By Mohamed Kargbo
Honorable Halifa Sallah, secretary general of PDOIS and National Assembly member for Serrekunda, has said that he would not impose his values and objectives on others.
Speaking on West Coast Radio, he explained that it was a coalition that brought President Adama Barrow to power in 2016, before then no one knew him and it was that same spirit of oneness that should have continued.
He said some of them did not see parties, because they wanted parties to wait and a second emergence of the nation to be made.
According to him, his thought of a coalition to have been formed was for a new Gambia to have emerged and his aspiration was to build the mindset of the people, change the system and ultimately build a new Gambian who could build a new Gambia. But, said quickly that, that might not have been the aspirations of others and that was what coalition was all about.
Anyway, he said, “I cannot impose my values and objectives on others, but I must tell you what guided me, what gave me spirit, what enabled me to even be President Barrow’s spoke person, to speak as I did, and to dare what I dare to do.”
He said that spirit of oneness that brought the coalition the Electoral victory in 2016 died immediately after as a result of “Power Play.”
When asked why the PDOIS had turned down every ministerial position offered to them since the days of the First President, Sir Dauda Jawara, the Honorable explained, “if I say I believe in agrobusiness to be the basis of Agricultural Development in The Gambia, and I invite all the foreign investors, to come and take all the land, and produce at a large scale, you will have a large scale production and you will be able to produce all the rice that The Gambia needs, but where lies that development in relation to the people of The Gambia.”
However, he again re-announced his retirement from active politics and this he said was downed on him since 2016, as he has a mandate and a contract with his country and the contract is that the country must be loved by him, the people must be loved by him and he must use every ounce of his energy, his mind and his heart to serve them which he had done.
“I wish you had travelled with us, throughout the country, Peter, I keep telling my colleagues that I believe the people voted for PDOIS with their hearts and voted against PDOIS with their hands because what I saw every were convinced me.
“We were welcomed everywhere and, in every nuke, and cranny of The Gambia, they gave us hope that for the first time the Gambia population will be voting on the basis of informed choice not power play, but eventually is the opposite that occurred so that is how matter stand now,” he said.
