By Mohammed Jallow
As The Gambia edges closer to the holy month of Ramadan and simultaneously approaches the Lenten season for Christians the nation finds itself confronting a bitter irony that should trouble both our conscience and our sense of collective responsibility. In a country that is overwhelmingly Muslim and deeply anchored in religious values of compassion moderation and social justice the cost of living is not declining in reverence to the sacred season. Instead it is escalating with alarming intensity placing unbearable pressure on households and exposing a painful contradiction between our spiritual identity and our economic reality.
Ramadan is meant to be a period of restraint humility and shared sacrifice. It is a time when the wealthy are morally reminded of the struggles of the poor and when communities are expected to draw closer through acts of charity empathy and fairness. In principle markets should respond to this sacred atmosphere with moderation and ethical pricing. Yet in practice what we witness year after year is a ritual of economic exploitation where the approach of Ramadan becomes an informal signal for traders to increase the prices of essential commodities.
Basic food items such as rice sugar cooking oil onions bread milk and meat suddenly become more expensive precisely at the moment when families need them the most. Transportation fares quietly rise electricity and water costs remain unyielding and rent obligations remain untouched by any sense of religious mercy. The average Gambian household is therefore compelled to observe a month of spiritual devotion under conditions of material distress anxiety and financial exhaustion.
This reality is not only an economic problem it is a moral crisis.
In a predominantly Muslim society the market is not meant to be value neutral. Islam does not recognise commerce as an activity detached from ethics. Trade in Islamic tradition is governed by principles of fairness honesty and social responsibility. Profiteering hoarding artificial scarcity and exploitation of collective need are not merely unethical practices they are religious transgressions.
Yet the behaviour of many within the Muslim business community reflects a troubling departure from these ideals. Ramadan has increasingly become commercialised into a season of opportunism rather than solidarity. Traders justify price increases under the language of market forces while quietly benefiting from heightened demand and consumer desperation. Some importers manipulate supply chains while middlemen exploit information gaps and weak regulatory oversight. The result is a marketplace that contradicts the very spiritual values it is supposed to honor.
This contradiction becomes even more disturbing when we consider that this year Ramadan and the Christian fasting season coincide with national independence celebrations. This convergence should have been a moment of profound national reflection unity and shared sacrifice across faiths and identities. Instead it risks becoming a season marked by collective frustration social resentment and economic anxiety.
The cost of living crisis does not discriminate by religion. Muslim families struggle to prepare Iftar meals while Christian households face similar hardships during Lent. Independence which should symbolize freedom dignity and collective progress risks being celebrated in a context where citizens feel economically trapped and socially abandoned.
The question therefore is not whether prices are rising. The question is why a religious society continues to normalise economic behaviour that undermines its own moral foundations.
The Ministry of Trade cannot remain a passive observer in this unfolding contradiction. Its mandate goes beyond issuing statements and holding press conferences. It must actively regulate the market with both authority and moral clarity. Price stabilisation is not an abstract policy concept. It is a social protection mechanism that directly affects human dignity.
The Ministry must immediately intensify market surveillance and enforce price controls on essential commodities during religious seasons. This includes regular inspections transparent publication of recommended retail prices and penalties for unjustified price hikes. Traders who exploit religious periods for excessive profit must face consequences that go beyond symbolic warnings.
Furthermore the government must strengthen its strategic food reserves and actively intervene through bulk importation and subsidized distribution of essential goods. When the state allows private actors to fully dominate essential food markets without corrective mechanisms it effectively surrenders social stability to profit motives.
The government should also consider temporary tax relief on basic food imports during Ramadan and festive periods. Reducing import duties on staple commodities would immediately lower market prices and ease household burdens. These are not populist measures. They are rational economic interventions grounded in social justice.
Equally important is the role of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. This institution must be empowered and visible. Price manipulation collusion and hoarding must be investigated and publicly exposed. Market ethics cannot survive in an environment where regulatory institutions are invisible and silent.
Yet state intervention alone is not enough.
The Muslim community must confront its own ethical contradictions. We cannot pray for divine mercy while practicing economic cruelty. We cannot preach compassion while inflating prices on sugar and rice. We cannot fast for spiritual purification while benefiting from the desperation of others.
Religious leaders must speak boldly. Mosques should not only remind worshippers about prayer and fasting but also about fair trade social responsibility and economic justice. Islamic scholarship has always recognized the marketplace as a moral space. Silence in the face of exploitation is itself a form of complicity.
Community leaders and business associations should commit to voluntary price moderation agreements during Ramadan. Public declarations of fair pricing backed by collective enforcement would restore moral credibility to commercial practice.
At the heart of this crisis lies a deeper philosophical question about the kind of society The Gambia wants to be.
Are we a society where religion is reduced to ritual while economic life operates without conscience. Or are we a society where faith shapes behavior institutions and collective priorities.
The rising cost of living during Ramadan exposes a dangerous disconnection between our moral identity and our economic structures. It reveals a society where markets have become detached from values and where public policy struggles to assert ethical direction.
This year as Muslims and Christians fast together and as the nation marks another year of independence we are confronted with a rare historical moment. A moment that invites not celebration alone but serious introspection.
Independence should not merely commemorate political sovereignty. It should symbolize economic dignity and social justice. Fasting should not merely be spiritual discipline. It should be collective empathy translated into policy behavior and institutional action.
The authorities must act decisively. The Ministry of Trade must regulate with courage. The government must intervene with compassion. Religious leaders must guide with moral clarity. And traders must remember that profit without conscience is not success but failure.
Only then can Ramadan return to its true meaning. A season not of economic anxiety but of social solidarity. Not of price inflation but of moral elevation. Not of collective hardship but of shared humanity.
