Honorable Halifa Sallah, the National Assembly member for Sere Kunda constituency, and the Secretary General for the People’s Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) will leave Banjul on Monday, 19 February 2018 for the United States of America. Sallah will be on tour for series of lectures and roundtable discussions at two U. S. universities.
Sallah’s lectures will begin at the Ohio University in Athens where he will also meet with senior academics at various departments. According to sources, Sallah will hold both public and private events from 21 to 23 February. His lectures and talks are intended to provide scholars, researchers and academics first-hand account of the political crises that ensued in The Gambia after the 2016 presidential election.
The former president Yahya Jammeh was defeated in that election by Adama Barrow of the opposition coalition. Jammeh initially conceded in a nationally televised telephone call to Barrow, but later rescinded his concession and called for a fresh vote on the claimed the election had been rigged.
The crises continued which led to a United Nations (UN), and African Union (AU) resolutions calling on Jammeh to respect the will of The Gambian people and transfer power peacefully to Barrow. The international support led to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy an intervention unit of almost 10,000 troops to install the new president, who had sought refuge in Senegal where he was sworn into office at The Gambian Embassy in Dakar.
Sallah was the spokesperson for the opposition coalition and had gained more international prominence through his press conferences during what now is referred to as the “impasse.” In an exclusive interview with The Gambia Times, Mr. Abdoulie Faal, a prominent PDOIS member in Seattle, said that “Halifa Sallah, as we all know is a renowned politician, a scholar and a social scientist, who is not only knowledgeable about The Gambia and its developmental and political needs, but has the willingness, as well as the wherewithal to engage Gambians in national discussions that will benefit them.”
According to Sallah, speaking to reporters few months ago, his lectures in Ohio will culminate in the launching of his next book to be titled “The Impasse.” The Gambia Times could not confirm whether the manuscript has been published as we were unable to obtain a copy from the printing press of the University of Ohio before going to press.
After his lectures in Ohio, Sallah will travel to Texas to hold a town hall meeting on Sunday, 25 February with The Gambian community in the Dallas area. The talks will center, according to Mr. Basiru Ndow in Texas, on the theme “The Gambia at Fifty-three and the Way Forward.” The venue will be at the Raindrop Turkish Foundation in Richardson, and the event is scheduled to commence at 4PM local time. He will leave Dallas for San Francisco, California to hold an event with Gambians in the Golden state.
Sallah will then travel to Seattle, Washington
State, where he will also conduct series of lectures and talks. He will conduct a roundtable discussion in a classroom setting for a political science course on African Political Development on Thursday, March 1. Later in the evening, he is scheduled to deliver a lecture on the topic “The Impasse: Lessons from the Frontlines of Elections Crises and Strengthening Democracy in Africa.” These events at the University of Washington in Seattle are jointly sponsored by the Department of Political Science, and the African Studies Program.
Sallah will hold another town meeting with The Gambian community on Saturday, March 3 at the Calvin Presbyterian Church Conference Hall in Shoreline — a suburb of Seattle. The topic of his talk is “The Gambia’s Transition to a Sovereign Democratic Republic: the Hopes and Aspirations, the Realities and Challenges, and the Way Forward.” This event is scheduled to commence at 4PM Pacific Standard Time.
Faal, told The Gambia Times that Sallah’s visit:
is a significant event, in the sense that he will attempt to reach out to Gambians in Seattle, engage them in a conversation that will benefit The Gambia as a nation. After twenty-two years of brutal dictatorship, The Gambia now finds itself in a democratic transition which is fragile; fragile in the sense that this is the first time for The Gambia and its people to change government through the ballot box and there is a lot that needs to be learned. Therefore, the significance of engaging the citizenry in a discussion that would help our political, economic and social discourse cannot be overemphasized.
In the summer of 2017, Sallah embarked on a tour of the European Union (EU) countries and held numerous meetings with Gambians. He was reported to have stated in responding to a question from the audience that The Gambia had undergone a “regime change” but needs a “system change” to transform the country into a full-functioning democracy with a prosperous economy. The Barrow administration did not take Sallah’s statement lightly and issued a rebuttal on GRTS. In responding to the rebuttal of his statement he made in Europe, Sallah conducted a press conference after his return calling on the government to take responsibility for the statement. The controversy and opened confrontation indicated to many observers that the coalition that removed Jammeh from office exists but only in name.
It’s not clear if PDOIS is avoiding any controversy on Sallah’s visit to the U.S., but the themes of the discussions in town hall meetings in Texas and Seattle focused on the bigger picture of The Gambia instead of the party. Elaborating on the town hall event in Seattle, Faal said:
the town Hall meeting is for the entire Gambian community. It is nonpartisan. The Gambia and its development is the responsibility of all Gambians, and not the responsibility of a single party. We may have our different approaches and strategies as how to move The Gambia forward, the onus lies on all of us to ensure and safeguard the interest of The Gambia and The Gambian people.
Ndow also expressed a similar sentiment about the town hall meeting that their “meeting was organized by some members of the Dallas Gambian community who are NOT member of PDOIS. It is a non-partisan event for Gambians to interact and exchange ideas with Honorable Sallah. He played a very important role in rescuing the Gambia from 22 years of dictatorship.”
Sallah is scheduled to return to The Gambia on Wednesday March 6. It remains to be seen whether he will be given similar welcome by PDOIS supporters on his return in The Gambia as they after his European tour during the past summer.