated in early 2017. It’s highly believed, from wide rumours in The Gambia, that he diverted a huge sum of that free money to the UDP. The Gambian people MUST know. Did Ousainou pay his over D450,000 tax arrears? What is this man qualified for?
CORRECTION:
He (Ousainou) should be investigated……….not “I”