Opposition Remnants Continue to Switch Allegiance as Close to 300 Defect in Bansang

The Daily Observer (Banjul)

Hatab Fadera And Musa Ndow

18 July 2011

The Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (APRC) continues to receive more defectors from the opposition parties, the latest being 292 militants from the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) who switched allegiance to the ruling party on Saturday in Bansang in the Central River Region (CRR) District of Upper Fulladou West.

The militants, mostly women and youths were until Saturday active members of the UDP, whose leader, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, hails from the same locality. The defectors, who were paraded before President Jammeh during a ‘Dialogue with the people’s tour’ meeting hail from the communities of Bantanto, Bush Town, Ndorna, and Bansang. It is the latest in a string of opposition defections to the ruling party in recent times, barely four months to the November 24th Presidential Election. The defectors pledged their resolve to rally behind the ruling party.

Speaking at the occasion, the Gambian leader commended the people of the area for the rousing welcome, while expressing delight that the former opposition supporters have now accepted the truth and joined the ruling party. While informing the gathering that his mission is non-political, the Gambian leader emphatically stated that the forthcoming election is a contract with Gambians, saying, “if you do it for me, I will do it for you, and if you don’t do it for me, I will not do it for you”.

The president also reiterated his message to Gambians to go back to the land, urging farmers in the region to pull their weight together and work hard to eradicate poverty and hunger. He again told the youths that efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger will be a mounting task if they continue to sit idle at home without doing nothing. He again commended farmers of the URR, informing the CRR farmers that from what he has seen in URR, it will be hard for any other region to defeat them (URR) in terms of farming.

Reiterating his clarion call for attitudinal change among youths, President Jammeh again stressed that his government cannot provide jobs for all the youths in the country. What his government can do, according to the Gambian leader, is to create the conducive environment and opportunities, as well as paving the way for the youths. He told the youths that if they utilise those opportunities, they will be able to emancipate themselves from poverty and hunger. He also urged men to venture into horticultural production, asserting that there is no verse in the Holy Quran that forbids them from such.

He decried the fact that youths from other sister neighboring countries have dominated economic activities in the country, observing that most of these foreign youths come into the country with virtually nothing, start from the scratch and become successful entrepreneurs to the level of importers. The president reiterated the fact that the country is endowed with natural resources such as fish, but expressed dismay that these resources are not being exploited by the citizens, but by foreigners. He also told youths of the area to minimise their heavy dependence on football during the farming season, and work for their parents so as to earn parental blessings.

All hands on deck for drug war

Speaking earlier, the minister of Interior, Ousman Sonko reiterated his message on the use and trafficking of illicit drugs, stressing that it is the collective responsibility of all and sundry to put hands on deck to stamp out this menace. He decried the rate of youth involvement in drugs, saying the menace destroys the youths who are the future leaders of this country. Minister Sonko stated that it is pathetic that youths are the majority of patients in Kampanma Psychiatric Hospital [Now Tanka Tanka], noting that even the prisons are filled with youths, a situation he attributed to drugs.

The Interior minister averred that even though drugs [cannabis sativa] is grown in bushes and nearby environments, this very substance is being used and sold in compounds, thus urging parents in the region to ensure that they consider the war against drugs as their responsibility. The Interior minister commended the Gambian leader for providing the security services in YBK [Yerro Bell Kunda] with a vehicle. He welcomed the defectors to the ruling party, urging them to make their move real in the forthcoming November 24th Presidential Election. He also urged the APRC members to be open to the newcomers.

Speaking earlier, the minister of Basic and Secondary Education Fatou Lamin Faye thanked President Jammeh for empowering women and also increasing health facilities for them. The Basic and secondary Education minister reiterated her appeal to parents to send more children to school, especially girls, while strongly urging them to ensure that they encourage students to complete their education. She informed them that the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology has included Bansang as a beneficiary of a skills training centre with a view to enabling youths in the area acquire skills.

Minister Fatou Lamin Faye also disclosed to the meeting that the Gambian leader has pledged to provide the area with new ambulances earmarked for Bansang Hospital. Also speaking at the occasion, the mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council and APRC’s national mobiliser, Yankuba Colley described the defection of the former opposition supporters as a fulfillment of the promise made to him during one of his meetings with them. Colley described the APRC as a party with a difference, noting that it doesn’t fake the citizens, but works to bring development to the doorsteps of Gambians. He expressed hope that the people in the area will give their vote to the president, and that the ruling party will sweep the November polls.

Locals account

Speaking at the meeting, the alkalo of Bansang, Alhaji Kebba Kora commended the Jammeh administration for the numerous developments in the area. He also hailed what he described as the satisfactory services of the Cuban medical doctors deployed to the Bansang Hospital by the Jammeh administration. The alkalo then appealed for government’s intervention in the enhancement of solar electricity at the Bansang Hospital, feeder roads in the area, mobility for the anti-narcotics agents in the area, as well as provision of a tractor that will collect the refuse of the staggering 10,000 inhabitants of the community.

He pledged the area’s support to President Jammeh and his party, assuring a greater percentage of votes for the ruling party in the upcoming Presidential election. The National Assembly member for Upper Fulladou West, Momodou M5 Jallow appealed for a skills centre in the area to enable the youths stay in the region and acquire skills. Hon. Jallow also hailed President Jammeh’s development initiatives, describing his donation of tractors to women farmers across the country as laudable. Constituency chairman, Jebel Bouye also hailed the Gambian leader for donating tractors to the farmers.

Lady Councilor Aji Nyoka Suwareh appealed for an ambulance for the main referral hospital in the area to boost healthcare delivery, whilst the youth mobiliser in the area commended the president for the provision of tractors to the farming community, as well as the free girls’ education scheme. Botto Fatty, one of the defectors from Bantanto told the gathering that their move to switch allegiance was borne out of their strong conviction that it is the APRC that has the interest of the citizens, while pledging their loyalty to the ruling party from now onwards.

Biran Baldeh, chief of Upper Fulladou West, who also appealed for similar developments as the previous speakers, said the back-to-the-land campaign spearheaded by the Gambian leader goes to benefit only the citizens if heeded to.

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