By: Nyima Sillah
Dr Ismaila Ceesay, Party Leader for Citizen Alliance (CA) has disclosed that his failure to contest in the just concluded 2022 National Assembly Elections is because he is not a good lawmaker.
He outlined that people have their choices and they know their strength and weaknesses and they run for offices based on their strength and weaknesses. “I am not a very good lawmaker, I am more of a pragmatic person, I like to implement. I know I am more suited for local government if I have a choice of been in the legislature and in the local government,” he said.
“I think my strength will be local government, I like actions and I like to implement, I don’t think I am a good lawmaker,” he disclosed. “I would not want to go and contest for National Assembly elections because people think I can contest,” he confessed.
He pointed out that he is back into the teaching field, because that is his profession, adding that CA came to politics because they had the idea and solutions to transform this country for generations to come. “I think it would be a waste of human resource if I should for 5years be politicking and not to take my strength to the university and teach the young people and prepare them for the future,” he expressed.
According to him, CA’s first attempt was not really good but it was not a total failure in the sense that they have experience people and that people got to know what CA is all about, get the understand, ideas and to become relevant in the Gambian politics.
He noted that resource wise they were not very good because they were not able to contest in the presidential elections also to put up ten candidates in the National Assembly elections and could not win any.
“Therefore, for us it was a period where we need to take a seat and do some self-reflection within the party and identify our faults, we also see to listen to the critics from the public so that when we come, we will back it, that can help us grow,” he added.
As a political party, he said, the only time they speak is to hold the government accountable in terms of their actions and policies and they thought from elections to the selections of Cabinet, they need to give a breathing space to Barrow to get his team together.
“He had a very turbulent 5years and this is a time to cool down, let all chaos cool down across the political divine and think of what should be the next direction for the country and the president should lead that by getting his team,” Ceesay said.