Dear Editor,
Let us be blunt. The Gambia will not be rescued by Government policy. It will be rescued by Opposition unity.
Rice is D2,500. Youth unemployment exceeds 60%. Nurses’ strike while landlords raise rent. And the only people with the numbers to change this are too busy fighting over who sits at the head of the table.
This is the best opportunity the Opposition has had since 2016. The Coalition Taskforce Mediation Committee began its meetings with Opposition parties and movements. If you embrace political compromise now, you win. If you go solo, Gambians will never forgive you.
The math of betrayal: Why no opposition party should go solo
2021 should have buried the solo experiment. Barrow won with 53% because the opposition split 47% five ways. You did not lose to NPP machinery. You lost to opposition egos.
Game theory calls this the Prisoner’s Dilemma. When every party defects to save itself, all of them serve the sentence. Gambians are serving that sentence now in food prices, in rent, in backway boats.
2016 proved unity removes governments. 2021 proved division protects them. 2026 is the tiebreaker. There is no 2031 for this generation. The demographic clock is ticking. The economic pain is peaking. This is the moment.
The CTMC is the last train. Get on it.
The Coalition Taskforce Mediation Committee is not a social club. It is a process.
If you miss this opportunity then you have already chosen Barrow for us. History will not record your press releases. It will record your absence.
Put differences aside: what compromise actually means
Compromise does not mean liking each other. It means choosing the country over your committee.
If you want primaries, defend primaries. If you lose, endorse.
If you want polls, publish polls. If you are third, step aside.
If you want elders, livestream elders, if you are not picked, stay in the coalition.
Article 7 of the Code must say it plainly: Any party that fields a candidate outside the coalition pays D1 million.” Make betrayal expensive. Make unity legal.
Gambians are not asking party A to become party B. They are asking both to become adults. Your base is unemployed. They will accept any formula that puts food on the table. They will not accept five more years because you wanted to be leader.
The real enemy is cynicism, and you created it.
Walk through Serekunda Market. Ask about 2026. Voters will laugh. They will never unite. You taught Gambians to expect failure. That is your biggest crime.
Every insult on Kerr Fatou is a vote for apathy. Every leaked voice note is a campaign ad for Barrow. Your disunity is his campaign manager. He does not need rallies. He has your Facebook pages.
The national call: Salvage Gambians, not your ego
The national call is not abstract. It is D2,500 rice. It is 70% of workers with no contract. It is the Rent Act with no tribunal. No opposition party can fix this alone. Together, you can.
The CTMC process has high hope because for the first time since 2017, the talks have rules, witnesses, and deadlines.
The Gambians are watching. This is the best opportunity because the framework exists. The only missing ingredient is your signature.
Final word to every party leader: Sign or be judged
Your children will ask: What did you do in 2026?
Defend your party’s red line is not an answer.
Write a Facebook post about unity is not an answer.
“Signed a Charter that cut rice to D1,800” is an answer.
No opposition party should go solo. Not UDP. Not GDC. Not APP Sobeyaa. Not PDOIS. Not any movement. Gambians will judge us if we go separately.
The CTMC meets again 9 May. The country is not asking you to love each other. The country is asking you to sign.
Unite and salvage The Gambia. Or divide, lose, and explain to us why your ego was worth D2,500 bag of rice. Together we win. Divided we fail. Choose.
