Lamin Sabally, Minneapolis, MN
The highly-publicized proposed debate between Gambia’s renowned US -educated sociologist, politician and social commentator, Halifa Sallah of the PDOIS, and Hamat Bah, leader of NRP and an incontestable Gambia political celebrity for now has all the hallmarks of a mere political muscle flexing and a pompous display of intellectual and political heroism and supremacy confined just to pages of a local newspaper. What is now left to be seen is the formal acceptance by Mr. Sallah to attend the debatewith some conditions laid out by Hamat Bah, as reported by Foroyaa with the planned venue to be the Independent stadium for the nation to witness, to which invitation is being extended to the entire nation media fraternity including the state broadcaster GRTS for an elaborate coverage. In addition, similar invitation is being extended to professional organizations including the nation’s academic and professional incubator, the University of the Gambia- UTG, and Mr. Bah has singularly identified former GPU prexy Demba Jawo to be the moderator. Hopefully when Mr. Sallah formally accepts the invitation, the debate arrangements will thus instantly swing into full gear with a date and time to be announced later.
However, Hamat must not be unbending on these conditions for him to give a probable excuse for its cancellation in case if these are not fully met. For instance, the Independent stadium may not be an ideal venue. Alternative venues can include the University of the Gambia, The Gambia College or any High School in Banjul or Kanifing Municipality or even the famous Father Farrell Hall in Kanifing
Clearly, if this debate is allowed to go on, it will have a great positive significance to the Gambia’s democratic dispensation. Evidently, open national Political debates are rare occurrence in the Gambia, and the possible Sallah & Bah encounter may probably lay a strong foundation to encourage a debate culture in the Gambia, thus adding a new significant dimension to our democratic culture. It was unfortunate that the much-anticipated TANGO organized debate between the contenders of the Banjul City Council Mayoral election in recent Local Gov’t elections was abruptly cancelled to the chagrin of many Gambians, especially Banjulians. This would have been pleasantly recorded as the first of its kind in our political history.
As rightly stated by Mr. Bah, Mr. Sallah has an astute proclivity for professionally challenging politicians with opposing views with him dating back to former President Sir Dawda Jawara to a national debate , and so far, none of these people with dissent views with him on important national issues has ever knowingly accepted his barrages of invitation. Candidly, I have immeasurable respect for honorable Sallah for his vast intellectual superiority often profusely evidenced in his writings and many mesmerizing speeches I listened to since during my school days. I remembered attending a symposium he attended with Lamin Waa Juwara (M’barodi) at the Father Farrell Hall in Kanifing and the captivating presentation he delivered with vociferous ferocity spontaneously generated sustained round of applause from the cheering audience at the crowded famous hall throughout his entire electrifying deliberation.
Equally, I attended many proceedings of the National Assembly from 1998 to 2001 when I was a designated reporter for both Citizen FM and Gambia Daily Newspaper, and during much of these long hours of deliberations, I have seen Hamat Bah at his best while actively participating in numerous debates when he was a member for Upper Saloum constituency. Truth be told, Hamat was a star debater, and he dominated most local news headlines then for his eloquence and consistent demonstrated ability of nailing hard questions on Secretaries of State now Ministers.
Those memorable days of executing my journalistic assignments were full of excellent recollections. The National Assembly at the time had some excellent exchanges from both sides of the aisle on government policies and programs that would later filled the air waves of Citizen FM radio for rebroadcast to a wider listenership. Among some prominent fierce contributors were Honorable Members, Kemeseng Jammeh, Tamsir Jallow and Churchill Baldeh ( Both former Majority Leaders), Nenet Baldeh, Fa Bakary Tombong Jatta, Seedia Jatta, Edrissa Samba Sallah, Omar K. Mass, Karafa Badjie, Abdou K. Jawla and Arabu Ansu Kanyi.
Any time I watched the broadcast of debates on GRTS by the University of the Gambia students or High School students some of which are reportedly sponsored by the US Banjul Embassy, immediately brings back some very refreshing memories of the National Assembly proceedings then and also my enjoyable formative academic days as a student at both at Nusrat and St. Augustine’s High School, where I was a member of both schools’ debate teams. The UTG is really appropriately grooming some excellent student debaters, and hopefully when some of these eloquent speakers later take up leadership positions at any level either in government or non-government organizations, they will continue to foster such positive debates with the primary aim of generating some great ideas that are germane to addressing various national policy and program issues for the development of the country. I have frequently watched the rebroadcast of the UTG debates on GRTS, and the manifest ferocity of these intellectual encounters are profusely intellectually nourishing. The spirited nature of these healthy competitions for intellectual supremacy on very pertinent topics were usually noticeably immaculately observed by a very attentive audience and by all indications, this is a veritable confirmation that the Gambia has great and creative minds, which is indicative of a promisingly scintillating consolidated pool of our national human resource base.
I hope the pending Hamat and Halifa pitch to an intellectual bout will not just be confined to the pages of newspaper heroism. As we await this much-anticipated healthy clash, let us hope the outcome, if it should go ahead, will produce some excellent ideas that could be profoundly exploited for the benefit of the Gambia as a whole. Clearly, the most important immediate benefits will be to encourage a culture of open debates among politicians of different ideological stripes and agenda inclinations. This culture will be an added impetus to the country’s democratic dispensation and national discourse.