By Arret Jatta
Prominent activist Madi Jobarteh has said that the opposition coalition should be led by an independent technocrat who is not a politician, or a known supporter of any political party, to pursue agenda-led coalition ahead of the 2026 presidential election, warning that a party or candidate-led alliance could repeat the failures of the 2016 coalition.
Jobarteh made these remarks in an interview with The Standard following the controversy surrounding opposition coalition talks and selection of a flag bearer.
He argued that such a coalition should be built around a clear national reform agenda, rather than the interests of individual parties or politicians, and serve as a transitional government lasting no more than three years, focusing mainly on constitutional, legal and institutional reforms.
According to Jobarteh, that transitional government should focus on system change and avoid major socio-economic projects and its cabinet should comprise non-partisan technocrats committed to the reform programme.
Jobarteh argued that this approach would prevent the concentration of power in one political party or candidate.
He said the experience of the 2016 coalition should serve as a warning, claiming that after the coalition came to power in 2017, political and personal interests took priority over the reform agenda.
“We should not pursue a party-led or candidate-led,” Jobarteh said, arguing that agenda-led coalition would provide safeguards against the problems that led to the previous coalition’s collapse.
He challenged political parties to sacrifice their individual ambitions for three years and allow citizens to choose their leaders after the proposed reforms.
“If they honestly believe in a new Gambia, if they honestly realise that this country, since independence, is standing on faulty grounds, and needs to be restructured, repositioned, and that we need system change, then they should support this agenda-led approach. Because that’s the only way we are going to have a system change and build a proper republic that we deserve,” he said.