There are feeble minded Gambians asserting in commentaries about the just ended presidential elections, which His Excellency President Barrow won comprehensively, that our Republic is ‘divided’ ‘in need of healing’ ‘polarized’ and so on. This cannot be true.
Our country is recovering from well fought elections, that were well won by the incumbent and that took place freely, fairly and without fail. Local and international observers have attested to this, and has given the vote a clean bill of health as the most democratic ever in Africa, if not the world. Then what is the problem?
How can a people, who have just expressed their sovereign and civil duties in multiparty democratic elections, be said to be ‘divided’ or ‘polarized’? We are not.
The problem is that for our country to remain on tops of the league of democratic and peaceful countries both victors and losers must be brave to acknowledge the past and move on. Left to a tiny section of our country, the campaign for the 2026 presidential elections will start tomorrow. They want to keep us in a permanent mood of politicking because that suits them.
They get the oomph from sending political tirades and polemics daily. They are career politicians who do not want to do anything but politicking. To this cohort, nation building comes second; divisive politics comes first. This is the problem. The problem is not a divided or polarized The Gambia.
Our Gambia remains united, strong and purposeful. The Gambia remains at peace with herself and with her neighbours. Those who are nation builders are at work: our farmers are bagging their groundnuts in readiness for the trade season in which our Government has afforded them a best producer price; the office workers are at work; the traders are selling; our markets are full of customers; our masons are building and changing our cityscapes; the press is free and independent, so who is not a work? It is the career politicians who want to transfix us in a permanent state of electoral hangover. For them political campaign should be a daily affair.
This is the problem. The Gambia has had elections since 1947; and all of them have been multi candidate and multi party elections. These were fought and won. Winners go ahead to rule, and losers take a break to recalibrate and try again. This is how Gambian democracy has flourished in the past 74 years, to our pride.
This is how it must continue to flourish. Nothing should be done by action or word to diminish our great democratic record and achievement.
The election posters, buntings and hoardings should all come down now. Free up the space occupied by these campaign paraphernalia for new posters saying LET US RETURN TO WORK! THE GAMBIA WORKS! POLITICKING IS OVER! FOR THE GAMBIA, OUR HOMELAND!
