(JollofNews) – Coalition government partners Saturday have organized a mega rally to celebrate the one-year anniversary of New Gambia, which is marking the end of 22-year dictatorship by the Jammeh regime.
Thousands of supporters stormed the Buffer Zone in Talinding (9 km from Banjul) to take stocks of a moment that has been described as the victory of democracy and rule of law.
Addressing a cheerful crowd, President Adama Barrow said the pursuance of justice is one of the greatest priorities of his government, citing the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry into financial dealings of ex-President Jammeh and his close associates as testimony of his government’s resolve to shed light on a number of critical issues.
The tiny West Africain nation is yet to recover from two-decade-long tyranny that have plunged the country into arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings. New authorities are making
big push to address the numerous challenges Gambia is confronted with. Development partners such as European Union (EU), World Bank (WB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have pledged more support to the new regime.
President Barrow said agriculture constitues a backbone of the country’s economy, and promised to explore the sector in realising all its potentials.
“The potentials of this critical sector remain largely untapped. It is not by accident that the agricultural sector is among the top fivepriorities of my government,” he said while provoking waves from a crowd of fans wearing t-shirt, which is bearing his effigy.
He reiterated his commitiment to leading Gambia towards the path of food self-sufficiency.
People’s Progressive Party (PPP) leader Omar Amadou Jallow, one of the leading voices of Coalition 2016, urged Gambians to remain united in the face of a new political dispensation that poses huge challenges.
Jallow said Gambians voted for change because Coalition partners endorsed an agenda that promotes unity, compelling them to push for a Gambia that belongs to all irrespective of their political affiliation
or tribes.
In a similar vein, the emblematic figure of United Democratic Party (UDP) Ousainou Darboe said what they are celebrating is the day Gambians regained their political freedom. But he was quick to warn that this could be meaningless if they are not able to get their economic freedom.
Halifa Sallah of Peoples’ Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) did not take part in the celebrations. The spokesperson of Coalition 2016 is yet to shed light on their resounding absence.
NAWEC is the key challenge facing the Barrow government. The problem is not buying and replacing old generators, the problem is managerial: putting the wrong people in the wrong position.
Halifas absent sounds confusing.
Only confusing to people who don’t know PDOIS. I’m not surprised at all that Halifa and PDOIS were absent. Perhaps, we will hear from them in due course. My view is that PDOIS is too serious a party to indulge in behaviour that could result to wastage of resources.
Personally, I don’t think attendance or absence at this gathering matters much. What I would have wanted to be raised, as a matter of public interest or a matter of interest to the public, is the behaviour of Ousainou Darboe (Foreign Minister) and Hamat Bah (Tourism Minister), who were both captured on film, dishing out monies to Jaliba Kuyateh. The denominations aren’t clear but there was a lot of money given out there. Why aren’t we talking about this, given our conviction that we voted for regime, system and attitudinal changes in government? Or, am I jumping the gun?
To conclude, I just want to say that there are instances when one’s respect and admiration for a person just increases to tremendous levels, and that is what I experienced with the VP, Madam Tambajang Jallow, when I watched and listened to a very short clip of her speech (someone)uploaded on YouTube.
Madam FJT’s role during the coalition talks has shown her as a woman of tremendous courage, but I never imagined that she possessed the courage she showed to admit that the Coalition agreed on a THREE YEAR TRANSITION, and that they will get down to discussion again, to seek to extend the transition to five years, and go back to the people to inform them.
Halifa Sallah has been vindicated and I hope Gambians insist that the Coalition, either agrees to extend the transition through consensus, or stick with what has been agreed.
Dishing out money to Jaliba Kuyateh?? That’s just too serious to be true . Gambians ……?? If you tell them one thing is wrong ….., they come with one hundred crooked reasons why they can’t be wrong. They zigzag; it is our culture we must embrace …, those uncultured Gambians in the diaspora …, those who belittle our traditions and all the crap they’ll claim. That’s just what the average Gambian is about. They are sick with wanting to be praised. They don’t care even if the praises thrown at them makes them look like a clowns. It’s sad knowing your people can read all the books and say all the damned English words but don’t have a crumb of and idea what public office means. I’m not just supposed to be proud of the land of Gambia but also of the people who made it Gambia. Should I be proud of the average Gambian? Hell no, even if it means: not proud of myself. John Njie is back at it again, damn!
Lightening!!
Bax It is not the position of the members of the coalition of unequals, to decide to extend their occupation of The Statehouse. This would require either a referendum, or a General Election>>>if they are to follow to the letter what they agreed and were voted in on. This must be the peoples decision>>>thats democracy.
