By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The Administrative Secretary of the GDC, Mr. Ebrima Nyang, has expressed disappointment over Dr. Demba Sabally’sclaims that the GDC leader Mama Kandehhas reduced the dreams of Gambian youths and women to football, jerseys, and cooking pots.
Nyang also reacted sharply to the agriculture minister’s assertion that Mr. Kandeh “wants to spark problems between the security and the government following Hon. Kandeh’s generosity to extend food support to the security during the OIC period”.
“I write to express my disappointment over Dr. Demba Sabally because the least I expected from a state Minister was not to intentionally misinterpret Hon. Kandeh’smessage at Doboo,” said Nyang. He went on: “Hon. Kandeh’s message to youth was for them to take ownership of their country and not to trade their future with footballs, jerseys, etc because these were things they had before the inception of the NPP and should not be an opportunity to sell their voter’s cards to the NPP. Hon. Kandehfurther said that women who were given cooking pots during the last election as a bribe today know that cooking pots cannot solve their problems.”
According to GDC’s administrative secretary, Kandeh used the Doboo rally to call on the government to prioritize skills development to guarantee a good future for the youth and women rather than giving them football, jerseys and cooking pots only to secure their votes.
He explained that the GDC leader echoed the need for the government to invest heavily in sports development to enable youth to benefit optimally for the future.
“He [Kandeh] cautioned the youths and women that the change that has happened in Senegal was done by the youths and women out of the love for their country but not demanding footballs, jerseys, and cooking pots from the Senegalese politicians,” Nyang wrote.
“On the issue of the security personnel, the article about security complaining of lack of food did not come from the GDC and out of Hon. Kandeh’s good gesture knowing the importance of security that is why he intervened to assist them with food.
“Hon. Kandeh bought two bulls, 10 bags of rice, 10 bags of onion, 10 gallons of oils, and 3 bags of sugar with cash just to see it that the security is well fed as his contribution to the OIC,” he added.
According to Mr. Nyang, he reached out to the National Security Adviser Mr. AbubacarrSuleiman Jeng through a telephone call to help facilitate the doling out of the food items to the security but Jeng turned it down.
“He [Jeng] claimed that the feeding of the security is entirely in the government’s hands. This was shocking as if the feeding was available and on time to the security, they would not complain at all,” he explained.
Nyang described Dr. Sabally’s speech as lacking basis and hatred towards the GDC leader.
“Dr. Sabally should be grateful to the GDC because we made him what he is today,” he stated.
In response to Dr. Demba Sabally’s claim that the GDC is broke, Nyang said: “I would like to tell Dr. Sabally that whatever we used to carry out our activities, as GDC, belongs to us and we have not committed corruption to finance our activities like how the NPP does and ministers for their selfish gain. We are very dignified to rob the masses for our individual pockets. We will come for the thieves in suits one day In Shaa Allah.”
Nyang added that the time and energy that Dr. Sabally uses against the GDC could be better directed at the “failed” agriculture ministry.
“There is no one in his or her right sense that would believe that Hon. Kandeh is an enemy to the youth and women of this country,” he argued.
“Comparing his intervention on the side of the youth: fencing football fields, giving educational scholarships, medical treatments, Gambia College with 100K to buy chairs, fencing women’s gardens, digging 100 plus boreholes, rehabilitating clinics, etc. Who in their senses will ignorantly declare Hon. Kandeh as an enemy to the youth and women folk when he has been the hope of the youth and women in their fight for survival?”
Nyang asserted that Kandeh had asked genuine questions about the OIC and that the GDC expected the government to give answers to them “and not to prepare ministers to fabricate stories against the GDC”.
“The OIC was a failure and the president has confirmed it and this is because we have a government that prioritizes their interest over the nation,” he contended.
“Barrow is finished and his latest strategies will not salvage him in 2026,” opined Nyang.
He described the last farming season as a huge failure.
“We hope you use the time to address it so that it will not repeat this year at all. You are given a task to work for the farmers but they are not happy with you at all.
“Finally, the monies, jerseys, and cooking pots that the NPP was giving out during the last election, why did it stop if it was done out of good faith? The people have served your interest and now they are forgotten for good and preparing to come back for you in 2026 for the same cunny games. Let’s take back our country from these hungry, angry, and selfish people,” he concluded.
