We will write this in simple language for the average Gambian to understand. For a decisive match between bitter rivals such as Messi, Iniesta, Dani Alves, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and Marcelo, Karim Benzema, Christiano Ronaldo and Zidane’s Real Madrid, victory’s skillful players usually made the coach’s cut.
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You don’t pick these players with the bogus claim that player X or Y sacrificed a lot for the club so he has to be the key striker. You select according to who can achieve best results. Some players sacrificed a lot, but clubs don’t renew their contracts when a better player can secure better victory.
Gambia’s problems are far pressing than any Champions League leviathan or its vicissitudes. Women never perish in labor in pathetic hospitals anywhere in Spain for each Barcelona or Real Madrid loss. Spain has enough electricity and pays its farmers well and on time!
Gov’t officials in Spain would account for $5 missing in an audit report—don’t even mention $1000. But in Gambia, billions sink into corrupt pockets while Barrow fattens both cheek and belly. He would then spend D52 million on a wasteful tour—a visceral indignation for any thinking Gambian caught in today’s dizzying height of inflation.
We write for those Gambians with eyes to see, ears to hear, and minds to fathom. It is heart-aching to share a country with a thoughtless, uninformed, and poor critical-thinking lot even if few. If the UDP really wanted to help Darboe, they would have frankly and most politely laid out the truth to him.
If Darboe reciprocally wanted to help the UDP, he would have recused himself from flag-bearing, especially for 2026. One week before 2021 presidential election in the heat of the campaigns, Darboe’s legs failed. We can’t blame gerontology for this.
Running for president in the Gambia shouldn’t be a Freudian fetish or some self-actualizing predilection. Whoever took over from Jawara had a lot to do—whoever from Jammeh, more. But whoever replaces Barrow will bear the biggest workload, almost herculean.
Jawara’s task was a quarter final preparation and he didn’t build a single high school. Jammeh’s was a semi-final prep because his predecessor didn’t educate Gambians or build even a TV station. But Gambians were secretly killed under his rule while some still unaccounted for.
Then came Barrow to rectify the wrongs and inadequacies of both gov’ts, usher in reforms with a brand-new constitution to strengthen our institutions where one man or few individuals won’t ever have the chance to kill or harm Gambians or our finances with abandon. Is this task not bigger and more important than any match between Barcelona and Real Madrid?
We want Barcelona or Real Madrid to pick the best of the best players for a mere sport. But we don’t care if Gambia keeps selecting poor leaders whose actions determine the cost of living, national security, protection of life and property, or kill corruption?
A football match not played on Gambian soil by Gambians is more important? You’ll see Gambians throw a fit, curse a coach whose salary they don’t pay for not bringing in Lamine Yamal or Dani Olmo at the right time.
When it comes to selecting our own Lamine Yamals for the national cake and most important national function, we choose the poorest political players like Adama Barrow in 2016 and since 1996, Ousainou Darboe. And we want best results?
Barrow hasn’t only slaughtered his campaign promises of a new constitution, term limit, three years etc. He’s impoverishing little Gambia, stealing land from the poor, destroying markets of the same impoverished folks, and killing their hippos and crocodiles for some devil-worshipping.
And what is UDP’s response to all the above? “It’s our Baba or no one else!” We say good luck again and let’s see who’s going to weep more come December 2026 insha Allaah! Here is a little history, again for Gambians that think:
August 2001, YMCA, Kanifing, The Gambia: It was the first opposition grand coalition meeting against Yahya Jammeh. Almost all opposition parties were there in kanifing in the rains of 2001.
I was there—so, I ought to know! Gambia had only one daily paper and it sent me to cover the historical event decades ago. I wrote and published the story because the Daily Observer was the only one coming out everyday!
And let me better tell you, O Gambia, what I saw and witnessed as a young reporter. So, the next time any UDP zombie attacks any of you, please send him to me for a fitting zombie circumcision.
We arrived at the YMCA headquarters in kanifing late noon and found all the opposition parties at the tables. I noticed Ousainou Darboe with a non-smiling, somewhat hapless face as if something nasty had just occurred before we arrived.
Dr. Lamin Bolonding Bojang (MD) of blessed memory was there! He formed the GDP or GCP since Jawara’s days. Assan Musa Camara of GPP was also there. He formed his party since Jawara’s time and was once Gambia’s vice president.
Sheriff Dibba of NCP was there. O.J Jallow of PPP (Allaah’s mercy on their souls) was there. Please keep O.J in mind because this is extremely important later in the article and we will come back to him.
Femi Peters (of blessed memory) and many UDP giants were there. Femi was one of the dignitaries that walked across the table to shake my hands and treated me like his own son or grandson. He held my hands for a considerable amount of time.
Deputy British High Commissioner to the Gambia Bharat Joshi was there as an invited guest. He also walked to me and asked what was my name. He then uttered, “You asked very intelligent questions.” Most of my questions were directed at Ousainou Darboe.
Days or weeks later, the Daily Observer phone rang and staff said it was some “Toubab” on the line who was asking for me. It was ambassador Bharat Joshi who, after the pleasantries said, “Is your other name Papa?” I replied yes. “I want to invite you to a dinner, please. Can you make it?”
