Dear Editor,
After ten years in government, President Adama Barrow should, in principle, have a straightforward case to make to the Gambian electorate: point to measurable improvements in people’s economic and social conditions and ask voters to renew his mandate based on his record.
That is why the use of ethnic politics and the cultivation of fear around Mandinka communities deserve serious scrutiny. If the President and senior members of his government are encouraging non-Mandinka communities to view a political party perceived as Mandinka as a threat, this raises an obvious question: if the government’s development record is as strong as it claims, why does its campaign need ethnic anxiety to persuade voters?
The apparent contradiction becomes even more striking when one considers the government’s outreach to Mandinka communities. In those communities, Barrow and NPP representatives can emphasise roads, infrastructure and other development projects as evidence of what the government has delivered. Yet when addressing other communities, the political message can shift toward warnings about the consequences of supporting the UDP, portraying it as a predominantly Mandinka party.
The same contradiction appears in the President’s repeated calls for peace and national unity. President Barrow’s calls for peace will carry greater credibility when he consistently rejects ethnic profiling. Therefore, it is difficult to reconcile President Barrow’s public commitment to peace with clapping hands for political rhetoric that portrays an entire ethnic group—or a party associated with that group—as something other communities should fear.
There is another irony here. President Barrow has continued to convene religious leaders and encourage them to speak against ethnic division and political hostility. Yet religious and traditional leaders cannot credibly be expected to condemn ethnic profiling in the abstract while senior officials of the President’s government are preaching tribal profiling, as Barrow himself simultaneously benefits from, tolerates, or encourages ethnicized campaign narratives.
As an incumbent who believes his record speaks for itself, he should be able to campaign on jobs, incomes, education, healthcare, infrastructure, governance and the broader social and economic wellbeing of Gambians. Those are measurable issues on which citizens can judge a government.
Ethnicity should not have to do the work that policy and performance are supposed to do.
And if a government that has governed for ten years still finds it necessary to mobilise voters through ethnic fears, while simultaneously seeking the support of former political rivals and repeatedly invoking peace and unity, then Gambians are entitled to examine these contradictions very carefully.
The electorate deserves a campaign based on competing visions, records and policies—not one that asks Gambians to vote out of fear of one another.
By Dr Manjang
Essa Faal’s Political Career Is “dead and buried”
I laughed when I heard Essa Faal declare yesterday, during the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the APP-Sobeya and the NPP, that President Barrow would win the election by a landslide and that everything was “dead and buried”. My first thought was simple: what political reality is Essa living in?
His decision to join the NPP with members of his family and a small circle of friends does not mean the Sobeya supporters who stood behind him have followed. Many have refused to join this alliance. They feel betrayed, and I understand why. Essa built support by presenting himself as a different kind of political leader. Now he has joined the very party and political establishment that many of his supporters opposed. To them, this is not merely a change of alliance. It is a breach of trust.
The crowd at yesterday’s ceremony cannot hide that reality. Most of those present were NPP supporters. Amadou Sanneh sponsored the programme and coordinated NPP supporters to attend wearing party shirts. It was a public relations exercise designed to create the impression that Essa had brought a movement with him. He did not. A staged display of support cannot replace the loyalty of people who have decided they no longer trust him.
That is why I believe Essa’s political career is over. A politician can change parties, sign agreements and appear on a stage beside powerful figures. But once the people who believed in him feel betrayed, he cannot simply expect their support to return. Many former Sobeya supporters are now backing Unite, and Essa’s decision has left him politically isolated from the people whose confidence once gave his leadership meaning.
His claim that Barrow will win by a landslide also raises an obvious question. If the election is already settled, why is the NPP campaigning across the country? Why is it working so hard to display alliances and convince the public that it has unstoppable momentum? The truth is that the election is not over. Yesterday’s ceremony was an attempt to project strength at a time when the ruling party is clearly anxious about the contest ahead.
Essa may believe that joining the NPP has secured his political future. I believe it has ended it. His former supporters feel let down by the alliance, and many have chosen to move on without him. No speech about landslides and no carefully staged ceremony can undo that loss of trust.
When a leader abandons the people who placed their faith in him, the consequences are personal as well as political. For Essa Faal, the damage is done. His supporters feel betrayed, his political standing has collapsed, and his political career is over.
By MC Cham Jr
Unite National Campaign Manager