If each of the last three elections in The Gambia was presidential, Gambia would have seen a new president different from Adama Barrow. Why? Who would have been responsible for that? The people of Brikama (West Coast), Kanifing Municipality, Banjul, and of course, other areas respectively.

Just to take the last election (local government elections alone) held in May 2023, the United Democratic Party secured 207,984 votes while Barrow’s ruling party NPP had 193,245. Gambia’s presidential election rules go by a first-past-post or simple majority. This means even a one vote difference can declare a winner without any room for a second round. Barrow would have been history by now.

Consequently, we see a furious, charged and symptomatically angry president who seldom talks about catering to the needs of his people. If he speaks, he is often automated with a venom subconscious, or many times deliberate against an anathema whose ascension to the throne he seems to have espied. Thus, we always hear, UDP this, UDP that! “I’ll arrest people, break bail and throw them back to jail even if the law frees them!”

And boy, we saw Alhaji Bora! We saw Madi Jobarteh! We saw the kid journalist who visited just Jululung! We saw Momodou Sabally! We heard about Pa Modou Bojang and Kerr Fatou! We keep hearing or seeing threats and barks! Even a simple gathering of opposition sympathizers is now a hypersonic missile—at least in the optics of the Barrow thuggery! And yes, we saw the Ramou Sabally incident where an innocent citizen, a woman was viciously assaulted by Barrow’s men in uniform!

Oh! But Gambia’s opposition didn’t relent in micro-managing it crumbs. More and more support erupts for Yankuba Darboe, Talib Bensouda, Rohey Lowe, the No- Alliance legislators in Foni, etc,. And this means more fury  and paranoia for adamant Adama. He can’t get the votes in these areas. So, he has to make life difficult for the struggling poor. This is the reason our markets are being destroyed in Brikama!

Gambia’s government hardly creates jobs. But its ministers and the corrupt president’s henchmen like Hamat Bah live large. Barrow himself bought a house for his son in Seattle. From whose money? The same taxpayers whose source of taxes are being wiped out, at least now that the bulk of such money is sworn to be efficaciously managed in a corruption-proof style by young Yankuba Darboe! Can’t you still puzzle together Barrow’s blatant anguish?

Governments come to power to create jobs—not erase them! This whole so-called operation is nothing less than, “You refused to vote for me; so, I’ll give you hell, or make life extremely difficult for you!” The fact that the gov’t had to send a heavy arm presence with the destruction teams speaks volumes. Is this some vengeance or an angry provocation from a president who knows very well the majority of Gambians never voted for him post 2016?

The Genesis of Barrow’s Woes, the Crux of his Anger:

After diabolically betraying his sponsors, he knew he needed a different source of support bank. He found it in Macky Sall. But he has to sell Gambia and her seminal interests to the same Sall’s political adventurism. You see, Senegal’s governments see Gambia’s prosperity as a nuclear capability! IT SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN, PERIOD! Thus, they fell out with Sir Dawda. Jammeh gave them the middle finger! Barrow handed them both Gambia and her innocent citizens, some shot in cold blood by vicious Senegalese soldiers. Why? You ask them! 

So, naturally, Barrow will lose local support if his wont is to thread the Senegalese exploitative laser-points. But it would, again, naturally cost him domestic support. The question becomes, “Do I work for Gambia and get organic support, or work for Macky Sall to secure foreign support?” This is the only reason Barrow will destroy our Gamtel, Ports, marine life, our re-export trade, our tourism, and now our poor people’s market stalls among numerous others. And watch how he does these with abandon! 

Editor’s Note: Barrow, if you’re listening; nobody wins against the poor! Nobody wins against truth! These same people are paying for your expensive kaftan, fish money, cup of sugar, milk, your kids life in Seattle, your trophy wives’ current lifestyles, etc., while you destroy the source of theirs! We write this with disgust today, but perhaps with glee tomorrow! And what are the heavy arms for while destroying defenseless women’s huts and make-shift stalls?