Halake Drops The Bombshell!!!!!!

The Interview of The Year- As EX Observer Boss Blows The Whistle

The Big Interview: Former Daily Observer MD Speaks!!!!

By Pa Nderry MBai, Raleigh, NC.                     

In a rare interview, with the US based Freedom Newspaper, the Ethiopian born journalist, educationist and social commentator Dida Halake, said he was aware of the possibility of him being arrested if he steps his foot into The Gambia. But  the former Daily Observer Newspaper Managing Director, insists that nothing will stop him from visiting the West African country. The Pan-Africanist, cum poet who sounded fearless said going to jail will not deter him from traveling to The Gambia. “It is possible! I never expected to be arrested while MD of the Daily Observer. I expected one or two policemen to come and say “Mr. Halake, Amadou Samba has instructed us to ask you to leave the Observer premises and not to return again” – but I never expected to be arrested. So it is possible. But that would not normally stop me from going back to The Gambia. I would go, prepared for Mile 2 and challenge Amadou Samba to send me there. I will be prepared to be arrested and jailed on bogus charges for a year or two. I would even be prepared to die there from food poisoning or malaria. That is my attitude. But, at the moment my boy is my Achilles Heels - my weakness. I cannot bare even the thought of what it would do to him if I am not here, or if he cannot come to The Gambia to be with me as and when he wishes. So, as I say, it is possible that I may be arrested. On the other hand I may not be arrested. But at the moment I cannot take the risk with my boy’s educational and psychological well-being,”Halake tells Editor Pa Nderry MBai in this Exclusive interview. A former critic of the Freedom Newsaper, Halake also admitted in this masterpiece interview that the Freedom Newspaper is a national paper, which won his respect and admiration. “Pa Mbai, even while at the Daily Observer I sometimes used to wonder how you get such in-dept information! I said something in private about promoting my two most senior editors on my first day at the Daily Observer, mentioning that I wished to vacate the Editor’s chair in six months – and the very next day this was on the internet!! People are obviously giving you information and you really have established yourself as a news source. I used to attack you (2005?) over peoples’ PRIVATE LIVES but you don’t do that kind of stuff anymore. Keep up the news gathering – though you know if I was at the Observer I would give you a good run for your money for your anti-Jammeh editorials. But that is freedom of speech, isn’t it?” Halake posited. Halake also used the interview to apologize to the Editor of the Freedom Newspaper, if he has wronged him for anything, which Mbai, wholeheartedly accepted. The former Daily Observer boss commented on a wide range of issues: his beef with businessman Amadou Samba, Muhammed Bazzi, friendship with President Jammeh, Baba Kajali Jobe, The Gambia Press Union, Sheriff Bojang and other topical issues. Below is the full text of the interview. Please read on…

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Freedom Newspaper: Good day Mr. Halake. Could you please introduce yourself to our readership?   

Dida Halake: Biologically Ethiopian (Oromo), sociologically Kenyan, educationally Scottish, professionally English, matrimonially Gambian. But happy to be called a Pan-Africanist because circumstances made all of Africa my country. When I became a child orphan refugee in Nairobi in 1965, another African country became mine too. When we fought during the 1970s and 1980s for Zimbabwe’s and South Africa’s independence while students in UK, those countries became ours too. When I came to The Gambia in the early 1990s and paid for children’s school fees, for schools buildings and for a large school library; when I married and built my Gambian children homes in their motherland; The Gambia too became my country.   

Freedom Newspaper: Why should you interfere in Gambia's politics? 

Dida Halake: All of Africa is my country! 

Freedom Newspaper: Whether Jammeh is good or bad don’t you agree that Gambians have a right to choose their own President? Why are you  supporting Jammeh?

Dida Halake: Same answer! 

Freedomnewspaper: Who hired you as Daily Observer MD?  

Dida Halake: Observer Board member, DG Momodu Sanyang of GRTS called me from The Gambia while I was in UK and offered me the job. This was followed by an international telephone interview with the “New Editor-in-Chief Halake” – the interview conducted by Observer reporter Ousman Darboe in the presence of JT Kujabie.  

Freedom Newspaper: Why were you fired from the Observer?  

Dida Halake: I refused to heed Amadou Samba’s orders to vacate the post of MD and remain Editor-in-Chief.  

Freedom Newspaper: Why did you refuse to heed to the owner's orders?   

Dida Halake:  The legal position was quite simple. Observer is a registered company with a Board. All hirings and firings are done by the MD or the Board – never by the “proprietor”. So Amadou Samba’s firing letter, simply signed “Proprietor” without a name, had no force in law. My refusal led to my arrest, detention for 12 nights and a charge of “sedition”! With hind-sight, I am perfectly pleased with that because they could have cooked-up something much more difficult to get out of, such as stealing 100 dalasis from the Daily Observer! Of course, the matter of the D400,000 requested and obtained by Amadou Samba from the then MD Dr. Taal, would have received the same response from me: “Please let the Board request the money with a signed and witnessed letter to the MD” – anything else is illegal and I would NOT have given the money to Amadou Samba (This matter too I put infront of the then IGP Ben Jammeh).  

Freedom Newspaper: Don't you think it was suicidal on your part to defy Amadou Samba's orders, given the fact that he reserves the right to send you packing anytime he deems it necessary?  

Dida Halake: Like I said, Daily Observer is a legally registered company, not a small Fula shop with which the “proprietor” can do as he pleases. Like I said, the Board runs the company under Gambian Law. What is “suicidal” about it? Losing a job is “suicidal”? Look, if you are someone like me, you do a job on your own terms or you don’t do it at all. Simple as that. I have never done it any different in my whole life, even as a school-boy in Kenya where I was editing the school magazine SCAN before Pa Mbai was born! Now, I genuinely admire President Jammeh’s commitment to the DEVELOPMENT of The Gambia: Schools, Hospitals, Roads, Agriculture, Airport, etc. I really do think the guy is doing a FANTASTIC job in this areas. By the way, I used the term “the guy” to refer to President Jammeh even as MD & Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Observer. No-one whisked me off to Mile Two for that (although some idiot did complain and I told him to get a life!). The point Pa Mbai is this: I have been a SOCIALIST Activist all my life – even at school. I like President Jammeh’s SOCIALIST development programmes for the ordinary people. He has read my columns and my book and he knows where I am coming from. And having read his speeches and heard him talk for hours, I know where he is coming from.  

