Gambian politics has a familiar script: fierce principles before elections, shameless betrayals after.
The latest episode — Essa Faal confirming an alliance with the NPP, the same administration he spent years denouncing as incompetent, corrupt and a betrayal of the TRRC is not an anomaly. It is the norm. Yesterday’s loudest critics become today’s eager partners. Yesterday’s condemnation becomes today’s coalition.
This is not about Essa Faal alone. It is about a political class that treats integrity as a costume, not a character.
What did Faal tell Gambians? That Barrow had failed to implement the TRRC recommendations. That the government lacked vision. That he could not and would not work with it. What changed? Not Barrow’s record. Not the implementation of the TRRC. What changed is the calculation. The UDP talks for a vice-presidential ticket failed. The APP-Sobeyaa could not stand alone. The road to relevance led to State House.
And so, principle was traded for position.
This transaction tells Gambians three painful truths:
First, our politics has no ideology. Parties are not built on ideas, but on appetites. There is no left or right, no reformist or conservative vision — only access to power and resources. When politics is about stomach and not service, every critic has a price.
Second, fame is being monetised. The TRRC gave men like Faal national stature. That stature was earned by interrogating the crimes of Yahya Jammeh. It should have been used to defend justice. Instead, it became a political launchpad. Gambians must ask: was the TRRC a pursuit of justice, or an audition for office?
Third, voters are taken for fools. Politicians believe Gambians have short memories. They insult our intelligence, recite lofty principles during the day and negotiate deals at night.
A democracy cannot survive on opportunism. If leaders cannot stand by what they said last year, why should citizens trust what they promise next year?
Gambia needs less of this marketplace politics where every conviction is for sale to the highest bidder, and more politicians who understand that integrity is not what you say when it is convenient — it is what you do when it costs you.
Until we demand that, we will continue to get what we have: critics who become courtiers, and a republic where principles expire after polling day.