He gave me the address. I won’t forget, it was Wheezo’s Bar & Restaurant just before the intersection of Kairaba Avenue’s dead-end and Atlantic Road. At this dinner was O.J Jallow and many others. D.A Jawo was also there and both O.J and D.A Jawo engaged me in very pleasant conversations.
Wollaahi, I had no idea what was a buffet, let alone one organized by a Western embassy. I’m from Brikama, accustomed mainly to riding donkeys and a horse we called “Aadia,” which meant a steed as mentioned in the Qur’aan. I didn’t even know I could also eat from the table spread. So, I didn’t eat a morsel.
But there was also a British girl my age, an attaché at the embassy who was talking to me. And that’s all I’d say about her. D.A Jawo, if you’re reading this, please you won’t happen to remember when O.J came over and you tried introducing us and O.J went like, “Oh I know him! I know his father very well.”
Why all these fine details? Because unbeknownst to me, this was actually the send-off party for the Deputy British High Commissioner, Bharat Joshi Jammeh had declared persona non grata and had to leave Gambia.
Why did Jammeh do that? I told certain people it had to do with his presence at the greatest and most historical opposition coalition talks the ambassador attended at the YMCA. Reader, you can now connect the dots!
But the dots didn’t only stop here. Few days later, Sedat Jobe, Jammeh’s foreign secretary (Allaah’s mercy on his soul) resigned. I wrote that bombshell too. Before I called Sedat on the phone, I had told the Daily Observer team his resignation possibly had something to do with Jammeh sending off a British diplomat.
I never wrote what Sedat told me on the phone. I respected his diplomatic and kind gestures. But the moral lesson here is that the first major opposition coalition talks cost a British diplomat his mission. But it also cost The Gambia a solid opposition unity until 2016. Why till 2016, fifteen years later? The answer is Ousainou Darboe!
Let’s bring back why I had to describe Darboe’s face and affect at the YMCA meeting. Sheriff Dibba had left before we arrived. Why? Please ask Ousainou Darboe! When Sheriff fell out with Darboe and O.J during the talks, he called us to his house for an urgent press conference.
Again, the Daily Observer sent me there. Sheriff said it was their agreement not to talk to the press until the right time. But PPP’s O.J and UDP rushed to select Ousainou Darboe as coalition flagbearer without consensus. He used the phrase “back-stabbing.”
I don’t blame PPP or UDP for selecting Darboe as flagbearer in 2001 because that was his second run. But I posed serious questions at Sheriff just like I did with Darboe at the YMCA. It was my first time in life to meet Sheriff. But Gambia, Wollaahi you’ve lost a statesman, a natural leader, and perhaps one who could have been Gambia’s Lee Quan Yew for a Singaporean equivalent.
The coalition, with all the opposition parties selected a weak candidate to face Jammeh in 2001. Guess what? Darboe lost again! It shattered the opposition and augmented its further split—a development that pushed Sheriff Dibba into Jammeh’s hands.
On February 3rd 2002, Sheriff Mustapha Dibba, Gambia’s Mbarodi became Gambia’s Speaker of the National Assembly with an APRC sympathy, the same phenomenon Barrow is utilizing today to further split the opposition by appointing Dr. Ismaila Ceesay a rat here and Momodou Sabally a squirrel there!
Then came 2006 presidential elections. If Darboe was a brilliant leader, he wouldn’t have split the opposition this time around. Alas! He boycotted the opposition coalition of NADD simply because if he wasn’t picked flagbearer, no one else would lead.
The opposition coalition picked Halifa Sallah and Darboe and the UDP refused to cooperate to give Halifa a chance. And guess what, the opposition was divided again thanks to who? Ousainou Darboe! And Jammeh crushed the weak opposition again in 2006. But we’re not done yet!
In 2011, other opposition parties knew by now that Ousainou Darboe would never cooperate with anybody if he’s not the “Ayatollah.” So, no coalition was put together and Jammeh crushed them again! We’re not done yet, Gambia! We write for those with brains to think!
Allaah’s Special Sign or Direct Intervention of 2016:
As if providence itself wanted to speak to Gambians only if it had a mouth and tongue, a miracle happened. Ousainou Darboe with other UDP members was jailed. The scene was now weeded out and conflict or argument-free! Wollaahi this was a big sign for all of us, not brainless zombies of the UDP!
In the absence of the divisor, all the opposition parties came together except Mama kandeh. Boom! The whole world was stunned as a tiny, impoverished nation called Gambia used marbles to unseat almost a three-decade old dictator.
CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, CGTN, Associated Press, Reuters, you name it all zoomed in on tiny Gambia for months because a miracle had happened! There is a serious secret in unity. That’s a Qur’anic pointer: “…and do not be divided,” Qur’aan Surah Al-Imraan verse 103.
Yes, and do not be divided, says Allaah! Wrong ‘says’ Ousainou Darboe! We have to separate and maintain our individual parties because someone wants to be president at all cost? Wollaahi this was a coalition he never put together.
