By Aisha Tamba
While it has been announced that the All People’s Party (APP) has endorsed PDOIS’s Halifa Sallah for the presidential election, some executive members of the party have said NPP’s Adama Barrow is their preferred choice.
During an NPP rally in Farafenni last night, APP national youth mobiliser Biran Sey and his deputy Modou Lamin Gaye and others met the NPP leadership and publicly pledged their support to President Barrow.
Gaye and his cohorts claimed party leader and former flag-bearer Gumbo Touray and Dr Ebrahim Jagne did not succeed in taking the party’s members with them to PDOIS.
But back in the Kombos, the APP-PDOIS bromance seemed to be unaffected.
Speaking at a press conference at PDOIS headquarters yesterday, Dr Jagne said PDOIS leader Halifa Sallah is “incomparable” to other political leaders and has an admirable pedigree of consistency and sticking to principles.
“It is a privilege to share a common platform with PDOIS. These people have a very good track record and we [APP] are convinced that we are doing the right thing by joining them,” he said.
Dr Jagne called on other politicians to embrace PDOIS which stands for the eradication of poverty, injustice and ignorance.
Rehashing the PDOIS buzz phrase of the need for system change, Dr Jagne said the country is still struggling with the dated system left by the colonialists
“We are still under the colonial yoke. Poverty is endemic. We need to improve the lot of our people. We must feed ourselves. We can grow what we eat. We can do it,” he said.
“APP and PDOIS are partners. We are not here to fill our pockets. We are here to serve the people,” Jagne said.
Halifa Sallah said many Gambians are yearning for a system change. “They want a poverty-free, injustice-free and ignorance-free Gambia by endorsing a candidate and programmatic policy document which would make all services accessible and available to all citizens, to build The Gambia we would be proud to call our homeland.”
Sallah said household poverty and community under-development constitute two evils that must be got rid off. He said village and ward development committees should have treasuries which are depositories of rates, licences fees and duties from markets and car parks to be utilised for the development of the communities. He said the government will provide them support through equalisation grants and that a cooperative bank will provide interest-free loans to people. He said farmers would be given fertilizer, seeds and farm implement and a sovereign wealth fund will support schemes to provide quality and affordable homes.
“The time has come for transformation. There is nothing that can stop it,” Sallah said.
Sidia Jatta said the agreement with APP is not characterised by bringing people together and sharing positions. He said they came together “purposefully to build a society that is free from poverty, ignorance and injustice”.
He said the doors of PDOIS are open to all to come in.
APP and PDOIS agreed to release a document that will contain the terms of the endorsement and subsequently issue a joint communiqué.
