MAY 5 2025
Dear Dr Janneh,
History will continue to retain your words of wisdom and those who offend the dictates of common sense and honour your wise counsel with utter disregard would be chastised by the rod of indignity and infamy for eternity. I am only saddened by the fact that you have seen the need to address the letter to me. I must therefore convey to you, with all the emphasis at my command, that you have addressed the right letter to the wrong man. My track record shows, I have announced before being counselled, that I have achieved the goal of a life time in 2016 when we guided and guarded the process of effecting change through the ballot box, to its logical conclusion, for the first time in Gambian history. No one doubts that the Gambian people now possess the unbridled power to express their free will without any restriction, other than that driven by their own self-motivated passion, pride, ambition, prejudice and parochial interests, in determining their manner of government.
I was among those who subscribed to a three-year transition so that we would collectively invest all our might, heart, will and mind, empowered by collective intelligence, to guide the destiny of our country and people to the safe shores of liberty, dignity and prosperity, irrespective of party affiliation and scaffolded by the banner of one Gambia, one nation, one people. The fundamental objective was to nurture a sovereign citizenry who would be fully united, without any ethnolinguistic, regional, religious, political, sectionalist or sectarian cleavages, to give Gambia a new start. I recommended the establishment of an expert bank that would have enabled us to build clusters of experts to serve as oversight for each Ministry. They would have been charged with the responsibility of assessing and evaluating the instruments, policies, strategic plans, programmes, projects and budgets inherited from an outgoing government in order to prepare the short, medium and long term plans of a three-year Coalition administration. This would have put the Gambia on a sound footing so that any future Government led by any party or group of parties, after the coalition administration, would have had to perform better than its predecessor. My expressed recommendations were honoured with utter disregard as coalition partners shared the cake of executive governance and became divided in legislative deliberations to cost us the attainment of constitutional, institutional and normative reforms that would have guided us in the pursuit of the transformative agenda that would have put us on the right path of ensuring a definite end to poverty, ignorance of the rights and duties of sovereign citizenship and injustice.
The failure of the coalition to deliver on its mandate led me to accept a nomination to be a presidential candidate who would help to build a freer, fairer and better Gambia and ensure the eradication of poverty, injustice and ignorance in my life time. Eventually, the people gave a mandate to who they deemed fit based on love, choice with reservation or patronage. I accepted their sovereign decision and proceeded to prepare my handing over notes for those who may be summoned by duty to become duty bearers, who nay inherit my role in the party and others who may be called upon to guide the destiny of our country, as duty bearers of the highest offices of the state.
I have since then been looking for a team whose members are called to duty by love of country and people to receive my handing over notes. Those are the ones you should address your letter to, not me. I have done what I should do, when I should do it, according to the demands of my times and circumstances. Now, I want that legacy to be continued. There are those who are saying that I should come back due to confidence and trust in my sincerity, abilities, consistency, humility, honesty and readiness to live and if necessary, die for the common good of country and people. The only legitimate and convincing answer I could give them, that would not amount to betrayal of trust, is either to stand and be counted or give them the alternative they deserve. Your duty therefore is not to counsel me not to do what I have already resolved not to do but to be the alternative I should present to those who would feel betrayed if they fail to get a person, they trust to guide their destiny. Your duty is to be the alternative or guide me to the alternative so as to free me from the prison of my conscience and be an elderly statesman of high repute. Let me therefore turn the question back to you: Do you wish to point out to me a team I should give my handing over notes to along with a Manifesto and its accessories to address the challenges of party, coalition and nation building and consolidate any achievements that could inform future practice in nation building? Are you prepared to serve country and people and be part of the team that deserves to receive the handing over notes? If you are ready then your duty is to address letters to those like you to come and join the team that would be willing to share experiences and expertise on the type of system we ought to build and how it is to be done so that all duty bearers would be on the same page, thus relegating my role to be that of an inspirer who merits being deemed as the conscience of a nation.