If he was out and active, there wouldn’t have been any coalition in the first place. I was a regular guest on Freedom Radio when Darboe claimed that by August 2017 or 2018, they “would make sure the entire gov’t would be a UDP gov’t.” Then one by one, they started getting rid of people. D.A Jawo as Information Minister was one of the first casualties.
They also removed O.J Jallow as Agriculture minister. They removed Fatoumata Tambajang Jallow as VP. In fact, one of the first things Darboe did as soon as he came out was to tell Barrow to renege a crucial coalition agreement of three years stewardship. He said he would sue anyone calling for three years.
But one of the biggest was the difference with O.J which forced O.J to come out and declare that Ousinou Darboe “Is gambia’s biggest enemy.” He added that if Jammeh were to come back from Equitorial Guinea today, he (O.J Jallow) would host him at his house.
We could only imagine what internal confrontation took place when fifteen years earlier, the same O.J Jallow firmly stood by the same Ousainou Darboe to crown him flag-bearer, a development that angered Sheriff Dibba and split the opposition.
When I was a freelance reporter, Ousainou Darboe would find me at O.J’s house in Pipeline in the middle of an interview. He would order O.J to cancel the interview and send me away because he (Darboe) took the Daily Observer to be enemies. O.J would oblige.
Then Darboe Became Vice President!
The biggest leit-motif in any UDP campaign since 1996 was Jammeh’s bad laws. They used to shout it, “Draconian laws!” So, since I joined the daily Observer fresh from high school, “draconian laws” was ringing in my ears especially as I got closer and closer to the UDP.
And it was a UDP scriptural injunction that they would remove those “Draconian laws” once elected to office. But guess what, they only changed the age-limit law just to pave way for Darboe. Wollaahi, if I were Ousainou, I’d be ashamed of talking to Gambians about governance or power politics let alone seek the highest office of the land!
UDP had 31 elected legislators after Barrow became president. Barrow was calling Darboe “my father” and Darboe could have used that opportuned time to usher in a new constitution with term-limits. If so, Barrow wouldn’t be considering seeking term three in 2026.
But a leopard doesn’t change its spots. Darboe was gung-ho on his Freudian voyage of becoming president—and if not him, no one else. Let’s see how far he can now continue to kick this can down the road.
And you know what’s also heart-breaking? Darboe is adamant and steel-mettled on becoming president as if he has found a cure for cancer or Gambia’s biggest problems. But he was vice president, a lawyer and we never saw him make hay while the sun shines. What right does he have now to tell us to vote for him?
Not a Leader
Darboe isn’t a leader. We’ve written this before and would write it again. During the Talib-Yankuba schism, a true leader would have called both sides and bury the hatchet just for the sake of unity. And he would have asked them to hold hands for the cameras.
No! Darboe doesn’t have that kind of mind frame and disposition. Instead, he went on and granted interviews, smiling as if he was delighted that his own house was on fire and perhaps people would see this as a flaw in both Yankuba and talib—thus placing Darboe at a vantage point of flag-bearing.
Isn’t this the height of selfishness? What kind of family head would see his family members fighting in his house and runs to a media house instead of bringing both parties together for a direct dialogue—not any third-party missives?
Leadership needs wisdom. When Darboe was asked to comment on Talib recently, he should have said, “I wish him all the best. He is still my son.” This would have been a serious blow to Talib and his movement.
Also, it was his lack of simple wisdom to infer that Tombong Saidy was just a new-comer to the UDP. Seriously? This coming from a leader with a party lease of almost thirty years? Please Mr. Darboe, some Sahabas were really fresh converts.
But they performed wonders for Islam to the extent that the religion reached Gambia for you and I to bear Islamic names. Salman Al-Faaris was one such Sahaba who came all the way from Iran to join Muhammad (S.A.W). Thanks to Salman, Muslims won the battle of Trenches (Ghazwatul Khandaq).
If any UDP zombie feels this article isn’t right, please come forward and debate us on any platform. We will even pay you money, insha Allaah! Ousainou Darboe has no right to talk to us Gambians about governance or leadership! There are so many top UDP folks I share very respectful and cordial relations with. But truth has to be presented fairly.
If I were Darboe today, I’ll call Talib and his team to my house or drive to theirs with this message and tears in my eyes: “Can’t you see how the country isn’t only suffering, but dying under Barrow while billions go missing?” I’ll ask my driver to drive to Halifa Sallah with the same message and tears. I’ll do the same with Essa Faal and Mama kandeh. It’s called leading from behind.
When I was a kid farmer growing in the dales of Brikama and the meandering paths of Bafuloto, Kembujeh, Samayatoh, Jekay, and Amanjah, I used to observe a phenomenon when communities of monkeys were migrating.
Crossing the road, first, we would see mother-monkeys with babies; brothers and sister-monkeys close by; then perhaps uncles, aunts, and other relatives all crossing the road with such a phenomenal organization and unison. Then finally, a giant, eye-catching, solid stature and muscular monkey would appear at the end, all alone but not too far from the crowd as it walks and observes from behind. In Mandinka, this leader monkey or baboon is what’s called “Kongsimbarro.” Ousainou Darboe, this phenomenon is called leading from behind!
Think!
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