By Melville Roberson Roberts
The Gambia is choking under a disease far more dangerous than poverty or underdevelopment. That disease is the ignorance and pettiness that has consumed our politics. We have reached a point where Gambians can no longer look beyond politics. Every action, every friendship, every handshake is dragged into the dirty pit of political suspicion.
I take a picture with the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, a simple act of respect and courtesy. But what happens? Suddenly, the noise begins: “He has crossed to NPP.” “He has been bought.” “He has sold out.” Really? Is this what we have become? A people so blinded by jealousy and ignorance that we cannot even tell the difference between humanity and politics?
And the hypocrisy is breathtaking. The very party leaders you worship like demigods, the ones you defend with venom and blind loyalty, meet each other in public, shake hands, laugh together, and never once insult each other the way you do on their behalf. They understand politics is not a war; it’s about interests, strategy, and dialogue. Meanwhile, you tear down your own brothers and sisters for nothing more than standing in the same picture as a politician.
Let’s be honest: much of this outrage is not about principles. It is jealousy, pure and simple. Too many cannot stomach the fact that some of us can sit with these leaders, talk with them, and take pictures with them, while you can only ever watch them from a television screen. Instead of working harder, instead of finding your own way to reach those spaces, you resort to bitterness, slander, and baseless accusations.
Should politics define our very existence? Should it dictate who we greet, who we sit with, or who we take a photo with? If that is the case, then we are a nation lost. We are building not democracy, not progress, but a toxic society where envy and suspicion reign supreme.
Enough of the nonsense. Enough of the ignorance. Gambians must wake up. Politics should never destroy our social fabric, our friendships, or our dignity. If our so-called democracy means reducing every interaction to party lines, then we are nothing but slaves to the very politicians who laugh at our foolishness.
The Gambia deserves better. And until we break free from this backward thinking, we will remain a nation trapped in mediocrity and not because of our leaders, but because of our own ignorance.
And when I do decide to join the NPP, any other polticial party or even form my own political party, I will do so unapologetically as a Gambian exercising my full constitutional rights to association and to run for political office.
I shall owe no one an explanation for this.
The First Lady of The Gambia is an exceptionally amazing woman who is accommodating, down to earth and understands that humanity goes beyond political affiliation. She has been my friend before she ever became a First Lady and will still be my friend long after she leaves the office of the First Lady.
By the way, Jayden loved the fresh beautiful mangoes from Gambia and am still tasting that sumptuous grilled fish and sautéed prawns in my mouth.
Yen dengen febarr, some of you.