I must draw lesson by emphasising without any ambiguity or reservation that I have achieved what destiny permits me to do in ensuring that, with ironclad heart, mind, will and might, a political dispensation emerges in the Gambia which allows each Gambian to freely determine the destiny of this country through one’s vote. Now, the ball is on the court of your generation. I am still taking centre stage and not the back seat because of my irreversible determination to ensure that the next change gives skeleton, flesh and skin to the phrase we have crafted and put into use, without any aim to abuse the English language, that is “System Change.”
In passing, I have observed that you have established a correlation between youth and capacity to lead and build a nation. Such correlation is emotive and is not backed by any evidence. There can be no development in modern times to end injustice and poverty without knowledge of how to use financial, human and material resources to build systems that could provide the institutions and normative practices required to eradicate poverty and injustice. Knowledge and experience are not acquired through youthful exuberance but through seriously meant search for answers to the troubling questions of human existence that fetter the enjoyment, peace, prosperity, freedom and happiness of human beings. The African youth must not be misled to mistake the capacity to give inspirational speeches for knowledge of how to address the challenges of human society. The myth of the Obama years is now being evidently shattered in the US. It is now clear that strong institutions must go along with their type of leaders to be built, consolidated and sustained. It is some leaders who built the institutions of the US and it is other leaders who are dismantling it. Obama therefore raised the wrong question and gave the wrong answer by stating that “We don’t need strong men. We need strong institutions”. Institutions do not drop from the sky. They must be built. The right question to ask is: What type of men and women do we need to build the right institutions to ensure liberty, dignity and prosperity. Human beings must be thinkers and inventors or innovators before they could be builders of institutions. Hence, Africa does not only need youthful leadership from your generation but knowledgeable and honest leadership that is determined to establish governments that exist for the people. I would wish to push you a step further in order to deter you from romanticising youthful exuberance by challenging you to point out to me a youth who has answers to the problem of The Gambia, the continent and the world and I would respectfully invite him or her to share his or her vision with all of us, in contrast to mine, at a venue I will pay for and publicise. If you cannot point out a single person then you should know that any youth who is symbolically put in front to perform the functions of executive governance has to rely on the advisory and consultative services of knowledgeable elderly statespersons of proven integrity to move the country forward. The youth must come to executive office with knowledge and clean hands, which is inconceivable without taking lessons from elders with knowledge and clean hands. That is the incontrovertible truth that all young people who wish to occupy the highest office should keep in mind. This is not the time for elder bashing and ostracisation based on age. It is all the more suicidal, absurd and foolhardy to equate system change with generational change of leadership when one lacks the knowledge, experience and innovative capacity to replace them. Knowledge is the flower and seed of life. Those who trivialise it risk being marooned in a desert of bareness under the midday sun.
I hope it is now as clear to you as noon day that I have no craving for power and has always refused to be defined by the public duty I perform. That is why I stayed away from seeking or accepting Cabinet post in any government whose policies I cannot defend. Duty of representation is not a career or an achievement. It is a calling for sovereign citizens when their country and people need them. Allow me therefore to climb to the mountain top and rely on the thunder clap as my loud hailer so that those who are politically hard of hearing would be able to hear me loudly and clearly that my time for national service is overdue but I will not depart without a proper handing over process. It goes without saying that should I die before the mission of system change is achieved, I would not pardon anyone who would name a street, monument or any other artifact after me. I would not pardon any one who would make a state funeral for me or give a butut to any loved one in memory of me. I would prefer to be interred in an unmarked grave until the day that Gambia will give birth to the sons and daughters who would raise their country and people from the doldrums. It is then that I will deserve to be remembered through books and speeches and not through monuments. This I hope will confirm to you that I have no penchant for high office but seek only to serve, if duty puts me in any position of public trust. That is the chapter and verse of my mission regarding the representation aspect of politics.
I must now sum up this missive by stating the irrefutable truth that the problem of the future of The Gambia is not a generational one. The problem is the division of The Gambia into two types of leadership and followership, irrespective of age, gender, religion, regional or ethnolinguistic origin.
