Speaking during a visit to the President at the State House in Banjul on Saturday, the CA leader confirmed that the alliance is yet to be on paper while explaining that when they campaigned during the presidential election, they had their manifesto which includes a 10-point agenda. He said they reflected at the party level that they shouldn’t sit on their ideas without sharing them with the president who the people entrust to govern the country.
“We thought it wise at our executive level to support the president’s agenda. We are going to form an alliance for the next local government elections but also use our manifesto, ideas, knowledge and vision to work with the ideas of the NPP for the interest of the country. We discussed at our executive level to also work together with the NPP, pool resources together, ideas and build the country for the interest of The Gambia.”
The politician clarified that his visit to the president was not a “cross carpet,” but rather an “executive decision” for partnership and alliance with the NPP.
He continued that CA wants to move away from politics based on animosity, tensions, and insults, stating that they believe the opposition and the government should work together to combine ideas for the interest of the people.
“If NPP and CA are fighting on social media every day and CA protests every day, the poor farmer, the child who doesn’t have access to education, and the woman dying at the hospital will suffer more. We have to go beyond that because our problems are bigger than ourselves and our personal interests.”
“We call on all Gambians to come together for a national convergence of ideas and resources to build this country not only for our generation but for the next generation.”
The former political science lecturer at the University reiterated that in politics, there are three interests: the natioal, the party and the individual. In this case, he said, they are doing it for the national interest first and party interest.
Mambanyick Njie, the NPP administrative secretary also stated that it is often said in politics that there are no permanent friends or enemies but permanent interests, saying in this case; the interest of the nation supersedes every other interest.
“CA wanted to contest for the 2021 presidential elections, unfortunately, it couldn’t happen but that would never stop them from working with the government to move the country to the next level.”
He said development and nation-building is an ongoing process that needs continuous fine-tuning with definition and recalibration.
