By Omar Bah
Dr Ismaila Ceesay has hailed President Adama Barrow’s non-vindictive trait as his Citizens’ Alliance announced coalescing with the ruling National People’s Party. CA’s decision to join the NPP has received criticism among many Gambians.
Addressing journalists shortly after meeting the president as CA formally entered into an alliance with the NPP, Dr Ceesay said he was amazed that despite everything that happened, the president was very receptive to him.
“He doesn’t hold grudges. President Barrow is a different breed,” Dr Ceesay told journalists at State House on Saturday.
Commenting on CA’s decision to align with NPP, Dr Ceesay said: “The president won the elections and we reflected at the party level that why should we sit on our ideas, on our manifesto, on our vision for this country and not share it with the president who is entrusted by the Gambian people to govern this country?
“We also heard the president’s speech that he calls on all Gambians to come together and build this country. We sat at the executive level and decided that we want to support the president’s agenda,” Dr Ceesay said.
According to Dr Ceesay, the alliance will reach within the context of the next local government elections but also CA will use its manifesto, ideas, vision and knowledge to work with the NPP.
“So, we came here today to finalise those discussions that the CA at executive level has agreed to work with the NPP and pull resources and ideas together to build this country. This is no cross-carpeting, it is an executive decision by the Citizens’ Alliance including our regional chairpersons in a very inclusive and important meeting. Let me emphasise, we see Gambia first,” he said.
According to him, the president is doing his best to change the difficulties the country is facing.
“We believe the opposition and the incumbent should be able to work together to change the status quo. We call on all Gambians to come together – we are calling for a national convergence of ideas to build this country,” he said.
Reacting to a question on what the future holds for CA, Dr Ceesay said: “CA’s future is as certain as the northern star – in politics people come and go. There is no party where people stay constantly – people leave and people come in but CA stays.”
He said the president has assured them that he will open his doors and work with them.
“We are very hopeful that this partnership will open new doors for the Gambia. What is important is that the only reason we come into this partnership is in the interest of the Gambian people,” he added.
Also speaking to journalists on Saturday, NPP’s administrative secretary, Mambanyick Njie, said: “There is no permanent enemy in politics. Dr Ceesay is a young brain who has the capacity to contribute to the development of this country. We appreciate that they decided to join hands with the NPP to build this country.”
