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Momodou
Denmark
11737 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Oct 2017 : 08:30:48
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“The next change, must be a system change” Halifa`s stirring London speech
By Sulayman Bah UK
As expected of him, following a massive show of eagerness by the Gambian and British community to welcome Halifa Sallah in the metropolis, he has once again delivered an incredible speech that drew cheers and self-confession from even long-time rivals who applauded PDOIS` efforts for a prosperous Gambia.
On Saturday October 14th, the University of East London hall was full to capacity comprising of Gambians, native white and black British, Africans amongst others to listen Halifa`s 3 hours and 30 minutes stirring speech. It wasn`t ‘regretful’ for delegates who flew all the way from Norway, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Denmark to participate in the London conference.
Sallah made reference to the historic change the Gambia witnessed in the country`s December 2016 presidential election, through the ballot box for the first time in history, saying “The Gambia is now in the hands of its citizens.”
In his bold and diminishing intonation, he said the Gambia has achieved a historic regime change, which most has ‘doubted’ 3 months before the December elections, and added that “Gambians were in a state of despair; many feared what happened in Libya could happened in The Gambia.”
However, despite defeating Jammeh after 22years of self-perpetual, with high expectations from the Coalition government, nothing seems to have improved on living standards in The Gambia, amidst accusations of similar state institutional administration, as it was under the APRC government.
This, Sallah said “people will reap, what they sowed”, and added that “the next change that is going to come, must be a system change. He tells the London conference what that change will require, is to engage those who want to be leaders, to tell Gambians exactly how they want to build the economy, to eradicate poverty and low income of the citizenry.
He dissected the state of affairs of the country and challenged Gambians to see it as their ‘birth right’ to begin to carve for a new Gambia. According to the veteran politician, “Gambia is impoverished by poor policies and poor leadership”, and added that “no nation has ever developed by relying on others to give them charity.” This prompted a great reaction of applauses and nodding from the keen crowd who were astonished by Sallah`s passionate speech without a script.
In his speech Sallah said ‘the Gambia has many problems’ including youths dying in the Mediterranean Sea, and young girls facing desperation. He said despite the change of government, many people are still asking why the situation remains the same. He pointed out the problems the agricultural sector is facing, a deplorable waste management system and poor government pay scale.
He said: “We need to build a nation where power belongs to the people, and those who exercise power do so according to the law, so that no one will be afraid of anyone. That is the type of nation we sought to establish.
“The starting point of building a new economy, demands for better infrastructure and social amenities must come from citizens.”
Sallah made a true testimony of diaspora Gambians contribution towards improving the living conditions of people back home, but are deprived of voting and contesting in elections. He told the conference: “You in the diaspora who are taking your hard earnings to sustain livelihoods in the Gambia, deprived of the right to be presidents of the Gambia.” And, added that “each Gambian is equal to the other.”
As a tradition of his public speeches, Sallah doesn`t stop at outlining problems without offering visionary solutions, he mentioned alternative policies that he believes can promote fishing, agriculture and industrialisation as sustainable sectors of national development that can enhance job creation in the Gambia.
At the end of the conference, the audience flocked towards Sallah in huge numbers, as everyone was struggling to have a picture with him.
Part of his UK itinerary, Sallah will be meeting British legislators and will be a special studio guest for the BBC World Service Radio on Wednesday October 18th between 12noon to 2pm UK time. He is also invited to be the guest speaker in different events in Birmingham and Manchester.
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Momodou
Denmark
11737 Posts |
Posted - 20 Oct 2017 : 08:31:50
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Presidency reacts to Halifa Sallah's distorted allegations against President Barrow led coalition government.
Below is the Press statement issued by Press Secretary, Amie Bojang-Sissoho.
Rejoinder to the caption: “The next change must be a system change” –
Halifa’s stirring London speech
The richness of leadership is the ability to accommodate, listen and provide advice and guidance to the people who entrust you with the leadership. While Sulayman Bah UK would like to present Honourable Halifa Sallah’s speech to his audience in UK as incredible, it is important to move beyond political canvassing and polemics to provide facts on the realities of the country we all love.
Kindly allow me to shed light on the issues Sulayman Bah UK attributed to Honourable Sallah regarding the situation since December 2016.
