By Omar Bah
Yankuba Colley, the National Mobiliser of the opposition Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction has dismissed any suggestion for a future political alliance between the APRC and its nemesis the United Democratic Party.
Speaking in a current affairs programme on Star FM Colley, a former APRC mayor of KM, said though it has often been said that there is no permanent enemy in politics, it is very unlikely that his party can be in any alliance with UDP. “It is not just possible. The APRC can work with all the other political parties but I am not sure we can work with UDP. May be people from APRC and UDP may meet in a new political party or so but as they are now, I am not sure that is possible. I am even sure if you ask a UDP supporter whether they can work with the APRC, if the person is honest he/she will tell you no…That is the reality because the two have long been the major political parties in the country for the past 22-years,” he said.
However, according to Colley that disagreement only stops at politics. “Outside politics every Gambian is the same father and mother and no one is an enemy to the other. We are all the same because you cannot harm ten people in the APRC without harming a relative of a UDP militant,” Colley emphasized.
Loyalty to the APRC
About his own political career, Colley said he is still an APRC member and would only leave the party if he forms his own political party.
“And in anything that I may form or join, APRC must be part of its agenda… I cannot leave the APRC because the party is already in my system and most importantly, I love President Jammeh in my heart…I swear to God because I know the kind of person he is,” he added.
Asked whether the APRC has any chance of bouncing back, Colley said that will happen in the not too long distant future. “It is written in every wall. Is either we form the next government or be part of the next government. As I always say, the APRC was defeated by Senegal and the international community, but majority of Gambians are still loyal to the party,” he concluded.
