By Kemo Kanyi
Sheikh Tijan Hydara, leader of the Gambia Alliance for National Unity (GANU), has pledged to prioritize the welfare of retired civil servants by establishing a Pensioners’ Welfare Fund if his party is elected to power.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Voice on Tuesday evening, Hydara said the condition of many retired civil servants demonstrated what he described as the failure of successive governments to adequately support people who had spent their working lives serving the country.
He said one of the clearest indicators of a government’s commitment to its citizens was how it treated those who had devoted their lives to national service.
“Today, Gambia’s retired civil servants, teachers, police officers and military veterans are living in state-sanctioned poverty, abandoned to a pension framework that has failed to adjust to modern economic realities,” he said.
Hydara argued that monthly pension payments received by many retired public servants were insufficient to meet basic living expenses, including healthcare and medication.
He described the situation as institutional neglect of a generation that had contributed to building the country’s public institutions.
The former Gambian ambassador to Cuba said a nation that neglected its veterans and elderly citizens risked losing its sense of social responsibility.
He contrasted the situation of retired public servants with what he described as generous benefits available to political appointees, arguing that some former public servants were forced to rely on remittances or assistance from relatives to meet their basic needs.
Hydara said GANU would pursue an immediate and legally mandated reform of the national pension system to promote a more equitable distribution of national resources and restore dignity to retired citizens.
“We will index pension payouts directly to inflation, introduce universal healthcare subsidies for citizens over 65, and establish a dedicated Veterans and Pensioners Welfare Fund to restore dignity to those who gave their best years to The Gambia,” he pledged.