Yeah, that’s a well made point; a social contract has already been entered into between Coalition and voters. Nonetheless, I think Madam FJT was brave to admit the three year agreement, given the disagreements around the issue.
Why do some people question or doubt about Halifa’s absence from the wasteful and very silly celebration/ceremony that took place on Saturday 2nd December. What national progress did we accrue from a celebration that has wasted a lot of our money whilst we remain in dire water/electricity shortages/outages, with increasing hikes in basic commodity prices and education bills?
If the celebration is a landmark historic event for others because President Jammeh is out of government, the overall outlook of the event itself reflects unpatriotism, reactionary and corruption-rife activities. The trend of our economic and social hardships MUST at this stage, far outweigh any superfluous celebration that is only meant to entrench the personality cults of egocentric and VERY SELFISH administrators.
I’m not PDOIS and I have never been PDOIS, but tracing the political relics of Halifa from Jawara to Jammeh to the Coalition; one can candidly affirm the historic and patriotic personality of a man who has worked away from the peripheries of cult-building to the revolutionary zeal to ameliorate the horrendous conditions of our impoverished masses.
He refused to be lured by Jawara, Jammeh and the fragmented traitorous “bitty coalition” that is visibly interested in sealing the “strength and might” of a fat-bellied British Argos Watchman in presidential clothing with his corrupt, tribalist and untrustworthy Minister of Foreign Affairs, who owes the Gambian people thousands of dalasis for tax evasion.
Of course, attending the wasteful celebration means a lot. It shows one’s consent to the entire wasteful episode. The millions of dalasis on transport to shuttle people to the site (Buffer Zone), the millions of dalasis to purchase the ASOBIs, the millions of dalasis on food and drinks, the millions wasted from business losses in declaring the day a public holiday, the corruptible practices in allocating the hiring of transport and purchasing of the foods, drinks and ASOBIs…. all tantamount to the deliberate subjectivity/callousness of this very USELESS administration. Therefore, attending the useless celebrations means consenting, condoning and participating in the wanton squandering/plundering of our meagre resources!
Hail to Halifa and the PDOIS for their absence. It speaks volumes about their unwavering/non-conformist service to redeem our people from poverty.
I always argue that President Jammeh is NO longer the Gambian people’s problem and those who continue to relate our present predicament with him are naïve, untruthful, conformist!
If his term in office has any negative repercussion on our present dysfunctional situation in government, the courts and commission are there to verify/clarify. That should not be a leverage on the very bad governance we are witnessing today.
Fanciful and rhetorical diatribes on “democracy”. Isn’t democracy a means to gain better livelihood? If that is absent, there is no democracy. When people are absent in any participatory socio-economic discussion, there is no democracy. This is the atmosphere in The Gambia today. Where, when, how our money is spent, are misteries to our people. But the fat-bellied man with his CORRUPT henchmen still continue to spend. Simply because they take Gambians to be IGNORANT, SUBSERVIENT and SLAVISH!
When Jammeh took over in 1994, he didn’t continue to lament over Jawara’s regime for months. He embarked on tangible projects headlong which were the dire needs of our people. To date these amenities serve as our only sources of progress, development and security.
Jammeh went on years squealing; “that Jawara Mansakunda, Dirimoo Party, Puntun Pantang”, and many rubbish only to recess inside Kaninlai, a village he made his criminals’ turf to privatise almost all of the country’s meagre resources into private businesses. Kaninlai became a country inside a country that no ordinary Gambian had easy access to. A year ago, it was easier entering the Kremlin premises than Kaninlai. Out there then, it was wrestling, voodoo, food, drinks and adultery. It was when a lot of the country’s youthful human resource lost their minds as having access to Kaninlai jungle, to become Jugunlars or errands kind of, became their only dreams. Jawara government is criticizable but won’t be genuinely critised by hailing the Jammeh era of ignorance, atrocities and institutionalising ethinic hallmarks. Participants in the debate of the new political dispensation of the Gambia is a; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly scenario. The Good, are the critics who criticise the new government because they want a role model Gambia of the Subregion. A Gambia that would be setting itself forward in contrast to both the first and second republic.
‘The bad’, are those contemptuous ines who know they were deadly bad for the past two decades and are pretty well sure they can’t get any better but worse, so they’d rather remain what they know they really are. They are types who accuse others of the crimes they committed.
‘The ugly’ are the crocs with their jaws agape, who don’t give a damn about what evil has transpired. They’re disgruntled because they missed the daily feasts at Kaninlai and Statehouse, and the jungle beat that accompany the decadence.