Freedom Newspaper: But it appears that you were at a loss as to who to report to while at the Daily Observer. You tend to get carried away by the illusion that Jammeh controls the show and as such you listen to Jammeh more than Amadou Samba. But Samba has demonstrated that his decision is final. He removes you from the Observer without any hitches.   

Dida Halake: Pa Mbai, even while at the Daily Observer I sometimes used to wonder how you get such in-dept information! I said something in private about promoting my two most senior editors on my first day at the Daily Observer, mentioning that I wished to vacate the Editor's chair in six months – and the very next day this was on the internet!! People are obviously giving you information and you really have established yourself as a news source. I used to attack you (2005?) over peoples’ PRIVATE LIVES but you don’t do that kind of stuff anymore. Keep up the news gathering – though you know if I was at the Observer I would give you a good run for your money for your anti-Jammeh editorials. But that is freedom of speech, isn’t it?

Let me, tell you something: No-one other than Jammeh runs the show in The Gambia. That is the key difference between President Jammeh and Ex-President Jawara (and that is why Jawara’s regime was in such a mess at the end – Jammeh himself had to actually put down a mutiny to save Jawara’s regime, twice. No wonder the guy got fed up and decided to run the show himself!). Sure I listened to Jammeh more than Amadou Samba. I never listened to Amadou Samba at all! With President Jammeh, we have an IDEOLOGICAL understanding. None whatsoever with Amadou Samba who is a businessman – I don’t trust capitalists, just see what they have done to the US and UK banks! Capitalists are like the Vultures you see descending on a spot whenever something dies! Capitalists, like Vultures, are extremely useful when controlled. But does anyone actually like the useful Vultures?? To be sure Amadou Samba didn’t “remove” me – I refused to be Editor-in-Chief and wrote my letter of resignation infront of Board Member DG Sanyang, my Deputy MD and the police chiefs including the IGP who were all crammed into the Observer MD’s office (All those police vehicles just for me reminded me of the British Anti-Terrorist Squad making an arrest! – which gets surreal considering that Freedomnewspaper was accusing me at the same time of being an Ethiopian terrorist!). That was on the morning of Saturday 14^th June 2008. That evening at about 10pm I was arrested while coming back from a restaurant with my 5 year old daughter. As I say, I think as President Jammeh thinks on the issues of DEVELOPMENT and International Politics. Whenever President Jammeh makes speeches on these topics, I used to stop taking notes and listen and then write it all off the top of my head. I also had the confidence that no-one called me to complain and if they did I did NOT care. My last interview with the President was on Friday 13^th June at the Airport on his return from Guinea Bissau and I prompted his excellent short speech on agriculture and the “GNA AGRICULTURAL BATTALLION for 2009”. That was my last headline – but I read it at Banjul Police Station having been arrested (but still called Editor-in-Chief!) the very next day.  

Freedom Newspaper: You wrote in the Allgambian.net website that Amadou Samba has asked you to remove the back page of Daily Observer bottom line, in which he is named as the proprietor of the paper. Why was Amadou refusing ownership of the Observer?  

Dida Halake: I don’t think he was “refusing ownership”. He was just suggesting that I remove his name at the bottom of the back page where it says “proprietor”. Why did he want it removed? That is a six-metre hole question! Or maybe he did not want his name next to mine – as I was named on the same line as “MD & Editor-in-Chief”.  

Freedom Newspaper:  Who owns the Daily Observer?   

Dida Halake: I thought you told me Amadou Samba! 

Freedom Newspaper: You also wrote "I liked President Jammeh and I know he liked me. He trusted me and I know I trusted him. Simple as that. Even the very fact that Amadou Samba had to go to the extent of concocting these lies to get rid of me shows that to be a fact. Of course, the President could not protect me in the end because I became a "nuisance" – truly. I mean I had the audacity to REFUSE coverage for Amadou Samba's and Mohammed Bazzi's Royal Atlantic Residence Project (because I thought it would be better for The Gambia if all that money went into agriculture!). The story was carried by the Point and GRTS but NOT by the Daily Observer." You seem to be judgmental here. Why can't you publish the story and leave the rest for the readers to make informed decisions. Why do you have to bite the hand that feeds you in the first place? If Samba is paying you, why can't you do the job without allowing personal emotions cloud your objectivity as a journalist?   

Dida Halake: Pa, you sound as if you miss my absence from the Observer greatly! I am glad you have done your home-work so well! Pa, as Editor-in-Chief you have ABSOLUTE right to decide what goes into your paper. Not even the Proprietor can force you to put in what you don’t want to put in. Simple. Some on-line papers used to say that the DPPR and State House used to tell me what to put in the Daily Observer. Absolutely not so. My Deputy MD will tell you that I had a drawer in which I buried many un-elicited material, many of them praising President Jammeh. It does NOT matter who it came from. I was indeed Editor-in-Chief of an APRC-supporting newspaper. But I was hired because I had the intelligence and political maturity to do the job – like the Obama admininstartion says, you got to use “Smart Power”. At my Observer we used “Smart Propaganda”, not any praise-singing rubbish that some opportunist handed us! Do you think carrying a photograph of the President every day in the paper with the word “Felicitations” from Mars or wherever is good publicity? No. But the First Lady giving D50,000 for the treatment of poor Little Jainaba (may her little soul RiP) is good for everybody. All Gambians FEEL GOOD about a story like that, but not about State House this and State House that, day in day out. What about our headline SCANDAL when money disappeared in Brikama? Or RUBBISH KMC when we saw children playing in a street filled with poisonous rubbish? Or when Serrekunda Market women came to complain about KMC and got front-page coverage? Or when KHARAFFI’s workers went on strike over 50 dalasi-a-day wages and got the headline? I would say all these stories are far more relevant than the ROYAL RESIDENCES story. By the way I banished the word “Felicitations” from the pages of the Daily Observer as soon as I took over. “Hand that feeds me”? Amadou Samba may have “fed” other MDs but not me – the only thing I have ever got from him was one small cup of Turkish bitter black coffee at Le Parisian.   

