By Lamin Cham
The leader of the Gambia Alliance for National Unity, Sheikh Tijan Hydara, has told delegates at the party’s first national congress that GANU is formed with a strong conviction to be a progressive political party that would usher The Gambia into the era of real progress, peace, and prosperity. He said the congress is a demonstration of the success recorded so far since the registration of the party two years ago.
“GANU’s objective is to represent the interests of families, and fight for equal socio-economic opportunities, and justice, and this is a mission we will accomplish. Despite some challenges during the last presidential election, we were able to redouble our efforts and moved on, hence our decision to join the coalition of parties with the ruling NPP, headed by President Adama Barrow,” Mr Hydara said.
He said the party joined the president’s coalition to enable it to contribute its quota towards the development of the country, adding that GANU will never compromise the best interest of the country and the people. He thanked President Barrow for trusting him and the party for appointing him ambassador to Cuba.
The GANU leader said the party is set to campaign vigorously to increase its support base countrywide to build on the success already achieved by the supporters and militants that have now made the party a household name in the country.
He said a GANU government will create the enabling environment to ensure that youth and women empowerment becomes the current top priority in national development because the current and behavior of youths is not encouraging.
“Though the situations are different, during our time we do not have access to social media, the internet, and all of that sort that would make life easier for us in many ways but our parents did their best to instill great values of discipline, hard work, and core values of our tradition, best practices in society and religious values be it in Islam or Christianity as in the case of The Gambia.
But the situation of some of the youths of the current generation requires us the parents, the government, and religious leaders to focus on how to engage them, especially with regard to drug abuse, especially among those that deal with hard drugs which is destroying their lives today. This includes both boys and girls. They need urgent attention otherwise it may be too late. We should prepare them now to take leadership roles and responsibilities if we want a better society in the future,” Hydara said. He therefore appealed to parents and the government to support and take good care of the young people especially those who are facing health issues due to drug abuse.
Ba Jabbi, the chairman of the ceremony, spoke at length about the personal and professional life achievements of the GANU leader, while other party officials, Alieu Sanneh, Mabintou Sanno, Mariama Singhateh took turns to celebrate the achievement of the party so far.
The congress delegates received and adopted the financial reports and elected to keep the current executive office. The event was witnessed by representatives from political parties and the Independent Electoral Commission.
