06/11/2025
By Madi jobarteh
“When the Lights Go Out at the Seat of Power!
It is reported that electricity went out in Bundung where the National People’s Party (NPP) headquarters is located, at a time when the president himself was in the building. How could electricity go out just like that when no emergency or disaster was unfolding or reported in the area? That single incident is symbolic of the chronic dysfunction of public service delivery in this country that even the President was sent into darkness!
For years, we have witnessed vice presidents, ministers, and top government officials seek medical attention abroad even though we have hospitals in The Gambia. Why? These are only two sectors – energy and health – out of many that remain steeped in poor service delivery. From agriculture to sports, from security to education, billions continue to be spent year after year. Yet even in a country as small and compact as The Gambia, guaranteeing a 24/7 uninterrupted electricity supply remains elusive.
Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, in his usual hyperbolic expressions, claimed that the current government has provided more access to electricity than the colonial, Jawara, and Jammeh regimes combined. That may not be false, but it certainly leaves much unsaid. With time and resources, it was inevitable that each successive regime would expand access beyond its predecessor.
The colonial administration had no intention of building the Gambia; Jawara’s government was expected to surpass that legacy, and Jammeh’s regime was to do more than Jawara’s. Likewise, Barrow’s administration is expected to deliver beyond all of them combined.
Therefore, what Dr. Ceesay did not say is that each regime must be assessed by its own merits. By 1994, thirty years after independence, the Gambia should have been a middle-income country heading toward first-world status, just as Singapore did between 1965 and 1990. Jammeh’s Vision 2020 projected a middle-income, democratic society by 2020. Yet, four years after his departure, The Gambia remains a highly indebted poor and least-developed country. Nine years since President Barrow took power, the reality of poor services, weak infrastructure, and widespread poverty continues to define our existence.
Meanwhile. billions are being spent every year. The question is: where are the results?
Development is not about how much is spent, but what citizens get in return. To boast of investments in electricity generation and expansion is one thing; to ensure quality, reliability, efficiency, and affordability is another. Having a meter and buying cash power only to sit in darkness for hours is not “access” to electricity in real terms.
Why should there be perennial blackouts? For how long must Gambians continue to live with such basic failures? The irony of the president himself sitting in darkness at the NPP bureau should provoke deep reflection. Has his government fundamentally changed the lives of Gambians compared to 2016?
Yes, more people have meters today, but both old and new customers alike continue to endure the same power cuts, the same inefficiencies, and the same excuses. Access without reliability is meaningless. Expansion without quality is empty. And leadership without self-assessment is dangerous.
President Barrow must stop listening to sycophants who confuse rhetoric for reality. The time has come for honest evaluation, grounded in evidence and results. The blackout at Bundung should serve not just as a technical failure, but as a metaphor for the deeper darkness that continues to engulf governance and service delivery in The Gambia.
For The Gambia, Our Homeland
