CA leader Dr Ismaila Ceesay is a very successful man academically and he is now eyeing to be the president of The Gambia in December. But who is this man and what is his story?
Dr Ismaila Ceesay was just any less fortunate Gambian who worked his way to success. The 46-year-old appeared on Tonya Kesso on Saturday where he dived into his incredible journey to success.
Dr Ceesay sat in the ghetto in the mid-1990s after he failed to secure a spot in high school due to his underwhelming performance in the Common Entrance examination. Her mother, a teacher, later sent him to Sierra Leone where he managed to get high school education. In Sierra Leone, Dr Ceesay lived in the house of different people where he did all the house chores including cooking and washing clothes.
In the late 1995, Dr Ceesay got a visa to travel to Sweden.
“I looked for papers and got papers. I was working there but later the job wasn’t attractive to me. I said ‘let me go to England to look for a job’. I boarded a ship in Gothenburg and it took me to Harwich.
“When I got to Harwich, I went to stay in Watford. I looked for a job, cleaning job. I was cleaning offices at 4am in the morning. And then I go to my kitchen porter job, meaning washing dishes. I did that but the money was not much. I went to look for a labourer job at British Postal Service. When the trucks came, we were the ones loading and offloading the boxes,” he said.
Dr Ceesay then returned to Sweden after finding that job unattractive. In Sweden, he returned to his previous job in telecommunications regulation, He then started coming to Gambia on holiday.
He said: “I realised that working was benefitting just me in that I was saving my money and at the end of the year come on holiday in Gambia and return back to Sweden. I realised there was no progress in that, I wanted Gambia to be like Sweden. I asked and realised Sweden developed because of education.
“I then applied for Sweden University but they told me my papers are from Sierra Leone and they do not recognise such papers. I asked, they told me I have to return to high school, do three years there and then come back. I said I will not do that. Two weeks later, it was as if someone was telling me I should go and do that. I then went [to high school] and completed [the three years and got papers. I applied and they accepted me in political science at Stockholm University. I did the course in four years and completed.
“While there, I was also organising football tournaments there and I was the president of the Gambia association in Sweden. I then decided the knowledge is not enough. I went to Scotland to do my master’s there in African politics. I went to Scotland, did my master’s and completed it. I decided to return to Gambia to make my knowledge beneficial. I applied for the University of The Gambia and they took me and I started teaching there.
After teaching at UTG for three years, Dr Ceesay returned to Scotland to pursue his PhD. He was still teaching at UTG while pursuing his PhD. Last year, he quit UTG to venture into politics. He is now the leader of Citizens’ Alliance.