It is no secret that in December 2016, over 200,000 Gambians, took practical steps to vote in Adama Barrow as leader of the Coalition. Hundreds of thousands more invested their energy, time and financial resources to ensure we give The Gambia a new beginning. These are people committed to uplift the lives of Gambians with dignity and respect. While the levels of sacrifices differ from one person or group to the other, all the sacrifices must be commended and respected. As a reminder, in case some forgot, the Coalition government until the time of this publication is made of the following:
United Democratic Party
National Reconciliation Party
People Democratic Party for Independent and Socialism
The People Progressive party
Gambia Moral Congress
Gambia People Democratic Party
National Convention Party
Dr. Isatou Touray -Independent Presidential Aspirant
Therefore all those who were committed to the change, should continue to guard, guide and nurture it.
Government requires teamwork where no one person alone can make a difference but a combination of efforts to change a system. The fact that it was reported in FOROYAA that Honourable Halifa stated that “…Despite defeating Jammeh after 22 years of self-perpetuation …from the Coalition government, nothing seems to have improved the living standard of ordinary Gambians…” needs reflection.
This remark by Hon. Halifa Sallah insinuating that nothing has changed to improve the lives of the people and comparing this government to the former dictatorial regime is a distortion of facts. This is unfair given the efforts that are already in place by this government with the support of Gambians to move away from the difficult era of the former regime.
It is therefore important to take a good lens to capture those efforts and what has changed since “The Gambia is in the hands of its citizens” to see how the Coalition government is not “reminiscent of the APRC government days”.
The first expression of change that is not “reminiscent of the APRC government days” is that citizens found their voice. They are now free to express their opinion without fear or favour and can go home and not fear that at 3:00 a.m, someone in the name of the government would drag them out of their house and deny their family the right to even know why they are being taken away.
Since the Coalition Government took over, the vehicular traffic at the Gambia Ports Authority bringing basic commodities among others has exceeded the current capacity of the Ports to handle. This increase in economic activity is a result of the conducive business environment created by this government leading to the stability of prices of basic commodities which are in fact generally going down. It is also important to know that government has already taken the decision for the port to operate 24 hours creating more employment and improving timely service delivery.
Furthermore, Barrow government has reduced the price of fuel three times in less than a year with its positive rippling effects on commodity prices and availability across the country.
The Gambia has moved from regional and global isolation to a state of recognition and respect; and a new dawn of hope for its citizens. Traditional partners have regained confidence to engage the Barrow government in mutual respect and support to garner the desires and hopes of the citizens. This is not symptomatic of “poor policies and poor leadership.”
We now live in a connected and interdependent world where governments/countries collaborate and work in partnership to support each other in the interest of mutual sustainable development. As part of international cooperation, countries acquire grants, loans and other forms of support including foreign direct investment to help grow their economies. No country relies solely on taxation to move its development agenda and to put it bluntly no nation is self-sufficient. The Gambia is no exception and does not accrue enough tax to be able to execute all its development aspirations.
Presenting its policies to partners both within and outside for support as well as fiscal discipline have improved the foreign exchange reserve from its precarious state of less than one month import cover with a debt burden of 120% beyond the recommended 70% debt of any country to 4 months. It is unfortunate that this is interpreted as a nation relying on “charity” for its development.
The performances of some State Owned Enterprises –such as NAWEC, GNPC and GAMTEL/GAMCEL, were low and government had to step in to settle their external obligations, thus putting undue pressure on the Gambian Dalasi and the reserve level.
It is clear that there needs to be a structural change to the budget and prioritization of growth enhancing expenditure such as development projects. Without these measures increasing salaries will be extremely unwise at this time.
In order to improve the economic environment, the Coalition government is engaged in initiating difficult measures to deal with the numerous challenges resulting from poor economic governance of the former regime. These include but are not limited to Public sector restructuring and rationalization plan, implementation of a government vehicle policy and business travel policies.
The change of government has boosted youth confidence and self esteem. The new administration’s policy on youth is to enlighten them on their rights and empower youths to take responsibility to initiate, innovate and contribute to nation building and most are not relying on government to build their lives. The first project signed by the new Government is centered around youth empowerment through funding from the European Union (EU).
