“Stop Fighting Each Other”: Gambia’s Opposition Warned as 2026 Election Approaches
By: Melville Robertson Roberts
I have been quietly trying to understand how the average Gambian thinks and, more importantly, what our political system has done to our sense of consistency, principle and collective interest.
Rather than consolidating our strength and leveraging the power of togetherness, we seem determined to destroy one another within the opposition. How does this make any sense?
You stood with a man. You defended him. You praised him. You told the whole world how brilliant, honest, competent and capable he was. You helped build the very image of the man you are now trying to destroy.
Yet today, because of political realignment, that same man has suddenly become corrupt, incompetent and the worst thing that ever happened to The Gambia.
How on earth does that look to an objective society? If you genuinely believe the NPP and the incumbent must be defeated, then why are opposition forces spending their precious time and energy attacking fellow opposition figures?
Because let’s be honest: every opposition politician who spends more time destroying another opposition politician than challenging the incumbent is, whether intentionally or otherwise, strengthening the very government they claim they want removed.
Politics cannot simply be about who you currently stand with. Principles cannot change depending on where your political interests lie. You cannot spend years telling Gambians that a man is honest, brilliant and capable, only to discover overnight that he is corrupt and the worst leader in our history simply because your political paths have separated.
Gambians are watching and if the opposition allows division, ego, bitterness and personal political interests to hand the incumbent another term, history will not be kind.You will have to answer to your children and your children will have to answer to theirs.
Because if we lose another opportunity to change the direction of this country because we were too divided to unite around a common objective, nothing on this earth will wash that stain away.
The Gambia needs an opposition that understands that sometimes, the enemy of your political ambition is not your fellow opposition politician.
The real battle is much bigger than that.