The first type of leadership and followership see The Gambia as a national cake and have no interest in politics but to have a bite of a lion share of the sweets of public office and live extravagantly, in pomp and privilege, at the expense of the suffering poor masses, irrespective of whether they are their own brothers and sisters or kith and kin.
The second type of leadership and followership are those who are ready to swallow the bitter pill of restlessness and industriousness to promote and safeguard the common good. Such people are ready to march forward to bite the first bullet to save country and people or be the last person to take a stand in defence of country and people when the going gets too rough for the many to take a stand. Such people would work day and night to enable the people to become the architects of a destiny free from poverty, ignorance and injustice; one that perpetually sparkles under the golden sunlight of liberty, dignity and prosperity.
Let me assure you that I am ready to give my handing over notes to such sons and daughters of our homeland whose heartbeats pulsate in unison with the heartbeats of those who have abiding love for their country and people and are ready to build a team to save The Gambia, that is, “Team Gambia 2026”.
It is also important to highlight that in between the two camps are the vacillators, distractors and detractors who hide their political loyalties by sitting on the fence and placate to be career lifelong human rights defenders rather than life long activists for the liberation of a people by deed, not just by words. They receive immense privileges and substantial income for being human rights defenders but never take the front line to participate in the liberation of a people. However, once those who take the front line in the struggle to eradicate poverty, injustice and ignorance of the rights of sovereign citizenship move one step forward in raising awareness and organising the people for system change, without enjoying any privileges or amassing any wealth from their toil and moil, they do not hesitate to engage in a mudslinging exercise to cloud the political atmosphere and push the masses two steps backward into the abyss of confusion, hopelessness and despair.They would be led to believe that men and women of integrity and knowledge would never ever surface in their lifetime to guide them to find solution to their existential challenges. These calculative distractors and detractors appear to be criticising everyone as they fish for the party or person, they could ally with to have the upper hand to move to the state house. It is then that they would exchange their human rights- cloak for a political one. Such people are good at saying things that would put the minds and conscience of the people to sleep so that they would rebel against those who are guiding them to be their own liberators until they could direct them towards a cause that would serve their vested interest. We could uncloak such people and be belligerent against their ploys but prefer not to in order to promote unity in diversity, in a bid to conserve and defend the truth that Gambia belongs to all and none should be excluded from being supported to be a better Gambian so that we could build a better Gambia.
However, it is important not to ignore what they say. The youth must fully understand that such people would not hesitate to turn political leaders into punching bags once they stand in between them and their interest.
Otherwise, could you explain to me how a human rights activist with a reasonable head on his shoulders could equate those who spent all their youthful and adult years fighting poverty, injustice and ignorance, at the expense of their own security and welfare, could be equated with those who spent decades of their lives enriching themselves and scraping the back of the people just to enjoy the fruits of political office, at the expense of their people?
Would you join me to request common sense to come to our aid and explain what kind of mind would fail to call the youth to come together to save The Gambia and instead agitate them to form an army to overthrow their elders. The road to political miseducation and political illiteracy is paved with such ill-conceived learning materials prepared by uncouth political commentators whose tactics and strategies on the way forward to heal national wounds are only fit for the dustbin of history.
Instead of investigating allegations and focusing on what is wrong with political parties and The Gambia and proffer solutions on how to right all wrongs, wherever they exist, they are pitting the youth against their elders. It is important to draw lesson that it was a twenty nine year old lieutenant who took over the country and with his fellow youth led the country for 22 years when we in PDOIS were in our late 30s and early 40s. We lived under their rule for 22 years combatting injustice, misgovernance, political illiteracy and impunity. It would constitute a great defiance of sanity to equate the pursuit of knowledge and practice to facilitate progress and justice with age of leaders. It therefore an affront to common sense for those who wear the cloak of human right defender to breed contempt in the heart of the young against people who took the front line in defending human rights while the leaders of the young people failed to mobilise them to confront their fellow young leaders to bring sanity to the country.
