By Yusef Taylor and Ousman Saidykhan
The Deputy Youth President of the National Peoples Party (NPP), Lamin K Saidy and the Youth President KMC of United Democratic Party (UDP), Nyawuru Komma have called on political party supporters and those close to Party leaders to work towards “a Gambia that is all-inclusive regardless of party affiliation”.
The two youth leaders were speaking at an event organised by the Transitional Justice Working Group in collaboration with the Inter-Party Youth Committee (IPYC) and ECOWAS from 6th to 8th July 2021. The event brought young Gambian Politicians together in an attempt to build “social cohesion for peace building” before the 4th December 2021 Presidential Elections.
UDP Youth Leader, Nyawuru Komma believes that the notion political parties have against each other is all down to misinformation and not being open to sharing information. Mr Komma also highlighted that competing Political Actors usually harbour mistrust for each other.
“The other side might be looking at the other side like they have mysterious things that they do or they have agendas that are not in favour of the country or that are against the sovereignty as a nation. What causes that is the lack of communication between the parties. So to bridge that gap, the forum has given us that knowledge of how we should go about it, practising what we preach, not only stopping at what we have learnt here so we expect us to disseminate the knowledge we acquire during these three days and it should be disseminated and filtered down to the militancy level. So that militants in the political parties cannot see opponents as enemies but just for a healthy competition. We should realize that we are all yearning for a better Gambia, a well-developed Gambia that we all dream of,” the UDP Youth president, KMC, told Gainako.
Sitting next to Mr Komma during the twin interview, Lamin K Saidy, the Deputy Youth President of NPP said when political parties unite their efforts, they could make positive gains.
According to Mr Saidy the skills gained at the workshop, “when replicated at our party level we will be able to bring in some positive energy in our politics. We are one family; we are all related in one way or the other, so for me, the main takeaway is that when we organize ourselves; when we are ready to make that change- to effect that change in terms of ensuring peaceful co-existence, we will be able to get there.”
The IPYC was established with the aim of bringing together young political actors to promote political participation, collaboration, dialogue and join solutions to challenges facing the Gambian youth.
Deputy Youth President of Barrow’s newly formed NPP advises party supporters to accept political differences instead of festering enmity amongst party supporters.
UDP Youth leader, Komma agrees with his NPP counterpart saying that “every Gambian should try to be a democratic guy regardless of your religion, political affiliation. Whenever you see injustice anywhere you should stand up against that- that is what is expected of you whether it is in your party or outside your party.”
Komma discourages the use of hate speech, tribalism and non-productive vices to achieve political ends.
“I cannot use descent- I cannot use tribal sentiments, I cannot use hate speech and insult to gain political advantage over my opponent. You have to bring forth constructive realistic programs and agendas that you will sell out to the Gambian citizenry and they will look at all those programs and they think and decide which program suits them better, the go to the pools and decide with a violent-free election come December 4th,” Nyawuru Komma stressed.