25/09/2025
Senegambia: Achieving shared socioeconomic growth through full political and economic integration.
Opinion Article By Alagie Mbowe, Calgary, Canada.
‘’The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane’’…Marcus Aurelius
‘’The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn’’……Alvin Toffler.
Indeed, this paper is meant to trigger the readers’ cerebrum for rigorous thinking output, such that any roiling inner turmoil and conjectured negative complexifications of a union between The Gambia and Senegal are put to reason, not emotional feelings alone.
Dear Reader, Now This! It is essential to understand the context of this article, including the underlying assumptions and circumstances that informed its content; Mainly that Senegal’s ‘democratic’ experiment continues to be self-sustained, whilst The Gambia continues to be mired in a ‘circular firing squad’ archetype of ‘democracy’. The country’s democratic experiment is struggling due to an unending and entrenched self-perpetuating and self-serving democratic model. While The Gambia continues to produce a diminishing and failing version of its democratic experiment, Senegal is strengthening its own; the populace is demanding containment, consolidation, and continuity for the better.''
The Stakes in Denial and Dissonance: It is time for rigorous thinking! And remove all conditions that steer us to think in straight lines. Here are two countries, The Gambia and Senegal, inseparable by geography and culture. Yet, there is a significant gap in the ability to create an integrated political and socioeconomic development plan for the prosperity of its people. This article explores the historical, cultural, economic, and political rationale for integration, whilst mindful of the potential challenges that must be overcome to achieve a sustainable union.
A well-integrated union can achieve political and socioeconomic prosperity that is not attainable under the current loosely crafted Senegambia secretariat agreements. While Senegal is currently trying to move in the direction of an indigenously driven socioeconomic development model based more on self-reliance and an anti-corruption crusade, The Gambia is mired in a collapsing kakistocracy bubble, making it incapable of drafting a viable constitution and moving on with solidifying its version of democracy.
There is enough evidence now that, after sixty-plus years of independence, the Gambia is not well-equipped with the required political competence or economic growth capacity to accelerate its prosperity without external impetus. Senegal is a good fit for federated integration with the Gambia.
Although both countries struggled with decades of mediocre governments and economic output, Senegal, unlike The Gambia, has proven to withstand attempts towards self-serving contortion of the democratic process and all attempts at manufacturing self-perpetuating rule by its political leaders. The Gambia’s political and economic integration with Senegal shall help ‘extricate’ The Gambia from this political debacle.
The Gambia is also gradually cratering under the weight of a kakistocracy bubble that is putting the country’s political and economic circumstances into an unknown, detrimental plight. Whereas Senegal aims for a more self-reliant/ indigenous socioeconomic development and an anti-corruption, good governance model, The Gambia does not. In fact, the Gambia is currently putting its sovereignty at stake as it disagrees on enacting a lasting, functioning constitution.
Why now, you may ask? Because the country has not been capable of creating the required democratic foundation anchors to shield it against self-perpetuating, self-serving leadership. The Gambia is incapable of sustaining its democratic model. After six decades of independence, the country faces ongoing challenges in preserving its political and economic sovereignty.
Merging Complementary with Compatibility: Colonial powers, sitting in a smoke-filled room, sipping rum, wine, and whatever else, decided with total disregard for the future of the Senegambians. They went ahead and created artificial boundaries that separated families and communities. The colonial rulers introduced French and English to erase the shared historical roots of the Senegambian culture. That was over a century and more ago.
Yes, it is callous. However, accepting the status quo, they have created sixty-five years since Senegalese independence and sixty years for The Gambia, which is no longer their responsibility. It is incumbent on the leaders and people of the two countries to focus on transforming what is complementary into achieving what is compatible for mutual development.
We can hold the colonial powers responsible for the colonial divide and some aspects of its legacy. Still, we must not hold them accountable for our failure to undertake and achieve mutually gainful political and economic development outcomes for the prosperity of our people. The Senegambia Confederation, which attempted to explore the potential for cooperation, is a disjointed, short-sighted attempt to tackle a holistic matter by going in circles around it.
Mutual Necessity Replacing Inadequacy: A common cultural foundation identifies shared core values, creating greater possibilities for cohesion in development. Therefore, such an integration effort has significant potential in creating numerous avenues for shared prosperity. Thus, integration should steer political and economic achievements, replacing each other's inadequacies with comparative advantages for mutual gains.
Revisiting our shared colonial legacy with lessons learned could foster a union rooted in pragmatic pan-African ideals and become a model for the continent. A unified central government shall streamline bureaucracy, minimise inefficiencies, safeguard against incompetence, and enhance administrative effectiveness.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of phase integration challenges to overcome:
1. The phase integration of Political and Economic systems/policies
2. The phase integration of colonial legacy bilingual systems/policies
3. The phase integration of sovereignty and other unique identity issues
4. The phase integration of harmonising legal and educational systems
5. The phase integration of merging security forces and systems
6. The phase integration of administrative systems and power-sharing models
7. The phase harmonisation of environments and social resilience structures
8. The phase harmonisation of cultural and heritage ties
9. The phase harmonisation of the remaining integration-enhancing benchmarks.
Now What: This vision of unity must be rooted in pragmatic ideals that merge capacities and achieve shared prosperity for all Senegambians. This should supersede all self-serving factional, individualist, or separate group interests. Uniting The Gambia and Senegal offers a flux that can profoundly leverage the negative impacts of colonial legacies and harness them for mutual prosperity.
Prioritising integration through complete political harmonisation shall usher in numerous potentials for a broader and more inclusive economic prosperity. It should also assist in reducing reliance on external resources for development. Inputs and boost the indigenously driven socioeconomic achievements and sustainability. Challenges to ‘perfect’ the integration will always be present; nonetheless, Senegambians must know that unification creates greater socioeconomic benefits and better prospects for improving the prosperity of Senegambians than the current situation is offering. It is wild to believe that separation is beneficial for either country. I think unification is both plausible and imperative.
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You can now write for the Open Gambia Platform, share information anonymously, and join the community. Please share your stories! Alagie Mbowe, Calgary, Canada, contributed to the article on 24th September 2025! Contributors' views are strictly personal and not of The OpenGambia Platform!
