By Nelson Manneh
Mr. Bakary Bunja Dabo the Party Leader and the Secretary-General of Gambia For All (GFA) has said their party is not a fracture of the Progressive People Party (PPP).
“Looking at the genesis of our party, one will need to go back to the National Delegates’ Conference of 13th July 2019 when participants, drawn from diverse horizons, came together as Gambians to discuss the national situation and share ideas about the challenges facing our country,” he said.
The Gambia For All party leader made these statements yesterday the 8th of January 2020 on the first press conference of his party held at Nyambi Touray’s residence in Fajara.
B.B. Dabo noted that a significant number of participants that gathered at the Delegates’ conference were at the time supporters of the PPP who felt disillusioned by developments within that ‘historic party’ and who were, keen to explore other options for the expression of their political convictions.
“The 2016 elections had freed the country from the clutches of an appalling dictatorship, we had to recognize that its legacy is still very much in place,” he said.
B.B Darboe said in the wake of two decades of misrule, mismanagement and institutionalized corruption, the reality left behind presents a face of a weak and fragile state with key state institutions decimated or in decay, with an economy in doldrums among others.
“The coalition project had promised that top priority would be accorded to wide-ranging reforms for rapidly putting in place a sound foundation for rebuilding our ruined state,” he said.
He said today three years in to the transition, the slow pace of the steps being taken, where any action has started at all, is the case of dwindling public confidence.
The Gambia For All party leader said the focus of political discourse in the country continues to be on petty partisan issues, rather than the articulation of clear ideas for fostering stable democratic governance with the vibrant economic transformation to meaningfully address the challenges of unemployment, among the youth, poverty among others.
“The situation is leading the citizens to blame the entire political class, not just the government, for this lack-lustre state of affairs,” he said.
The Gambia For All party Secretary-General said their party’s aims to offer the people, through their ideas and plans for getting the country out of its present difficulties, a vision of a better Gambia.
“The name Gambia For All was chosen to reflect our faith in, and our commitment to safeguard and promote, inclusiveness in the life and actions of the state, with all citizens living in a society that will be free, open and fair,” he said.
He said their ideas for solving the county’s myriad of problems are presently at an advanced stage of elaboration, that they will be launched in the form of a vision document outlining their ideas and plans for addressing the country’s problems.
The GFA party leader said their party comes for peace and they abhor violence in form, verbal or physical.
“We come with an open mind and open arms; we bear no ill-will to anyone. We will seek to promote understanding and collaboration with all,” he noted.
The Gambia For All Party Leader and Secretary General