Freedom Newspaper:  Is it true that you instigated the arrest of Perm Sec Njie?  

Dida Halake: Someone gave you that false information maliciously. You have now read the story well and what the magistrate said about my evidence. So you know I didn’t. But it is fascinating how he ended up falling into a hole not meant for him! I was told (by someone who REFUSED to give false evidence against me and got fired) that my 12 day detention was a “revenge for PS Njie’s detention” – which had nothing to do with me!   

Freedom Newspaper: After going through all these drama, the state ended up charging you with sedition. That you supplied false information to the IGP.   

Dida Halake:

Well, the IGP did not accept that “false information” rubbish! Drama is the word, and it is highly educational! “Fire is good for those it does not burn”, as someone said to me at Banjul Police HQ – I love them all in there, what a wonderful bunch of people (Do you know IGP Essa Badgie, then CMC, took 50 dalasi out of his Kaftan pocket and bought me a plate of Benechin on my first day?) 

Freedom Newspaper:  Do you feel betrayed by the President and his Government?   

Dida Halake: Not at all. After my detention I remained in The Gambia until the charges were dropped, as I knew they would. Just before my departure on the 19^th of August, I went to see President Jammeh and say goodbye in Kanilai. The photo of this meeting was carried in The Point – I was standing near the Taiwanese Ambassador and next to the Cabinet Secretary. No, I do not feel betrayed by President Jammeh per se, though I do feel that treating innocent people as I was treated and as Pap Saine is being treated was/is very bad for the task I was doing – which was to support the APRC government and its DEVELOPMENT work. To be honest with you, President Jammeh is doing such a good job in those areas, but things like my arrest and the arrest of Pap Saine are a TOTALLY UNNECESSARY distraction from the APRC’s goals as a DEVELOPMENT orientated party. I would say even the HIV Treatment is a distraction because of the bad publicity internationally and the amount of the President’s time that it takes. No, I don’t feel betrayed by President Jammeh and I wish his government’s and his party’s DEVELOPMENT agenda well – though of course after my own experience, and what I saw, heard and learnt while in detention and after, the issue of Human Rights too needs the President’s attention. I have no regrets about having written the essay called JAMMEH THE BUILDER. He indeed is and continues to do his best. But I would also like to be able, sometime in the future, to write another essay called JAMMEH THE JUST (If only ALL these negative own goals can end – even the Fatou Jaw-Manneh trial was a massive own-goal).  

Freedom Newspaper: Why did you engage the services of Fafa Mbai as a lawyer?   

Dida Halake: I didn’t. My son’s mother did from the UK. She also contacted UK’s former Foreign Minister, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who is now our MP in Kensington. She contacted Jerry Rawlings who in turn mentioned my case to President Jammeh when they met in Abuja (President Jammeh in turn asked SoS Badgie, who was next to him when Jerry spoke, to remind him about the matter when they got back to Banjul). She also contacted The Foreign Office and she gave the British High Commission in Banjul hell! We were all very proud of her. She also gave all these people the telephone number of Alhaji Ceesay, the President’s Chief Protocol. Fafa Mbai is an excellent lawyer and I have enjoyed having intellectual discussions with him since 1997 when I first met him as his son’s teacher and defender (As School Counsellor, I refused to sanction the boy’s exclusion from Marina on the grounds that what the boy needed was sympathy and support – not punishment. The boy is now a lawyer in Banjul and Fafa always reminds me of the good deed that I had forgotten. I also refused to sanction the exclusion of “Bad Boy” Michael Nyassi – who I made captain of the Basketball Team instead!). If the case had actually gone to trial, I would have engaged Lamin S. Camara for whose bravery and intellectual gift I have mush admiration. I certainly would never have used the former ASP Lamin Jobarte whom Fatou Jaw-Manneh used – I am sure he is a top-class lawyer but I would not have got on with him! 

Freedom Newspaper: What led to your acquittal by the court?  

Dida Halake: No case to answer! What “sedition”? What “false information”?   

Freedom Newspaper:  Why did't  you stay in The Gambia after your trial? Are you running from Samba and Bazzi?  

Dida Halake: I think you may remember that on the 2^nd of April 2008, I bought a full-page of the Observer to cover my son’s 11^th Birthday Party in Kotu. When I was appointed at the Observer in October 2007, I would NOT take up the post until I had spent the Half-Term Holiday week with my boy. The thing that really cut me up about the charges was that I missed most of my boy’s Summer Holiday – except for the last two weeks. To be frank with you I don’t give a s… about what Amadou Samba or Bazzi may do to me personally. They know that too. But what worries me is the effect it may have on my boy. I have taught him every single evening since I returned from The Gambia. In January, they moved him up from his previous set to a higher one. The other day he came home with a 32% mark in his new subject Spanish. “Everyone did badly dad”, he said lamely. We worked on the 50 questions over the week-end and when they did the test again, Hassan got 92% - the top mark! So, Pa, that is the only reason why I am here. As I said to someone, all my 32 years in UK have been like a year on Mandela’s Robben Island to me. I am sure many of you in exile feel the same way. But my boy has a good school here, very close to The Gambian Embassy – and I want to remain here for the next five years to help him get good grades.   

Freedom Newspaper:  Don't you think you might be arrested if you return to The Gambia?  

Dida Halake: It is possible! I never expected to be arrested while MD of the Daily Observer. I expected one or two policemen to come and say “Mr. Halake, Amadou Samba has instructed us to ask you to leave the Observer premises and not to return again” – but I never expected to be arrested. So it is possible. But that would not normally stop me from going back to The Gambia. I would go, prepared for Mile 2 and challenge Amadou Samba to send me there. I will be prepared to be arrested and jailed on bogus charges for a year or two. I would even be prepared to die there from food poisoning or malaria. That is my attitude. But, at the moment my boy is my Achilles Heels - my weakness. I cannot bare even the thought of what it would do to him if I am not here, or if he cannot come to The Gambia to be with me as and when he wishes.

So, as I say, it is possible that I may be arrested. On the other hand I may not be arrested. But at the moment I cannot take the risk with my boy’s educational and psychological well-being.  

Freedom Newspaper: How can Jammeh trust you … knowing Jammeh's paranoia, he might even think that you could be a possible spy?  