Finally, allow me to utilise this letter to you to convey to you, in particular, and Gambia people, at large, that the allegation that PDOIS is not practicing as it preaches is utter fabrication. We in the leadership have to give respect to those who support the candidates of the party at all levels otherwise we could have subjected, to rigorous cross examination, those who claim that PDOIS is not democratic, that one person decides everything or that its financial systems are weak, to prove that those who make such assertions cannot provide any evidence to back their claims. In order to prove my point, I would risk my status of an elderly statesperson by calling on you to fish for such people wherever they may be in The Gambia or the diaspora and I would agree to appear on media platform of your choosing with them to listen to their allegation and give convincing rebuttal to refute their assertions.
Allow me to make reference to a recent conversation on TV where a person acknowledged that he has never spoken to me about any of his allegations made in public. It is the verdict of common sense that suspicion must be substantiated from source. Without investigation there can be no evidence and no basis for indictment.
I would wish to assure all Gambians that PDOIS has a transparent and accountable leadership that has never had anything to hide or be ashamed of. It is a leadership that lives for and gives to the party and not one that lives for self and takes away from the party.
Hence, there is no justification to make allegation of weak control of a financial system by a new comer who does not know whether or not the Secretary General and the Administrative Secretary of PDOIS are signatories to the bank account of the party and cannot confirm whether or not the account has a financial controller who knows every butut which is credited to the account and must sanction every withdrawal from the account. None of the critics on such a matter could provide evidence-based allegation, indictment and judgment, as befit those who search for and speak the truth, in good faith, in the public interest. All they could say if such questions were posed to them is to disclose that they know nothing about the system in place because they have never bothered to investigate.
In the same vein, none of the critics on intra-party democracy could give evidence to prove that any organ of PDOIS could make decision without relying on the dictates of Article 90 of the party constitution which makes it mandatory for a quorum comprising two thirds of the members must be confirmed before any meeting of a party organ could be held. A simple majority of those present and voting is required for a decision to be taken. Neither the Chairperson nor the Secretary General has a casting vote.
It goes without saying that some of the critics were selected to be National Assembly candidates without any interference from the Central Committee thus giving the constituency and ward branches complete autonomy in decision making. All candidates for Council, National Assembly and Presidential elections are selected by consensus or direct election by party members at the ward and constituency levels, in council and national assembly elections, respectively and nationwide in presidential elections. Power therefore belongs to PDOIS members who are the real decision makers.
PDOIS is among the most democratic parties in the world which internalises dissent by not having any dismissal clause in its Constitution.
Let me conclude by assuring you that PDOIS is indeed a party that is rules, knowledge and ethics-based and has always taken cognisance of the fact that internal party growth and development require the taking of irreversible quantitative steps and qualitative leaps forward, as times and circumstances dictate. Hence, the PDOIS leadership has done its historic stock taking and has preprepared all the instruments and institutional framework that would help to nurture each member into a messenger with a message of hope to take to every village and town that offers solution to existential challenges. The party is now poised to pull all genuine members up and leave no one behind in imparting awareness and instilling respect for rules and code of conduct of sovereign citizenship. In fact, the coming congress will mark a major turning point in the history of the party after being kept away from its original mission by years of coalition building. Those who expect the PDOIS leadership to be the laughing stock of history will become the laughing stock of history. It is said that those who laugh last laugh the loudest. The PDOIS membership should prepare for that historic laughter of the PDOIS family and by extension the sovereign people of The Gambia, who have in PDOIS sons and daughters who are ready to live and if need be, suffer and die for Mother Gambia to have the peace and prosperity required to suckle generations yet unborn with the sweet taste of liberty, dignity and prosperity.
The Team to save the Gambia is being nurtured. The future is bright. We will never despair. We will surmount every difficulty for the people to take charge of their sovereignty and unite as one to be the architects of their own destiny.
Uncle Halifa Sallah
CC ALL MEDIA HOUSES
ALL HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
ALL YOUTH ACTIVISTS
