Friday July 31st marked the foundation of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS). 

The party commemorated its anniversary with a national broadcast to the nation setting out what it called “a transformative agenda” for 2021 to show Gambians “how to do things differently.”

The party’s Secretary General Halifa Sallah, who delivered the broadcast, called the party’s new “transformative agenda” the “beginning of another beginning.”

“We will be with you for sometime but our own chances have become slimmer and slimmer in being there with you as long as it would have been necessary to build the type of nation that all of us will be proud to hand to our children and our children’s children,” Mr Sallah said.

“How long we will be around to play our role we wouldn’t know but one thing we can assure you is that a human being must live for something and die for something. 

“A human being who has nothing to live for and nothing to die for is not worth being part of the human race.”

Mr Sallah said the party’s agenda for 2021 is to ensure the liberty, dignity and prosperity for all Gambians. 

“If we don’t see that agenda embodies a transformative agenda then it is not for us to tell you but you should convince yourself that those are not the type of people that you should really support. 

“This is the time where the Gambian people must assess what each party has for them and how will that ensure their liberty, dignity and prosperity.”

The veteran politician and founding member of PDOIS said his party has always believed in empowering Gambians to have confidence in themselves and know that power belongs to them and with that power they can be the architects of their own destiny.

“Gambians never believed they can change a government through the ballot box, this is because they thought government is too powerful. That was the mindset. 

“But PDOIS managed year in year out to establish all forms of strategies and coalition and we have inputs in all these strategies. Instead of building a party, we were building a force for change. 

“You see, a party can have many members, many seats in parliament and large followers but we discovered from 1986 that as long as the mindset remained, no matter how much the following of a party, as far as it is in the opposition, it will never take over power. That became a fact.

“Knowing that the poor person doesn’t want to live in poverty and it is ignorance that compelled the person to live in poverty. 

“This is why we focused on changing the mindsets and we never relented in doing so. 

“Now each Gambian should recognise that the destiny of our land is in your hands and that power belongs to you and you must accept that as the reality. 

“If you are powerless, it is your own making because now it is clear you could remove a government that was seen to be invincible. There is no government you cannot remove through the ballot box.

“So what is important now is why you should remove a government. That should be clear to you. You must ask a question if I must cast my vote next time, what purpose must I cast it for? 

“If you want liberty, dignity and prosperity then you must cast your vote for those who can convince you that the system they want to bring will give you that. 

“You must not allow your fellow human being to have the capacity to deceive you and survive. It means that everybody that deceives you will be committing political suicide. That is now the agenda for each Gambian citizen.”

PDOIS was founded on 31 July 1986 by  Halifa Sallah, Sidia Jatta and Sam Sarr.