Dida Halake: You know it was Baba Jobe who first jokingly called me a British spy! I think it was in early 2002 and I had just arrived from the UK. A couple of days later I went to see Baba at the Money Shop (Lawyer Gomez and the rest used to queue but I never did!). “You know, the Old Man, is back in the country”, said Baba as I walked into his office. “I know” I said, I came by Red Air and Amadou Samba told me over the Atlantic that Old Pa is in the First Class Compartment”. “You know I think you are a British spy!” exclaimed Baba Jobe and we had a good laugh. No Pa, some may tell President Jammeh that I am a British spy – and they probably did you know, why else would they conjure up a “sedition” charge? – but I think President Jammeh is intelligent enough, and enough of an African Radical at heart, to recognise me for what I am (That could partly explain why I may have got away!).  

Freedom Newspaper: How did you get the Observer MD Job?   

Dida Halake: Just a telephone call … come and take it! Ironically, three months early, I had wanted to be the Editor-in-Chief but I did not want the MD’s job. Even the first time they fired Dr. Taal, I sent texts to everyone asking them to give him his job back because I only wanted to be Editor-in-Chief. I am basically a writer, not an administrator.   

Freedom Newspaper: How can you convince Gambians that Amadou Samba is a bad man when he gave you a job. How genuine are you Mr. Halake? Are you talking out of hatred or grudge?   

Dida Halake: Number one – I am not out to convince any Gambians that Amadou Samba is a “bad man”. Neither do I need to do that, because The Gambia is a small place and people know 100 times more about Amadou Samba than I do. As I say, I am NOT aware of Amadou Samba giving me a job – if I had known that it was Amadou Samba who had offered me the job, I would NOT have accepted it. Number two - “Hatred” or “grudge”? Pa, I cannot hate or hold a grudge against anyone. Who has attacked me more than you did during my time at the Daily Observer? If someone puts me through a fire, and I survive, I don’t hate them for that – I thank them for giving me an invaluable experience. My time at the Daily Observer was short, October 2007 to June 2008, but it was extremely enjoyable and extremely educational. With hindsight I am also glad that it was short and terminated when it did – the enemies could have dug a much deeper hole for me if I had stayed longer. It is a survival instinct of the jungle to know when to demure and when to roar, when to elicit the response you want from your enemies and when to just stay in the shadows. If I had not sent Amadou Samba those incendiary text messages, he might have remained calm and thought through his next actions. As it was, he got very angry because of my disrespectful texts and, in anger, concocted those “sedition” and “false information” charges – and the anger made them want to jail me, which basically gave the story international prominence (when President Jammeh went to Abuja for the Ecowas meeting, Jerry Rawlings spoke to him about my case). Of course, I would have to be much more careful about Amadou Samba’s next move – but I have absolutely no hatred or grudges about my removal from the Daily Observer or my 12-nights detention. On the contrary, I thank Amadou Samba for giving me an invaluable life-enhancing experience.  

Freedom Newspaper: You claimed that both Amadou Samba and Edward Singhatey were happy about the jailing of Baba Jobe. Why should Samba and Singhatey be happy about Jobe's down fall?  

Dida Halake: Baba Jobe was, I think, the only “Revolutionary Comrade” President Jammeh has ever trusted totally. Whereas the 1996 election was genuinely won by the APRC on the back of the honeymoon that Jammeh enjoyed after toppling the PPP government, the 2001 elections were much more difficult. Having observed Baba Jobe closely during that campaign, I think he more or less single-handedly won that election for the APRC. Baba Jobe is a strategic political genius – and he ended up where he has because, I believe, he was totally loyal to President Jammeh and the APRC project. I believe that to this day, President Jammeh still likes and misses his good friend Baba Jobe. A huge part of the problem with regards to President Jammeh’s government is that of jealousy amongst those close to him. Of course this was the same during the Jawara Era when people at the top of government (and those in security such as Samba Bah and Kebba Ceesay) spent an inordinate amount of time fighting each other. Baba Jobe was a victim of the same jealousy.  

Freedom Newspaper: How do you come to know Baba Jobe?  

Dida Halake: That is a State Secret!  

Freedom Newspaper: Don't you think by openly saying that Baba Jobe is your friend, you might anger the President?  

Dida Halake: No! Baba still looks very well and he has all his faculties with him. Infact now he looks like a Professor with his glasses and all his reading. We couldn’t stop embracing when I visited my new friends at Police HQ after my charges were dropped. “I am the Alkalo of Mile 2”, joked Baba! Great guy, I like him still!  

Freedom Newspaper: Baba Jobe was linked to so many atrocities and yet he happen to be your friend. Halake are you evil?   

Dida Halake: As I say, I know nothing about the guys so-called atrocities! Am I evil? I don’t think so! My kids and their mothers love me – so there must be something good there. But, some Chinese philosophers have argued that we all have evil and goodness inside us in equal measure – it just depends on the circumstances as to which actions (good or bad) are triggered in us. Football matches and political campaign do in any instances trigger the evil parts of our nature. 

Freedom Newspaper: I cannot imagine that you befriended a person linked to the trade of blood diamond, gun running and torture of political opponents.   

Dida Halake: These are all allegations Pa. None of it has been proven. As for torturing political opponents, things do happen in the heat of political campaigns, though I don’t think you could describe even the very worst Baba may have done as “torture”! Look what happened in the election campaigns in Kenya. Anyway, if you are talking about the “lashing” of Lamin Wa Juwara, the man long forgave Baba – infact he embrace Baba when Baba was on trial in 2004. I personally did not witness nor know of the things you mention.  

Freedom Newspaper: Have you benefited from Baba Jobe's wealth? What has Baba Jobe done for you?  

Dida Halake: I think you will remember when I spent a month at the Daily Observer in 2002 writing a “Consultancy Report”. Baba asked Buba Baldeh to give me a cheque for D5,000 for the work. Later, I donated that D5,000 to the Chief in Soma for the local Senior School. That is it. Apart from sharing meals in Baba’s houses in Soma and in Kololi I have never got another butut from Baba. One night my wife and I were returning from having a meal at Francisco’s and we saw Baba and a group of people, including my friend Bammy Jagne, sitting outside the Money Shop – just before the Kairaba Police Station. You know, Baba actually got up and gave my wife the chair, and stood talking for the one hour or so that we were there. When we said goodbye, he gave my wife D500. In those days, I was earning a very good salary even by UK standards as a Senior Teacher and I did not need Baba’s money.  

