By Omar Bah
The NPP-led grand alliance has expressed “grave concern” over Deputy Speaker Seedy Njie’s recent tribal comments and insinuation of influencing President Adama Barrow’s appointment decisions.
In a statement shared with The Standard yesterday, the NPP-led Grand Alliance Secretariat said it has read and listened to Seedy’s remarks and the legitimate anguish they have provoked across the country including among Mandinkas who are among the NPP’s most steadfast and most cherished supporters.
The statement further stated that no ethnic group in The Gambia is a subject of persecution, demotion, or systematic disadvantage under the Barrow government.
“That is not the government President Barrow has built. It is not the alliance we represent, and it is not The Gambia that this administration was elected to steward. Any assertion to the contrary, whoever makes it and in whatever forum, is irreconcilable with the record, the policy, and the solemn commitments of the NPP-led Alliance,” it added.
The statement added: “We assure our Mandinka brothers and sisters within the alliance and across this nation that you are not on the margins of this government. You are at its centre, as you have always been at the centre of The Gambia’s story. Your contributions to this nation whether in governance, commerce, scholarship, the arts, in the military and the civil service are beyond measure and beyond question. This alliance honours that contribution. This president recognises it, and this secretariat will not rest while any voice, however prominent, attempts to diminish it.”
It also assured its political adversaries, including those in the opposition of its acknowledgement that the remarks in question have caused legitimate concerns, and the political weight of those concerns.
“The utterances were a serious error of judgment. Everyone makes mistakes. The error has been acknowledged and its lessons learnt. We must now move beyond it. The NPP-led alliance represents the best interests of The Gambia and continues to advance a consistent policy of inclusion, unity, cooperation, peace and stability.” The statement urged the public not to judge the alliance on the subjective misstatement of one person.
Barrow’s authority
“Let there be no ambiguity on the question of executive authority. The president is the head of state, government, and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. Under the Constitution of The Gambia 1997, executive authority vests exclusively and without diminution in President Adama Barrow,” it reminded.
It added that appointments, promotions, deployments, and decisions affecting the public service are made by the president, guided by law, merit, and the national interest, and by nothing and no one else.
“No individual holds, or has ever held, any personal influence capable of overriding, directing, or subverting the president’s constitutional judgment. The president does not govern by the influence of subordinates. He governs by law, by principle, and by his own sovereign discretion vested in him by the people of this republic.”
It added that Seedy Njie’s remarks, to the extent that they suggest otherwise, do not reflect the position, the policy, or the values of the NPP-led alliance.
“They do not represent the voice of this secretariat. They do not represent the vision of the president, and they stand in fundamental contradiction to the alliance’s cardinal principles of national unity, inclusive governance, and the equal dignity of every Gambian citizen without regard to ethnicity, region, religion, or political affiliation.”
The secretariat calls upon all supporters of the alliance across every ethnic community, every region, and every political constituency to stay united.
“The strength of the NPP-led alliance has always resided in our collective embrace of a Gambia that belongs equally to all its citizens. That embrace is what won the confidence of this nation in 2016 and again in 2021. It is what will carry us, together and undivided, to the December 2026 presidential election in a position of strength, unity, and moral authority.”