The 11million Euro Project focuses on youth employment creation in the areas of agribusiness, ICT and Tourism aiming to provide high quality skills training for potential youth entrepreneurs and startups. This project includes a mini grant and loan scheme for youth Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). To effectively respond to the needs of young people not just as a cross cutting issue in our development frameworks as it used to exist in the Gambia, a whole component on youth empowerment and development has been incorporated in the National Development Plan (NDP). Similarly, a specific pillar on youth has also been incorporated in the ongoing development of The Gambia National Agriculture Investment Plan (GNAIP) 2 to comprehensively address the issues of youth in The Gambia.
There has also been an increased space for youth political participation in the new dispensation. The Gambia can today be proud of the democratic space that guarantees freedom of expression. During the last National Assembly Election young people of The Gambia worked with all stakeholders to improve awareness on youth engagement and to increase their number in the political space through the #NotTooYoungToRun campaign. The Gambia is today hailed as having one of the youngest elected members in the National Assembly in the sub region.
This cannot be “reminiscent of APRC government days” when every youth’s desire was to leave the country. Gambians in exile are returning home to contribute to nation building and to nurture the change.
On agriculture, the Coalition government encourages and empowers farmers to work on their own farms to “reap what they sow” and ordinary citizens are not forced to spend valuable time on the President’s farm. It has provided farmers $25 million worth of fertilizer and seeds. This definitely is not “reminiscent of APRC government days”.
On waste management, the new government encourages people to use their conscience and commitment to environment sanitation to clean the environment and manage the domestic waste it produces and not force people and businesses to stop all activities to clean their environment and at the end of the day does not have the mechanism to collect and dispose the waste. The Coalition government has improved daily management of waste at the dump site at Bakoteh and has further committed to waste management through a Public Private Partnership which seeks to provide a comprehensive solution to waste management in The Gambia.
The Coalition government inherited bad institutional policies and practices. To change such a system will require having knowledge of the depth of destruction in our institutions, policies to institutionalize best practices and committed citizens to execute the plan to implement the policies. It requires re-orientation of the workforce and commitment to the nation and not an individual. It is misplaced to state a comparison and conclude that the new regime is “reminiscent of APRC government days”.
The APRC Government had the opportunity to amend the Constitution removing the barriers to enable eligible Gambians in the Diaspora to vote or be voted for. Did they do it? Of course no. It is not the new government that deprived the Diaspora from voting and contesting to be President, National Assembly Member or Councilor. In fact the new government is in the process of drafting a new Constitution that will accommodate all Gambians to take part in the political, economic and social life of the country. The new government recorded the highest number of contestants in the National Assembly election, a demonstration of a vibrant democracy where people feel that they own the nation. This cannot be “reminiscent of APRC government days”, when if it was known that citizens aspired for political positions, their lives were in danger and could result to torture, maiming and even death of citizens.
The judiciary has been “Gambianised” by encouraging our legal luminaries to serve the country with dedication to justice with the appointment of a Gambian as Chief Justice. Gender representation was also given consideration with the appointment of numerous female Judges at the superior courts.
The Coalition government is working to ensure that citizens recognize the damage that has been done to the nation and its organs of management and governance. No sincere person will expect the new government to increase government pay. Instead the government has to further cut on its expenditure. For instance the office of the President had cut expenditure by 75% since the new administration came to power.
The Coalition government under the leadership of President Adama Barrow empowers all citizens to work together to build a country we can all be proud of. That is why Halifa Sallah was offered the opportunity to bring in his “policies” that will not subject the government to rely on others to develop the country. He rejected to take a position that would give him the responsibility to get the nation out of the situation in which it relies on others to give it charity. It is easier for Hon. Sallah to criticize than take responsibility where he can be accountable to the people. |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Momodou
Denmark
11737 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2017 : 15:08:04
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WHAT DOES HALIFA SALLAH HAVE TO SAY REGARDING THE PRESS RELEASE FROM THE STATE HOUSE?
FOROYAA reached Halifa Sallah to ask him for his views on the Press Release from the State House and this is what he had to say.
‘’ The report of the Press Release reached me after speaking to the Gambian Community and the Africans of Caribbean connection in Birmingham UK and was on my way to Manchester to speak to the Gambian Community and the Africans of Caribbean connection . After Manchester where the fifth Pan African Congress was held in 1945 I went back to the House of Commons to meet a Parliamentary colleague and then proceeded to hold a conference with the community of Africans of Caribbean connections in London many of whom had been coming to the Gambia during the Jammeh era and were waiting for me for explanation on how they could pursue their goals in the Gambia under the current order. I must say that my mission is well received and everybody I have met so far is impressed by the clarity of my messages and the sense of purpose, direction and commitment to Gambia that I strove to propagate in our conversations.
