By Lamin Cham
Bala Garba Jahumpa a former minister, diplomat and senior member of the former ruling APRC has said, in his opinion, the alliance between the party and the governing National People’s Party is “practically over”.
Speaking in an audio addressed to his fellow party members, Jahumpa said the purpose of the alliance was based on the life of the election cycle, from presidential in 2021 to the recent mayoral and chairmanship elections.
“Now that the election cycle is over, this means that each can go its own way. In this case I think a meeting of APRC under the leadership of Fabakary Tombong Jatta should be called where it should be made known that in reality there is no alliance now. We should now sit down and talk and assess our next options. Do we want to be kingmakers or be king ourselves and return to State House?” Jahumpa said.
He also reminded militants about former president, Jammeh’s recent speech to militants in Kanilai where he suggested the APRC become one.
Jahumpa, nicknamed Action Man, said the APRC should go back to revive its structures across the country and reassert its might again.
APRC has been here for 22 years while other parties are barely six months and wanting to kill APRC and take it over. That is greed. Telling us ‘you cannot contest here, we own here and there’. If they have let APRC contest Tallinding we would have won that assembly seat. All these are things we should consider. We have to go back to the drawing board and know that the alliance is over. APRC is the power that helped President Barrow to win despite what the doubters say,” Jahumpa said.
Action Man also lamented that after the president’s victory some people stayed away from doing business with the alliance, blocking people from seeing the president and protecting their jobs, travels and interests. “That is not good for the country,” he said. Jahumpa advised his APRC executive members to sit and discuss frankly about the party’s future in a respectful and peaceful manner. He commended Fabakary Tombong Jatta’s leadership and warned that the party will never change him for anyone. ”Fabakary suffered immensely for the party,” he said.
Jahumpa is the second person in just a few days to hint that the APRC may reunite and go its own way. Yesterday a deputy leader of the party, Ousman Rambo Jatta, said reconciliation between the two APRC factions is imminent. He also suggested they would have to go back to the negotiation table over the fate of the alliance with the NPP.
