The Gambia stands at a dangerous crossroads, and the warning must be stated plainly: No serious political party should mobilise support based on tribe.
Tribal politics is not strategy. It is sabotage. It is the laziest, most destructive form of politics ever invented, and any party that resorts to it has already confessed that it has no ideas, no programme, and no vision for the country.
The Gambia is too small, too intermarried, too intertwined to be balkanised by ethnic arithmetic. In one compound you find Mandinka, Fula, Wolof, Jola, Serahule and Serer sharing the same bowl. That is our strength. To turn that diversity into a weapon is to set fire to your own home to win an election.
History has taught us this lesson in blood. Across West Africa, from Rwanda to Liberia to Sierra Leone, nations that allowed politicians to reduce citizenship to tribe paid a price measured in corpses and ruined generations. The Gambia escaped that fate not by accident, but because Gambians have largely rejected tribal hatred. Any party now trying to resurrect it is not just irresponsible but anti-Gambian.
Let us be honest about what tribal mobilisation does. It replaces competence with identity. It tells a young Gambian that his vote should not be based on jobs, healthcare, education, roads, and the price of rice but on whose surname his candidate bears. It guarantees mediocrity, because it shields corrupt and incompetent leaders behind ethnic loyalty.
A serious political party competes on ideas. It publishes a manifesto on the economy. It debates agricultural reform, youth unemployment, energy, justice sector reform, and the rising cost of living.
A tribal party shouts: “It is our turn.” That is not politics. That is blackmail.
The Independent Electoral Commission, the Inter-Party Committee, and civil society must call this out. But ultimately, the responsibility lies with voters. Gambians must punish any politician whether Mandinka, Fula, Wolof, or Jola who tries to divide us along tribal lines. Reject them at the ballot box. Reject them on the bantaba. Reject them on social media.
The Gambia belongs to all tribes and to no tribe. Any political party that does not understand that is not fit to govern it.
