The United Democratic Party has accused President Adama Barrow’s 2026 Meet the People Tour of straying from its stated purpose and becoming a taxpayer-funded stage for attacks on communities and political opponents.
In a statement issued by Saikou Camara, the party’s Administrative Secretary for Media and Communications, the UDP said the Gambian taxpayer allocated D50 million for the tour so the president and his government could travel the country, meet farmers and ordinary citizens, hear their concerns, and make decisions that would improve their lives. Camara argued that the exercise has instead been used to insult and denigrate the people whose money is financing it.
The statement listed a series of incidents the party says have marked the tour. It began, Camara said, with Hamat Bah, who used an occasion on the tour to attack the UDP and make inflammatory remarks about the Lebanese community in The Gambia. He was followed by nominated National Assembly member Maimuna Ceesay Darboe, who the UDP says launched attacks on the people of Banjul and described them in derogatory terms. Separately, the party noted that a prominent imam affiliated with the National People’s Party drew widespread condemnation after a sermon attacking the Manjago community and labeling its members kafirs, or non-believers.
The latest episode, according to the statement, came yesterday when Sainey Jawara, a National Assembly member from the NPP alliance, turned his attention to the Mandinka community and accused them of being the only ethnic group in The Gambia that goes around insulting people. Camara said the remark was made in the presence of President Barrow, senior government officials, and other alliance partners, and that it raised serious questions about the president’s tolerance of such rhetoric within his political establishment.
“The fundamental question is, is this what the Gambian people are paying D50 million for?” the statement asked. It questioned whether the Meet the People Tour is meant to be a genuine exercise in listening, accountability, and national development, or whether it has become a political platform for spreading insults, fuelling ethnic divisions, and attacking perceived opponents.
Camara stressed that the D50 million is public money, not NPP campaign funds. Gambians, he said, regardless of political affiliation, ethnicity, religion, or region, deserve respect, dignity, and responsible leadership. They deserve a president who unites rather than divides, listens rather than insults, and offers solutions rather than political rhetoric.
The statement described The Gambia as a diverse nation whose ethnic and religious differences are a source of strength, not a political weapon to be exploited for partisan interests. No political ambition, Camara wrote, is worth sacrificing national cohesion, peace, and social harmony. Those entrusted with public office must be held to a higher standard of conduct, especially when their words can inflame tensions among communities that have coexisted peacefully for generations.
“The Gambian people did not allocate D50 million to be insulted, divided, or disrespected,” the statement said. “They allocated it to be heard, served, and empowered,” Camara called on President Barrow to rein in his officials, alliance partners, and political operatives and to redirect the tour toward its intended purpose: addressing the hardships confronting ordinary Gambians and delivering meaningful solutions. National unity, he concluded, must never become collateral damage in the pursuit of political power.
