He started as a youth worker in the early eighties working with a national NGO called Youth Front Against Drugs and Alcohol Abuse (YFADAA) and serving as its Administrative Secretary and Director of Studies.
The Banjul North lawmaker is a media practitioner by profession and has been the Editor of a leading daily in the Gambia, Foroyaa newspaper, from 2006 up to the time of his election as a Parliamentarian in April 2017.
Ousman Sillah is a longstanding member of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) and has been working with the party since its formation in 1986.
He was the longest serving civilian detainee during the two year military transition of the AFPRC regime when he was held incommunicado without charge for fifteen months in the remote Janjangbureh prison camp in rural Gambia.
Ousman Sillah, as a Member of PDOIS, played an active and prominent role in the Coalition 2016 processes as he was its Campaign Coordinator for both Banjul (capital) and the Kanifing Municipality (metropolis) during the presidential election campaign which brought about the first change of government through the ballot box in that year.
The Banjul North lawmaker has played a prominent role in serving the Coalition in many leadership capacities such as being the Coordinator of the Coalition Media Team as well as the Coordinator of the Coalition National Reconciliation Committee during the political impasse. He was charged with the responsibility of coordinating the work of the national Task Force set up by the Coalition Government to facilitate the return of more than 50, 000 Gambian and non-Gambian returnees in the immediate aftermath of the impasse in January 2017.
During his election campaign in 2017, he told the voters that he was not seeking the office of National Assembly Member for the purposes of earning a salary, privilege and or prestige but asking for the mandate of the people to continue the political work he has been doing for more than three decades without being asked or paid by the Gambian people.
Hon. Sillah told the voters that what he wanted was simply to demonstrate to them what the true role of a National Assembly Member should be and that is “being the ‘Eyes, Ears and Mouth (voice) of the people”.
He also promised the electorate that if elected he will be dedicating part of his monthly salary to support his constituency and which he has fulfilled with the introduction of the National Assembly Member for Banjul North’s Scholarship Fund that has been supporting 6 students in senior secondary school.
In addition, Ousman Sillah initiated the revival and transformation of the former disused Crab Island Junior Secondary School in Banjul into a Technical and Vocational Education and Training Centre to provide vocational, entrepreneurship, organisational and leadership skills for the unemployed, unskilled, potential and returning migrants, school dropouts and vulnerable groups within the Banjul and Greater Banjul metropolis. The TVET Centre has a current enrolment of 175 trainees, who are all on scholarships and stipends and undergoing training in seven different skills areas.
The Banjul North lawmaker is now the Chairperson of the National Assembly Select Committee on Health, Women, Children, Disaster, Humanitarian Relief and Refugees. He also serves in the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Select Committee on Trade. He is a Member of the National Assembly Delegation to the Parliamentary Union of Islamic Countries (PUIC) as well as the Chair of Gambia-Cuba Parliamentary Friendship Association.
Ousman Sillah, as the sitting National Assembly Member for Banjul North, is seeking for re-election for a second term in the forthcoming National Assembly elections scheduled for 9 April, 2022.