Freedom Newspaper: How close were you to Ex Minister Edward Singhatey?   

Dida Halake: Not at all. Edward keeps himself to himself. But as a young man he was very close to my family, so I know much about him. I know Peter well, but I know their sister Amie best of all – she was friends with my wife’s cousin and we became very good friends. I have a healthy respect for the family as a whole. Which reminds me of the first time I met Edward. It was in early 1995 and I was sitting outside Wheels Afra in Fajara at about 10am. Edward passed us, wearing a white Kaftan, and greeted us before he went in. My host explained who he was and said he had not met him before. On his way out, Edward said his goodbye to us. What a polite man I thought, and I have always thought that of him – inspite of all the stories I have read online!  

Freedom Newspaper: What if Singhatey refutes your allegations?   

Dida Halake: You think Edward is the kind of person to bother with that?  

Freedom Newspaper:  An AllGambian letter writer, who happen to be a staffer of the Daily Observer recently accused you of being a dictator. He said you harass and intimidate staff during tenure as Observer MD. How true are such assertions?   

Dida Halake: Just ask that particular staffer to produce the two final warning letters in his personal file, one warning for exaggerating his expenses claims and the other for bringing in a total stranger to use Observer computers – after we had all locked up and left together! He was also warned against using his column at the Observer in the battle raging between an SoS and someone else. As you all know, The Point was then used in that fight and the SoS got fired. I suppose if these are the reasons that he considers me a “dictator” then he is right. As you know I never bothered replying to him.  

Freedom Newspaper:  Have you ever accused journalist Ousman Darboe of being an NIA agent?  

Dida Halake: Never! He was more likely to be an informer for MFWA!  

Freedom Newspaper: Was Darboe really an NIA agent?  

Dida Halake: I don’t know where that rumour came from. Would I care if anyone was an NIA agent? Would I care if anyone was a Freedomnewspaper “informer”? As far as I was concerned, and I told my staff at the Daily Observer so, your business is your business but don’t bring it into the Daily Observer building. Everyone was watching in the streets outside the Daily Observer when I kicked out a so-called “APRC campaigner in Bakau” … the guy is crazy as far as I am concerned and neither I nor my staff needed to entertain his nonsense. When I took over I praised Dr. Taal in the paper for all the work he had done at the Daily Observer – but I have to say that the worst thing the Daily Observer ever did was publish that list of so-called “Freedomnewspaper informers”. I told my staff I did not care if they informed Freedomnewspaper – and the three staffers previously suspected and fired by Dr. Taal were the first three I promoted and gave new highly paid contracts, doubling their salaries. And what happened Pa? We were able to run a superb pro-APRC paper and give Freedomnewspaper a good run for their money. In addition, my new Daily Observer web-site and the new design totally outstripped Freedomnewspaper and all the on-line newspapers as far as on-line hits were concerned. The point, Pa Mbai, is that if you have a good case to sell, and I believed the APRC has a good case to sell in terms of National Development, you don’t need to worry about those who criticise you. As President Jammeh said recently, “Criticism makes you stronger”. So go ahead, all of you out there – Freedomnewspaper, Foroyaa, the Point, Gambia Echo, and others. Please feel free to criticise the APRC. That is a good service you are doing us. You just make us stronger – so we welcome it and argue our case. In my view, therefore Pa, censure-ship is totally unnecessary and counter-productive IF we have the intellectual power to argue the facts from our side. It is the same argument with my relationship with the GPU – who are generally anti-Jammeh. The GPU should be allowed to criticise – and the GPU should accept criticism in return (such as when Halake calls them an opposition “Gambia Political Union”!!) – that is democracy. GPU, Foroyaa, Freedomnewspaper, Conateh, etc all want to criticise the APRC, as is their right to do – but they should also allow Daily Observer to criticise them and demolish their arguments (though of course it is NOT correct for DO to publish “informer lists”) – instead of running to Amadou Samba and saying look at this non-Gambian attacking us! Cry babies they are! The GPU and Conateh’s reactions to my criticisms just goes to show how un-democratic they too are. But such genuine press debates are not, in my view, a matter for the police or the NIA. “False information” charges against reporters and media houses should be a NON-ARRESTABLE matter – and punishable only with FINES if proven in a court of law (this was my last argument with the late Deyda Hydara when I met him in October 2004 just before he was killed – but of course he disagreed with me because he believed that the Media should be completely free to report, except where ordinary libel laws applied).  

Freedom Newspaper: What can you tell us about President Jammeh? 

Dida Halake: I think a lot of you people under-estimated President Jammeh terribly. President Jammeh may not have had a University education, but he is endowed with natural intelligence. The man is sharp – and he knows what you are thinking even before you say it. Honestly, when you listen to President Jammeh talking off-the-cuff as I have done on so many occasions, you will realise that you are in the presence of an extremely sharp and intelligent individual. I remember one particular occasion when some Ghanian and Nigerian Supreme Court Judges were being sworn-in. Afterwards President Jammeh engaged them in an intellectual tet-a-tet. It really was an amazing occasion. President Jammeh was so far ahead of them mentally that he was playing with them as a cat plays with mice. At one point it took this Judge sometime to understand President Jammeh’s cryptic joke that when he finally did he could not stop himself from laughing – sorry to say it but I thought his Lordship was going to piss himself! The other thing is that President Jammeh READS a lot. Not just the Koran and the Bible, but books on politics, government and philosophy too. President Jammeh may not have been to University himself, but in his own self-education, he has probably learnt as much as most of us would while studying for SIX degrees. Of course, degrees by themselves don’t make you a good ruler (I have seen many PhD fools!), but people who walk around saying “Jammeh only completed Grade 12” only delude themselves. I have read all your criticisms of President Jammeh, and no doubt some of it is valid. But I cannot accept your blanket condemnations for two reasons: Firstly, I have seen the development that is taking place in The Gambia under President Jammeh – and my question is would someone else do any better? Secondly, I see what is happening in other African countries and I say to myself “The Gambia is so much better”. 

