By Tabora Bojang
Kanifing Mayor Talib Bensouda yesterday announced the formation of “Unite for Change Movement” a new political platform.
This may likely see his departure from the opposition United Democratic Party on whose ticket he won two terms in office as mayor of the Kanifing metropolis.
In recorded video broadcast online, Bensouda said The Gambia is in need of change.
He decried the difficulties facing the country citing widespread poverty, unreliable access to clean water and electricity, inadequate education and health services, lack of support for women and the alarming number of young Gambians attempting irregular migration because they have no hopes of bettering their lives in The Gambia.
These challenges according to him demand urgent collective action.
He urged citizens to put aside ethnic, regional and other differences and join hands to salvage the country and usher in a new vision for progress.
“We have to change our country. The difficulties we face are not normal. The tragedies our youths are facing should be unacceptable. We have to forget about the tribes we belong to. We have to forget about the communities we are from. We have to remember that we either succeed together as one nation or fail as individuals. So I want us to unite with one voice, with one mind, and with one body, to change this country forever,” he said.
Bensouda expressed his appreciation to the UDP under the leadership of Ousainu Darboe and called on his supporters to maintain high regard and respect for the UDP while describing his decision to apparently break away from the UDP as one of the most difficult of his life.
Reaction
Before going to press last night, we contacted a senior official of the UDP for reaction on this development. The party’s external affairs secretary Lamin Manneh said the party respects Mr Bensouda’s decision as his democratic and constitutional right and can only wish him well in his new endeavour.
“Talib is not bigger than any member of the party. He is just one of the members who has decided to go and form his own movement and we respect that as his constitutional right. In the life of a political party people go and come,” Manneh said.
Asked if Talib’s continuing membership of the UDP is now tenable given what happened, Manneh said Bensouda will have to make a choice “because he cannot continue to be in and out” of the party. “He will have to take the logical next step. If he is going to form his own party, it is only logical for him to resign from the UDP but if he does not, then the party will decide the next step. But he cannot stay in the party and form his own party. That is not going to happen. So we wait for his decision to officialise his departure.”
Asked if this is not a body blow to the party, Manneh disagreed saying: “Talib is just one member of the party who has left like others. Adama Barrow was a member of the UDP, he left with a number of regional chairpersons, none of them was a blow to the UDP, so why would this one be a blow? It is just the normal life of a party. Nobody is irreplaceable in the UDP. Of course nobody wants to lose members, we would like to maintain our members and bring in new ones but if they decide to leave, we have to respect that as their democratic right. That is not going to have any impact on the party,” Manneh quipped.