I am now in Belgium. I have met the Gambian Community and a law firm interested in protecting Gambia’s interest during international arbitration s a result of suits against the Government as well as to prevent future ones. I will be raising a Parliamentary question regarding the losses to the government due to international arbitration and what is to be done to prevent any future loses.
As you go to Press it is part of my schedule to meet the Flemish Chamber of Commerce in Antwerp to find out what they have in stock by way of investment in Africa in general and Gambia in particular to ensure a win- win situation
I will then be taken on a conducted tour of the Federal Parliament of Belgium and discuss Parliamentary issues , Exchange views with the Head of Africa section at the Ministry , have tete a tete with a prominent political activists , conduct interview and address University students at Symposium organised to explain the role of the Diaspora in a New Gambia.
My visit will end on Tuesday with a meeting at the Foreign Affairs and a tour of facilities that generate value added goods .
I will be back on Wednesday 25 October 2017.
My itinerary answers your question to the Press Release from the State house. When I come back I will discuss with the Secretary General at the Office of the President, the Minister of information and the DG OF GRTS to find out the source of this strange Press Release. If it is indeed maintained to be from the State house I will giving the most fitting of responses that will prevent such a crude Press release from ever being issued again. |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Momodou
Denmark
11737 Posts |
Posted - 31 Oct 2017 : 09:36:10
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Halifa Sallah refutes press statement from Office of the President
The Point: Monday, October 30, 2017
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/halifa-sallah-refutes-press-statement-from-office-of-the-president
The Secretary General of the Peoples Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) and National Assembly Member for Serrekunda, Honorable Halifa Sallah, has said that the purported press release from the Office of the President on his alleged stirring statements in London was not signed by any authority.
“I have conducted my investigations, the press release is not signed by the Secretary General at the Office of the President and bears no date,” Honorable Halifa Sallah said.
The PDOIS Secretary General who just returned from a two week European trip made these revelations during a press conference attended by dozens of journalists with hundreds of party militants at the party’s bureau at Churchill Town, Serrekunda.
“The name of Amie Bojang Sissoho was written at the end of the press release as a contact person and not signatory,” he added.
Honorable Sallah referred to the Director of Press at the Office of the President, Ms Amie Bojang Sissoho, as a public servant who should not be engaged in any form of nepotism or favoritism by virtue of section 122 of the 1997 Constitution that spells out the role and duty of public servants.
Sallah spoke about his intention to engage the state broadcaster, GRTS, on the dubious activity of Sarjo Barrow, an employee of the institution. He also intends to engage the Attorney General on the matter.
He added that the final resort would be the Office of the Ombudsman.
“I will contact the Director General of GRTS to retract the press release,” he asserted.
Sallah said the utterances made by Sarjo Barrow on the 57 pickup trucks given to National Assembly Members were misleading with regards to reasons PDOIS members didn’t accept the vehicles saying he made two contradictory reports on the same subject. He added that he first reported that they rejected the benevolent gifts from the President but later said it was from an anonymous philanthropist.
He said no one has the right to tarnish the image of any National Assembly Member who has not violated the law. He quoted section 112 of the 1997 Constitution.
The veteran politician explained that anything that comes from the Office of the President to the National Assembly should be written in a document explaining the reason, terms and conditions among others.
He added that the 57 pickup trucks were handed to the National Assembly without any written document. He emphasized the section of the constitution that guides the conduct of MPs in and outside of the National Assembly.
“I believed all sensible Gambians will know why I have not taken confrontational approach with the presidency,” Sallah said.
The PDOIS Secretary General said there is no Gambian who can tarnish his integrity because his integrity is intact and it is invincible.
“I have not said it out of pomposity or arrogance,” Halifa Sallah interjected. “What I said in London is irrefutable and nobody can refute it,” he added.
Sallah said he stood by what he said in London as 52 years of the same system cannot change in 3 or 5 years transition period. The new government, he said, can only attain regime change within the transitional period. He defined regime change to constitutional reform, transitional justice and other reforms.
Meanwhile, the press conference was grace by party militants singing songs of freedom.
Source: Fatu Network
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Halifa:“The next change, must be a system change”