Freedom Newspaper: What can you tell us about President Kibaki? I saw you in a photograph with him on Allgambian?   

Dida Halake: I have known Kibaki since he was Finance Minister under Kenyatta. Tom Mboya was my alma mater’s patron – and Kibaki took over as patron 40 years ago when Kenyatta had Mboya assassinated. Having spoken to Kibaki in 1999, and two former students of my alma mater being in his first cabinet as Information Minister and Foreign Minister, I expected much better from Kibaki. I was for example, shocked to hear that his wife had walked into the Nation Newspaper offices and beaten up a reporter because she did not like a story! And then the Kenyan police marched into the Standard Newspaper offices and burnt it down – with the Interior Minister declaring that “we would do it again”! And then Ngugi wa Thiongo, the great Kenyan writer who I had read much as a kid, and who I had met at my university in Scotland and at the Africa Centre in London, came home with his wife – only for his wife to be raped by “robbers” in what many believed to be state-sponsored terrorism. Yesterday the United Nations report said that Kibaki and the Attorney General were guilty of sanctioning the killing of 1,000 slum dwellers by the Kenyan police. I find it very hard to reconcile all these terrible happenings with the Kibaki I knew and admired.  

Freedom Newspaper:  Why do you spend all your precious time defending Jammeh, knowing full well that Jammeh is a dictator? Why don’t you criticise Jammeh like you criticise Kibaki?  

Dida Halake: To be honest with you, I like Jammeh as a person! OK, that may indeed cloud my judgement, but I also do believe that his heart is in the right place in terms of his concerns and commitment to the development of The Gambia. Honestly, I don’t compare Jammeh to Kibaki at all. Inspite of Kibaki’s degrees, Jammeh is sharper, Jammeh is much more on the ball and Jammeh has a vision for his country and he has enough energy to pursue his vision. Kibaki, like most Kenyans, drinks too much alcohol. Kenya needs a young leader like Jammeh. I do think, as I said earlier, that Human Rights issues do urgently require the President’s attention as a matter of urgency.  

Freedom Newspaper: What's Jammeh perception of Gambia's online papers?   

Dida Halake: No first-hand evidence on this one, though if I was in his shoes, I would find you most useful – for telling me what GRTS, the Observer and my advisers do NOT tell me! If money is disappearing from a government department how would the President know? The Observer won’t tell him. The SoS won’t tell him. The MD won’t tell him. Others won’t tell him because they may be friends, relatives, bribed, or simply frightened! The recent scandal about The Gambia’s US Embassy was broken by on-line papers. That is good for the President to know what is going on! The fight between the NADD leaders before the last election was broken by on-line papers. Hey, Pa Mbai, if I was President Jammeh I would ask Amadou Samba to fund you secretly so that you can continue giving me the information that you do! (Maybe Michael Scales is secretly funding you on President Jammeh’s behalf!).  

Freedom Newspaper: Were you trying to hijack The Gambia Press Union?   

Dida Halake: No, I was trying to do what my genius friend Baba Jobe did to the anti-APRC Gambia Students Union (Gamsu). Baba Jobe simply set-up the National Alliance of Patriotic Students Association (NAPSA) which was able to eclipse GAMSU. That is democracy. My idea was for the APRC to support Gambia Media Association (GMA) to compete with and eclipse the opposition’s GPU – that is democracy. But there is no-one around with Baba Jobe’s foresight and political strategy (Do you know it was Baba Jobe who came up with and enforced the idea of equal representation for all tribes in all areas? For example, if the Alkalo was Mandinka, Baba Jobe made sure that the Chief was Fula and the NAM was Jola. Which of the more important posts each tribe got depended on the numbers in the district. So everyone was represented). Former Observer MD Sheriff Bojang told us in the pages of Freedomnewspaper last week that “Amadou Samba paid the GPU’s premises rent”. That is not going to buy the GPU. The GPU have an anti-APRC ideology and they will stick to that – whether Amadou Samba pays their rent or not. And then we end up making a mess by arresting and charging people like Pap Saine – my highly liked and respected friend. And, of course, Amadou Samba’s money or not, the GPU bails and fights for their member Pap Saine – very rightly in my view. GMA would ironically have provided plurality and consequent security to the GPU – criticism and opposition strengthen us (If our case is just!).  

Freedom Newspaper: Why do you attacked Ndey Tapha Sosseh in the Daily Observer?  

Dida Halake: Answer above. Ndey Tapha Sosseh was never welcomed onto the Daily Observer premises after Sheriff Bojang fired her in 2006 – until Dida Halake became MD when both she and Madi Ceesay were welcomed and given a private meeting with my Observer staff to be recruited into the GPU. They came to do that and I welcomed them. Everyone knows what happened at the so-called GPU “elections” afterwards. Pap Saine knew it was wrong but he could not openly support our ant-democratic claims against the GPU because Pap “is a good friend of Ndey Tapha Sosseh’s mum and knew Ndey while she was a child”. Again, that is The Gambia – people are so connected through relationships that objectivity is in most instances compromised. If my children or my wife is obviously wrong, I will tell them they are obviously wrong and I will NOT support their position. Why are we not able to do that in The Gambia? Why are we not able to say “I don’t like that Senegalese guy, that Ethiopian guy, but I objectively think his point of view is the correct one”? Then of course, Pa, there was, if you don’t mind me saying so, your attack on young SoS Badgie. Some of the attack was just too personal and disgusting. Ndey Tapha Sosseh never came out to condemn that abuse of the SoS – then she sends me a letter inviting me to an event to be graced by SoS Badgie! Hypocrisy, I thought and wrote my response – which is still there on the internet to read. I met Mam Sait Ceesay and he said I should not have written that – I disagreed with him. My Gambian friends sometimes don’t speak the TRUTH to each other. They should. Call a spade a spade. Tell each other the TRUTH. Someone once asked me what advice I would give President Jammeh. I answered: “Create a new Cabinet post called SoS NO”. SoS NO sits in Cabinet and in all policy discussions by the President – and simply produces a good “NO” argument on EVERYHING the Government and the President proposes. Of course, SoS NO will and should be ignored 90% of the time – but he/she must still produce good NO arguments 100% of the time. For example, as SoS NO, I would have produced arguments why it would be good for the APRC to leave Pap Saine alone.  

