The President’s June 19th 2025 speech covers a lot of ground. It avoids mention of certain inconvenient facts here and there, but it concludes nicely with a much needed call for civic consciousness and unity during these troubling times,
While enjoying the status as the Human Rights Capital of Africa, the President noted Gambia is active supporting Human Rights globally. He did praise Gambia’s legal case at the ICJ against Myanmar for its genocide of the Rohingya. And he did mention Gambia’s legal involvement in Palestine’s legal struggles (whatever that is supposed to mean). Regrettably, he didn’t have the nerve to go further and condemn the depraved Zionist regime for its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Nor did fault the USA, UK, France or Germany for their criminal support for this ongoing obscenity. Gambia’s ally China would welcome such statements. Of course, he has to tread carefully here to avoid antagonizing the US State Dept. Doing so just might push the US State Dept to the exit of the US Embassy here and go ahead with denying Gambians USA travel visas. But he did manage to express ‘grave concern’ about Israel’s attack on Iran. How about condemnation? Enough with the ‘diplomatic speak’. Human Rights Capital indeed.
For example, the President reports on his regime’s support for agriculture – subsidies for so many tons of fertilizer, seeds and so forth. But how do those large sounding numbers compare with the tonnage supplied for previous cropping seasons? No word on that. Incidentally, all this support led to a 40,000 ton groundnut harvest for 2024-25, a 14% decline from last year. And Gambia’s aflatoxin tainted groundnuts likely still fetch prices on the international market that are stuck at less than half of the world average $ price per ton if history is a good guide. Gambia’s other crops like corn, millet and maize continue to be harvested in numbers below historical values, as is the number of hectares harvested.
He reported Gambia achieved a healthy GDP growth rate, a big drop in inflation, and increasing tax collections. Unfortunately, the nearly D48 bil of GoTG spending for 2025 is almost double their collection of taxes and fees. Borrowing and charitable grants save the day. He makes no mention that the debt portion of the Debt/GDP ratio remains unsustainable. Fortunately, remittances from the ‘unable to vote’ diaspora have grown. Too bad the Trump regime has suggested putting a 3% tax on Gambian remittances from the USA. That tax, added to the fees earned by foreign exchange players who touch that money, will reduce those net flows nearly 10%.
The President’s mention of increased CCTV surveillance systems just means further erosion of Gambian’s right to privacy. Reports have it that similar internet connected systems throughout Lebanon were hacked and played a role in the tracking and murder of Hezbollah leadership.
On Lands administration, he plans a digital land information system. A quick review of the NAO report ‘Management of Land Registration and Documentation by The Ministry of Lands and Regional Government’ shows how they store their important records – a disaster. Good luck with loading that stuff, page by page, into a database while digitizing it.
One other achievement deserving mention is the 1100 household latrines built. But that’s a rather slow start considering the 300,000 households the census bureau counted back in 2021.
The President deserves praise, though, for concluding his message with a well written call for Gambian solidarity, given the jihadist threat the ECOWAS region faces. We are all in this together, after all. Guest Editorial