Abdoulie G. Dibba
The National Reconciliation Party (NRP) on Saturday, 21 November 2015, held a political rally at Bakau Sanchaba in the 
Kanifing Municipality.
In addressing the gathering, who were mainly women and young people, the Hamat N.K. Bah, the NRP Secretary General and Party Leader, said 2016 is the year for change in the Gambia.
He said this is so because when a country reaches the highest stage in a climate of fear and desperation, the people have no other option but to take u-turn and that that u-turn will be in 2016.
Mr. Bah called on the youth to get ready during the supplementary registration of voters to get their voters’ cards which is their voice and power to rescue this country from bad governance and mismanagement.
The NRP leader said when he visited the fish landing site in Bakau he wondered about what the APRC Government has done for the people of Bakau. He said when he visited the area, as a Gambian, he was embarrassed to see that the place is dead, which made him to wonder how the people of Bakau are surviving.
Mr. Bah said he is asking the people of Bakau how are they surviving, adding that the question is relevant because the people have no land to engage in other economic activities such as farming.
“All your lands have been taken, the jetty is dead, the tourism industry which the people of Bakau had relied on before is also dead because they over tax the industry and as a result the hotels are bankrupt and can no longer employ any one,” said the NRP Secretary General.
Mr. Bah said the situation in Bakau is also what is found in other parts of the country. He said lands are being acquired in the name of vision 2016 but that in reality one always finds Kanilai Family Farms on the ground taking over such lands.
“We are here to resist because your land is your land,” said Mr. Bah.
The NRP leader told the gathering that the APRC Government is discredited worldwide and lacks respect internally because of corruption and the worst human rights violation record in the whole of Africa.
On health, Mr. Bah said Gambia is a country where if one gets sick and does not have money, one will die, adding that this is case because Gambia is a country where one goes to the health facilities to receive prescriptions to go and buy medication. “What will happen if one does not have money? The answer is simply, one will die,” said the NRP Secretary General.
On the issue of agriculture, Mr. Bah said “we are in November and farmers are yet to know the price of their produce and to whom to sell to and as a result, they will be at the mercy of middlemen because they have to sell because they need money,” he said.
Talking on the issue of human rights violations, the NRP leader called for the release of KanyibaKanyi, saying that the APRC Government cannot deny arresting him.
Commenting on issue of the pardoned prisoners, the NRP leader said that the President has been saying that he will send so and so to his hotel and they are sent to his hotel. So if he pardons them, he has nothing to boast off.
He also questioned why Mr. AmadouSanneh, the imprisoned Treasurer of the UDP, has not been released “when those who commit more heinous crime than him were released.”
On his election promises, the NRP Secretary General and Party Leader said when his party is mandated to lead this country they will provide 80, 000 housing units within five years and that this will be a joint venture between the private and public sectors. He said The Gambia is a country where one goes to retirement without a place to stay.