Freedom Newspaper: Why are you anti West? The majority of your Daily Observer editorials were anti west.   

Dida Halake: Because George W. Bush said “You are either with us or with the terrorists” and then went on to unleash his own terrorism across the world – in the process killing ONE MILLION Iraqis and turning THREE MILLION Iraqis into refugees. Did you not read my Feb 14 2003 story on the front-page of the Daily Observer titled “World Against War”? With Obama’s policies so far, I am mellowing towards the US (and the West).  

Freedom Newspaper: What triggered your migration to the UK?   

Dida Halake: Education – I was only twenty and I came here for education. Unfortunately for me, Mrs Thatcher became Prime Minister of Britain and immediately decided that foreign students should pay TEN TIMES what they were paying at British Universities. So I became a Bus Driver and then a night-time Black Cab Driver in Edinburgh and paid my way through University. Remember I was an orphan so I had no help fro family.   

Freedom Newspaper: You happen to be one of the successful refugees from Ethiopia-Kenya, now turned naturalized British citizen. Don't you think you owe some gratitude to the British for having harboured you all these years?   

Dida Halake: Gratitude is both ways. Without immigrants, the British Health System and Education System will collapse. Ask any friends you have in UK. Educated immigrants run the system here – and I have done my bit in the education system, to the point that in 1999 I was made a “Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow”. With Princess Anne, we raised over 1.2 million pounds for my alma-mater in Kenya. I also campaigned for Scottish Independence! Prime Minister Gordon Brown and I are both in the February 1984 issue of RADICAL SCOTLAND magazine – Mr. Brown got only a quarter page and I got one full page!

So it is not a question of been “grateful” because I worked my back-side off to get educated and get what I got in this country. There is nothing easy here – they don’t give you nothing for free. What I like about Britain are two things:- Due Process of Law (free courts) and a vibrant Free Press. BUT, there are many instances where both Due Process and Free Press do get bent and abused – the locking up of suspected terrorists without ANY charges for years, and the Press Hysteria over Saddam Hussein’s missiles that “Can Reach London in 45 Minutes” are two examples. But, of course, if you have the money to employ good lawyers, or like me you have some education and knowledge of the law, it is a free country and I like that.  

Freedom Newspaper: What were you doing in Kenya?   

Dida Halake: Another amazing story but I will keep it short. Our village on the border with Kenya was one morning attacked by Somali Rebels in 1965 – and we ran into the bush and survived. Many villagers didn’t. As we ran into the bush the bullets did fly over our heads, again killing one or two people – remember I was just a 9 year old kid and people were helping us escape. Then an Uncle and I got a lift on the back of an African overloaded lorry and we did the hazardous journey on the road from Moyale to Marsabit – described as “The most dangerous road in Africa”. Go to u-tube even today and enter Moyale to Marsabit road. I parted from my mother and father and never saw my mother again (I heard that she died a few years later just aged about 30). Anyway we found our way to Nairobi and the Nairobi Juvenile Court “sentenced” me to a “Rescue Centre” for 7 years – and I smiled so much because I was happy! The very next year, 1966 I met Kenyatta – to receive the Class 1 prize from him on Prize Giving Day. He was the Guest of Honour. In 1966 I met him at his Gatundu (Kenyatta’s Kanilai) home when I went with the school band to entertain him. The photo was hanging on the school gates when I returned in 1999. In 1969 it was Moi who gave me the Class 4 prize – but when I was asked to wait for him in 1999 I refused and met Kibaki insead. To cut a long story short, after my seven year “sentence”, the Principal called me and said, “Dida your time is up, but since you were our top pupil in the national exams, we will keep you and give you a free secondary education”. I was so happy that I left him smiling and jumping about like a gazelle. During my secondary school, I did voluntary work every holiday throughout Kenya, from the desolate Turkana area in the northern deserts to Kisumu, Obama’s ancestral home, on the shores of Lake Victoria. The orphanage turned me into someone who always worked for the poor, and into a pan-Africanist because by the time I left I spoke Swahili and Kikuyu far better than I did my own mother tongue. I lived all my life after I lost my mother aged 9 with people different from my own tribe – the world became my tribe. Hence, I think, why I was able to come to The Gambia and have a family and a home – and be a nuisance because I consider myself a family member! After my school I left for UK on one-way Boeing 747 ticket! 

Freedom Newspaper: Back to The Gambia, what investments do you have in the country, as we speak?    

Dida Halake: Nothing! ZERO! My Gambian children have two compounds built by myself and two small gardens, but I personally have NOTHING. Everything was transferred to them in 2002 through lawyer Amie Joof-Conteh (DEED of GIFT it was called).  

Freedom Newspaper: What can you tell us about your Gambian sojourn?   

Dida Halake: What can I say? It has been very interesting, truly an adventure! And I have two loving women and 3 beautiful children to show for it. Not to mention great times with your great people (ex-President Jawara served me and my family benechin in Haywarths Heath in May 1997 and President Jammeh has served me benechin in Kanilai many times). I have sat on the dirt floor and eaten with villagers in Kartong and in Koina. It has been great as I say. Why do you call it a “sojourn”? Is it coming to an end?  

Freedom Newspaper: It has been gathered that  Hassan Jallow, the  former Attorney General in the First Republic was very instrumental in your settling in The Gambia. How come that you hate the former PPP Government when they granted you status to invest in The Gambia?  

