By: Demba Baldeh
In 2016, The Gambia stood at the edge of collapse. For 22 years, Gambians lived under a brutal dictatorship marked by fear, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings. No political party was spared. No family was untouched. No citizen was truly safe. The name Yahya Jammeh became synonymous with repression, impunity, and a state held hostage by one man’s appetite for power. Faced with this existential threat, Gambians did something extraordinary.
Under intense pressure from citizens, particularly the Diaspora, the opposition parties buried their egos, suspended rivalries, and forged a historic coalition. It was not a coalition born of convenience, but of survival. The objective was singular and clear: End dictatorship and reset the Gambian state on a successful level playing field and transfer of power through democratic pluralism.
They selected a compromise candidate, Adama Barrow. The Diaspora financed the campaign. Women stood for hours in blistering heat to vote. Entire communities defied fear. Against all odds, a dictator was defeated at the ballot box, an event so rare on the African continent that it stunned the world. But that victory came with a covenant.
The Social Contract of 2016
The coalition made explicit promises to the Gambian people that were echoed in roof tops of cars, platforms and in bantabas that reflected the dignity of our traditions. The people trusted the leaders who came to them to deliver on their promises… These among others were explicitly:
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A three-year transitional presidency
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Constitutional reform, including presidential term limits, second round of voting and Diaspora enfranchisement.
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Security sector reforms
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Legislative and governance reform including electoral reforms
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Civil service reforms run by an open and accountable government
A re-foundation of the state based on accountability, restraint, and institutions, not personalities. These promises were not whispered. They were shouted from village squares, radio stations, mosques, and churches. Coalition leaders like Halifa Sallah, Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang, Sidia Jatta, the late OJ Jallow, late Dembo Bojang, Ajie Yam Secka and many other Gambians, put their credibility on the line. They traveled the country preaching reform, restraint, and renewal. They helped prevent civil war during the impasse by appealing to ECOWAS, the UN, the EU, and the United States to force Jammeh out and support a fragile transition. They did not do this for Adama Barrow. They did it for the stability of The Gambia and security of the Gambian state! Today, that security threat and instability is staring us right in the face!
A Transition Abandoned:
Nearly ten years later, the verdict is unavoidable. There have been no meaningful reforms. No new constitution; No entrenched term limits, No comprehensive security reforms, No deep legislative reform, No civil service overhaul and of course, No economic transformation worthy of the name and no Diaspora enfranchisement!
Instead, the coalition collapsed, not because reforms were completed, but because power was consolidated. Adama Barrow systematically sidelined, dismissed, or expelled coalition partners. The transitional agenda was abandoned. The presidency transformed from a vehicle for reform into a platform for personal entrenchment and political party expediency! And now, astonishingly, the very man elected to limit presidential power seeks a third term and entrench himself!
The Moral Failure of Silence
This is where history will judge not only Adama Barrow, but the coalition leaders themselves. They know what was promised. They know why Jammeh was removed. They know the dangers of prolonged rule and certainly, they know the fragility of Gambian democracy. Silence, at this moment, is not neutrality, it is complicity. Do the architects of the 2016 coalition not have a moral duty to speak? Do they not owe Gambians an explanation, or resistance, when the very foundation of the transition they promised has been violated and the people left to fend for themselves? How can they campaign on term limits, reforms only to remain quiet as those limits are discarded in practice and the candidate they sold to the people now boast of being the sole custodian of the 2016 change?
The coalition leaders did not merely endorse a candidate; they guaranteed a transition and sweeping reforms. If that guarantee is broken, they are obligated, morally and politically, to not only say so, but go back to the people and tell them why what was promised to the people is now being hijacked by one man’s quest for power and a class of political opportunists!
The dreadful Third-Term Question: A Dangerous Precedent
Why should the Gambian people even contemplate allowing another leader to entrench themselves again after Jawara’s 30 years rule and Jammeh’s 22 years. Why should the international community support a third term for Adama Barrow when Yahya Jammeh was removed not only for repression, but for staying too long in power?
Why should Gambians tolerate a president who; Failed to deliver a new constitution with common sense laws that protect the fundamental rights of every citizen. A president who failed to reform the system he was elected to fix and instead prolonged his grip on power without end in sight. Why even tolerate a leader who presides over a country plagued with endemic corruption, incompetence and gross insecurity despite still hosting foreign troops years after a “transition” Why is an ECOWAS military presence still necessary if democratic consolidation has succeeded as they now preach?
Why should West Africa today not see the warning signs as reality and not an abstraction with the Coups in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and instability in Guinea-Bissau and beyond fueled by the same pattern of leaders who overstay, weaken institutions, and close democratic exits. Third terms are not merely legal debates, they are a recipe for political instability as evidence already!
A third-term bid in The Gambia does not signal stability, it signals regression, invites tension and tempts adventurism that erodes the legitimacy of the people’s desire for level playing field!
The Choice Before Gambians
This is not a personal attack. It is a constitutional and moral reckoning. The Gambian people did not risk their lives in 2016 to replace one long-serving ruler with another. They did not fund a revolution to entrench a new political class. They did not vote for change to be told, years later, that reform can wait again. A president who was entrusted with reform, failed to deliver it, and now seeks extended rule to entrench himself has exhausted the mandate of the transition and the moral legitimacy to run for a third term. Therefore, The Gambian people have reached another point of truth just as we did in 2016.
A Final Challenge
To the coalition leaders of 2016: History is calling. You helped save this country once. You helped prevent bloodshed. You inspired a nation. You cannot now retreat into silence. If a third term contradicts what you promised, say so. If it endangers stability, warn the people.
If the transition has failed, admit it. Leadership is not measured by proximity to power, but by fidelity to principle. And to Gambians everywhere, at home and in the Diaspora: The future of this country cannot be deferred indefinitely. Democracy does not survive on memory alone. It survives on courage, especially when it is inconvenient. The revolution of 2016 must not be betrayed in 2026. President Barrow though bears the most responsibility for the change, the Gambian people put their trust in the collective leadership of the coalition and not Adama Barrow alone. It is therefore incumbent on the coalition leaders who are still alive and well to go back to the Gambian people and explain to them why they should be trusted again when they remained silent on the ultimate betrayal of the 2016 revolution. History shall judge not only Adama Barrow on his failure but on the silence of the majority coalition leaders!
