Sheriff Dibba

Sheriff Mustapha Dibba (10 January 1937 – 2 June 2008) was a veteran Gambian politician who was the 1st Vice-President of the Gambia (1970–1972) and also served as the country's National Assembly speaker from 2002 to 2006. He was also leader of the National Convention Party (NCP).

Dibba was the son of Mustapha Dibba, a Mandinka chief and farmer. His father would later become the district chief of Central Baddibu in 1967. He was born in Salikene, Central Baddibu in January 1937. He educated at Armitage High School and then at the Methodist Boys High School in Bathurst from 1955 to 1957. He briefly worked as a clerk for the United Africa Company before resigning in 1959 to work for the recently formed People's Progressive Party (PPP). There he organized the party's youth wing and was elected to the House of Representatives as representative for the Central Baddibu constituency in the 1962 election. After the 1966 elections, he was appointed as Minister of Works and Communications and replaced Sheriff Sisay as Minister of Finance in December 1967.

When Gambia became a republic after the 1970 referendum, Dibba was appointed as vice president and continuing to serve as Finance Minister.

Dibba was the Gambia's first vice-president in 1970. He resigned from that position on 15 September 1972, as a result from the butut scandal, which his younger brother Kutubo was arrested for smuggling Gambian currency and contraband goods to neighbouring Senegal in August 1972 and found to have working out of Sheriff Dibba's official residence, No. 1 Marina. In October 1972, he was appointed as Gambia's first ambassador to the European Economic Community and in July 1974, he was recalled by President Jawara from Brussels and appointed as Minister of Economic Planning and Industrial Development. In late July 1975, Jawara accused Dibba of trying to unseat him through a cabinet revolt and Dibba was dismissed immediately. Dibba was later sacked from the PPP in August 1975. He later formed the National Convention Party (NCP) in 1975. Following elections in 1977, the NCP became the main opposition party in the Gambia.

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