Dida Halake: Pa, where do you get your information? I never hate anybody, let alone the impersonal PPP. Of course I think the APRC has in 15 years eclipsed everything in terms of development that the PPP might have done in 30 years – but I am not the only one to say that. One particular individual PPP guy has beef with me because I once called him a “Professional Bumster” when he stole money from me – I got it back at the Kanifing Magistrates Court. But the same guy also stole President Jammeh’s money when the President trusted him with election expenses for his home area. No, I don’t hate the PPP. Just got to the Daily Observer website, enter WELCOME, MY UNCLE where it says “search” and see what I wrote last year. Of course, part of it was also intellectual tussle with my Uncle Sheriff Bojang: When he wrote the poem “CANNY LIE” (Kanilai) attacking Jammeh in the pages of the Daily Observer, I think in 2006, I responded with a much longer poem entitled “July 22 Rap-a-Revolution”. Just intellectual tussle, no “hate” involved. By the way both my boys are called “Hassan”. “Professional Bumsters” are those who think that anyone “they bring” to The Gambia is theirs to milk! Of course, Justice Hassan Jallow is too much of a distinguished and honourable man to be associated with this kind of behaviour and he still remains an honorary Gambian father for me (He was my Kola-Nut father). When he visited The Gambia from Arusha in 2008, I gave him a full-page interview in the Daily Observer and we spoke Swahili! Then on my Kotu to Koina journey, I made sure to stop at his Bansang ancestral home. 

Freedom Newspaper: What can you tell us about the much talked about Halake will?   

Dida Halake: Just what I said above- For my Gambian kids. But why would a man who I have trusted to look after my kids interests send you information on that just because he does not want me to be MD Observer? I mean the two things are so separate. But I have no doubt he would make sure my kids interests are looked after.  

Freedom Newspaper: You must be rich yeah?   

Dida Halake: Nope, I have absolutely nothing! Like Halifa Sallah I have ALWAYS done community work, even in UK. I do have somewhere to retire to on the Swahili Coast in Mombasa - but I am more likely to end up an old man in Kotu (inshallah), so I would be most grateful if you could occasionally drive by in your Pajero and spare me a 30-dalasi benechin!  

Freedom Newspaper: Why were you sacked from the Marina International school?  

Dida Halake: That is another fascinating story. The fact, to keep it short, is that far from “sacking” me, the Marina Board sent me a letter of commendation (which I enclose for you here) and wanted me to sign a long-term contract. As for the late Saihou Ceesay, there were at least a dozen people on the two occasions that we had our clash (I never hated the PPP but people like Saihou Ceesay were something else – only in The Gambia would a man who did that to the nation and behaved personally as he did be admired).   

Freedom Newspaper:  What is the true story then?  

Dida Halake: As I said, it is to do with Saihou Ceesay, and I would not go into details out of respect for Gambian traditions because the man is dead. But my friend Abdoukarim Sanneh should have approached me to check the story before he attacked me – his facts were so off the mark that he even wrote that I worked at “Mrs. Ndow’s”! Abdoukarim Sanneh was given the story by the man I called a “Professional Bumster” – but Mr. Sanneh should not have allowed himself to be used by the man to settle personal scores. By the way, I am glad Mr. Sanneh has been released from immigration detention and I wish him well in his appeal to remain the UK. But you know, as long as you know yourself, you don’t have to worry about what people say about you – especially your political enemies. As they say, it is not what you are called that matters – it is what you answer to.  

Freedom Newspaper:  What was your beef with Sheriff Bojang?  

Dida Halake: Nothing really, he is my Uncle and we love each other – honestly!  

Freedom Newspaper:  Are you mad with Sheriff because he is Amadou's friend? That he refuses to be part your fight with Samba?  

Dida Halake: Pa, you are mischievious! I promised to leave my Uncle alone and I am not going to go into that – partly because I expect him too to stop by in Kotu and buy this Old Man a plate of benechin in years to come. 

Freedom Newspaper:  Some of Daily Observer staffers were recently arrested by the police accused of stealing. What do you make of this development?

Dida Halake: I am gob-smacked. I don’t really know what to think of the development. These printers are the most hard-working people I know. They do an EXTRA-ORDINARILY hard and difficult job. I was so moved by them that whenever I walked in and saw them sweating I would put my hands in my Kaftan pocket for them – sometimes I would even go and buy them food. I commended the PRINTERS as the most hard-working people in my Vision 2010 Report – a report written to develop the Observer over 3-years. "My heroes - after President Jammeh of course!" were my exact words. These guys kept a DEAD printer going with sweat and blood - for rubbish pay! I paid them regular bonuses. I am sorry if they NOW feel driven to steal due to desperation, but they did not AT ALL steal during my time. I was at the Observer many nights and early mornings to help the printers and the compilers and to sell the paper to the vendors in person. The numbers of printed/sold paper then remained constant on the days I was there in the early morning and on the days I was not. Then I put someone there from outside the group to ensure the paper count and paper sells went well. My Deputy MD Andrew DaCosta's paper sells daily ledger should be able to confirm my point. I sacked two senior managers at the Daily Observer during my time when issues concerning half-a-million dalasis (before my time) came to light. One manager, who had connections, was re-instated the week I was removed – only to be arrested and sacked again for allegedly “selling a Daily Observer vehicle” according to a story by the Daily Observer. The Observer did not attack me for that because I had already sacked the guy. But they attacked me (8 months after I left!) when they arrested these poor printers and compilers – who earn nothing to call a salary. They get ill with TB from their totally unhealthy and illegal working environment – hence why my Vision 2010 suggested that we get Observer a completely new building – and a completely new printer costing 5 million dalasis. There was a huge fight with Amadou Samba over that. So where is the new printer? Where are new up-to-date offices for the Daily Observer? Instead of thinking of developing the Daily Observer as a news and educational National Institution “like the Nation in Kenya”, we are busy running after hard-working little people like the printers and watchmen. What about those who steal millions? Not many of those end up in Kairaba Police Station. No, it is totally unnecessary to treat these printers, who together have given probably 50 years of labour to the Daily Observer, in such a shabby manner. Not only that, they will be needed by the Daily Observer – where are you going to find people so totally dedicated to keeping going a dead machine? Where are you going to find people who know so much about this old machine? I am totally on the side of Little People like these printers, compilers and watchmen. I sit with them, I eat with them, I work with them, I wear cheap Kaftans like them. I admired and liked them and I wish them well. 

Freedom Newspaper:  Any last words?  

Dida Halake: I wish all Gambians and The Gambia well. In traditional Gambian custom, I forgive you if you wronged me and ask you to forgive me if I wronged you. May peace, justice and harmony reign in this motherland of my three children.  

Freedom Newspaper:  Thanks you Mr. Halake for granting us this interview.  

Dida Halake: Don’t forget my benechin when you pass by Kotu in years to come! Good day to you and your family.