By Omar Bah
Yobba Baldeh, born in The Gambia and now a Green Party candidate for the Harden, West Yorkshire, councillor election, in UK, has said his campaign is forged by transformation, not geography.
In a personal statement shared with The Standard yesterday, Baldeh described his run as the product of an intellectual, moral, and personal journey that began in West Africa and was tested through migration, study, and work in Britain.
“This is not merely a political act,” Baldeh stated. “It is the culmination of a long journey shaped by struggle, sharpened by migration, and sustained by an enduring belief in justice, dignity, and collective progress.”
Baldeh says his Gambian upbringing taught him a core truth: “Society is strongest when it functions collectively, not competitively.” He points to unwritten systems of mutual support where one person’s hardship was never theirs alone. But he refuses to romanticise the past.
“Opportunities were not evenly distributed. Access to education, economic advancement, and institutional support often depended on circumstance, not merit,” he said. “These were not simply personal observations. They were structural realities. Inequality is not accidental. It is produced, maintained, and normalised by systems.”
Baldeh rejects the dominant narrative around migration. “It is spoken of in terms of opportunity, but rarely in terms of its demands,” he wrote. “To migrate is to begin again, not from zero, but often from below it.” He calls the constant negotiation of identity and the navigation of unfamiliar systems a process of reconstruction, not relocation.
Green Party
Baldeh said his academic work in governance, development, and social justice fused theory with lived experience adding that he has seen how reactive policies miss root causes, how short-term political thinking sabotages long-term progress, and how shutting communities out of decisions produces solutions that do not work.
“This is not about personal advancement. It is about responsibility,” Baldeh said. “I chose the Green Party because its focus on social justice, environmental sustainability, and grassroots democracy matches my experience and convictions.”
Baldeh is unequivocal in his message to Gambians at home and abroad: “Our journeys are not isolated stories. They are part of a broader narrative of movement, adaptation, and contribution.” He argues that Gambians in the diaspora are bridges between Banjul and Birmingham who understand that the fight against inequality is the same fight in different contexts.
Baldeh defines his candidacy as a continuation of the principle that drove him to education. “Progress is not given. It is pursued. Systems do not change on their own. They are changed by people willing to engage with them critically and constructively.”
Baldeh said he is running to apply that principle in Harden, West Yorkshire, where he says the test of politics is whether it translates experience into action for the communities that need it most.
