By Lamin Gano
The things that unite us as Gambians are stronger and more important than our differences. And if there is one single issue in 2016 that all Gambians (both at home and abroad) agree one is that Yahya Jammeh must leave power. Even the APRC supporters agree with this and deep inside their hearts they cannot wait to see Jammeh’s back.
To buttress this point, even if all our opposition candidates drop out of the presidential race and Kitabu the comedian contest against Jammeh, he will defeat Jammeh with a landslide. In the same vein, even if all the opposition candidates goes out to campaign in favour of Jammeh and against Kitabu, their supporters will disobey them and vote massively against Jammeh. There is just absolutely nothing that Jammeh or anyone else will say or do this year that will make Gambians to vote for the APRC.
In this regards therefore, the biggest misconception, deception and outright falsehood spreading around is that all the opposition parties and candidates must come together in order to defeat Jammeh. This is totally fallacious!!! Gambians do not need all the opposition parties to come together to convince them to vote against Jammeh because Jammeh has already convinced them by totally destroying himself!!! All that is required to defeat Jammeh is for only one candidate to contest in order to avoid splitting the votes which could give Jammeh a narrow victory.
In my view, the reason why the coalition talks are still not successful is because they are based on this false belief that all the opposition must join forces and campaign under one umbrella in order to defeat Jammeh. Therefore, until and unless we all get this wrong notion out of our mindset, there will be no breakthrough in the efforts to get a single opposition candidate. In fact, this false assumption is the roots of all the problems facing the opposition.
It is this deception that has brought Dr. Isatou Touray into the political picture under the pretext that she has come to unite the opposition parties. If she had done her assessment with a selfless and open mind, she would have realized that the major problem with the opposition is that there are too many candidates vying for the presidency. If she really wanted to help the opposition to reach a consensus, she should have taken a position similar to that of OJ Jallow or Fatoumata Tambajang but not to come in as an independent candidate and threaten the opposition that she would contest the election as an individual if they fail to endorse her. In my opinion, she has not come to unite the opposition parties but rather she has only come to add to the confusion and congestion in the opposition arena.
It is also this same fallacy that all the opposition parties must be in a coalition for Jammeh to be defeated that is why Hamat Bah is still dilly dallying in the political arena. Hamat Bah contested the previous presidential election under an alliance and he pulled only 11% of the votes casted. If Hamat Bah is really sincere and has the interest of the country at heart, he would have resigned from politics after the 2011 presidential elections to focus on his hotel business.
It is this same falsehood that all the opposition parties must be in a coalition for Jammeh to be defeated that is why Dr. Bojang of the NCP has abandoned his clinic and patients and getting himself entangled with politics and coalition building. Gambians do not need Dr. Bojang or anyone for that matter to influence their votes because we are the most critical and independent-minded people on this planet!!!
It is also based on this same misconception that all the opposition parties must be in a coalition for Jammeh to be defeated that is why the PDOIS conceived this great idea of convening meetings on coalition formation but made the terrible mistake of inviting all the political parties including such un-influential parties like the GMC and GPDP. Believe me if Mai Fatty and Henry Gomez both reject a selected candidate and advise their followers to boycott the elections or to vote for Jammeh, no one will listen to them. They are simply not in a position to influence any votes in The Gambia as far as the 2016 presidential election is concerned.
I will conclude by highlighting my expectations from the Coalition Talks on Friday. I am hoping that Dr. Touray will announce the cancellation of her bid to run as an independent candidate. Secondly, I implore Mr. Hamat Bah to announce the withdrawal of his presidential candidature and to focus the NRP on the forthcoming parliamentary elections instead. I am also urging Dr. Bojang to suspend his campaign and to also focus the NCP on the parliamentary elections.
I believe that the GDC, PDOIS and UDP have all that it takes and all that we need (numbers, expertise, experience, dedication and commitment) to not only pave the way for a single opposition candidate but to also lead us successfully and peacefully into a Third Republic. The election is seven weeks away and the less people we have on the negotiating table the better for all of us.
I hope and pray that the love for country will prevail over the love for power/position among our opposition leaders so that they will do the right thing sooner than later. Long live the Republic of The Gambia and long live peaceful and harmonious co-existence!!!
