By Tabora Bojang
As talks of an opposition coalition gain momentum, presidential aspirant and leader of the People’s Rights Party, Ousman Jobe, who vowed to legalise marijuana in The Gambia, said he will only join a coalition or form alliance with parties that are willing to let him lead and support his cannabis legalisation agenda.
Jobe, an artist-cum-historian, told The Standard over the weekend: “I have always maintained that I am not going to rally behind any candidate. If anybody is interested in joining me, they are highly welcome but I will not let any one lead me because my ideas and their ideas are different. My agenda is to legalise marijuana in this country. If that forms part of your agenda and you want to join me or you are willing to allow me to lead you, then you are welcome and we can work togethe.”
He opined that a united opposition coalition is highly unlikely since the opposition leaders and supporters are bent on publicly castigating each other. “The way I am seeing things, it is going to be very difficult for them to arrange a coalition.
And even if they do, I see it crumbling because the candidate they want to lead the coalition is not someone trusted by Gambians to become their president. So if we want to remove President Barrow, we have only one opportunity and that is to support Ousman Jobe because my agenda for the legalisation of cannabis resonates with the Gambian populace and it is drawing lots of people from other political parties. From here and in the diaspora, people have been calling and expressing their happiness about our programmes and they are ready to support us. From Kartong to Essau, Kombo to Basse, people are coming each day and some with their voter’s cards to pledge their support. So we are likely to submit 20,000 voter’s cards to the IEC [for registration],” Jobe said.
