Background
Pierre Sarr N'jie was born on July 17,1905 at Bathurst.
Pierre Sarr N'jie was born on July 17,1905 at Bathurst.
He was educated at the Catholic Mission school of St Augustine’s and in 1939 was converted to Catholicism
He began his career as a civil servant and in 1943 joined the army, followed by full legal studies at Lincoln's Inn, London, from 1944 to 1948. He then returned to Bathurst to start a flourishing private practice.
He first stood for election in 1951 but was defeated. He then decided to build his power base in earnest, by forming the United Party, which became the strongest party in the Colony around Bathurst, then the only enfranchised area. He came top of the poll in a three-member constituency of Bathurst in October 1954, and was appointed Minister for Education and Social Welfare. Shortly afterwards he was dismissed after he had made unproven allegations against the Gambia police.
The UP which was once dominant in the colony was poorly organised and following defeat in the town council elections in 1957, ranged itself against the up-and-coming People’s Progressive Party in the national elections of May 1960. Sir Dauda Jawara, the PPP leader, drawing his strength from the protectorate, won the elections by 10 votes to five. N’jie was offered a Ministry without Portfolio but rejected it and waited until 1961, when the colonial government offered him the Chief Ministry in an all-party government. He accepted and helped to shape the new constitution that was to bring Gambia to self-government.
But in the 1962 elections he was defeated once again, by a slender majority, by Dauda Jawara. He went to Britain and mounted a long campaign on the validity of certain electoral registers, but the British government refused fresh elections. Dauda Jawara became the country’s first Prime Minister and he went into Opposition. Many UP supporters crossed the floor and the party became gradually debilitated, getting a declining share of the poll in the 1966 election and the republican referendum in 1970.
The UP was also left with internal tensions. Shortly after Sir Dauda Jawara was elected President, the UP executive wanted to arrange a meeting with him. Pierre refused to talk with him and was removed from the leadership of the party and his place was taken by his brother E. D. N’jie, who was killed in a car crash in October 1970. At the same time, the deputy leader of the party, Momodu Cham, crossed the floor. This brought Pierre N’jie back to leadership of a rapidly declining party.
A final crushing defeat came in the March 1972 general elections, when the UP won only three seats to the PPP’s N'Jie won by a majority of 313 but was later disqualified for failing to take up his seat in parliament for three consecutive sittings.
A talented and brilliant lawyer who, as a Christian with his following largely in Bathurst, was soon outstripped in popular support by his main rival Dauda Jawara. After the crucial electoral defeat in 1962 he spent much time in litigation, but failed to stump the countryside and organise his party.
He could not give his supporters sufficient confidence in his ability to turn the electoral tables and as a result an increasing number of United Party men crossed the carpet. His own leadership was increasingly challenged as his party grew weaker and he failed to halt the slide.
Despite being one of the most gifted of the Gambia's politicians, Njie was never able to attain the position of President after independence.
Pierre Sarr N'Jie (also Njie as more popularly spelt in the Gambia) was head of the United Party (UP).