The Truth Is Unmistakably Clear. President Barrow Will Lose The 2026 Presidential Elections

Dear Editor,
We have credible information that there are deep rooted plans by the NPP to do anything and everything to ensure that Talib Bensouda’s name is not on the ballot box come December.

We have solid and credible intel that the greatest fear of the NPP is Talib Bensouda being on the ballot box.

Unite is not shaking the UDP base. Truth be told the UDP has an unshakable dogmatic and religious base that remains unshakable.

Unite is destroying the NPP base which has no foundation because most of its supporters are those who do not like Ousainu Darboe for whatever reason and had managed to align themselves with the NPP.

The only solid base the NPP has is the support of those that continue to benefit from the perks of state power and their families, close associates and friends.

The magnitude of undecided voters who continually determine the outcome of most of our presidential elections are massively leaning towards Mayor Talib Bensouda.

December Elections will either be won by the UDP or the Unite party or won by a coalition of Unite and UDP.

I swear on anything I believe that President Barrow will lose the 2026 elections.

Tell your family and friends to be unmoved by the cheap political propaganda and rhetoric. It is indeed the last kick of a dying horse.

Do not ask me who is “we”.

Melville Roberson Roberts
UK

If this is the standard for The Standard newspaper, then God help Gambian democracy

Dear Editor,
This morning, The Standard Newspaper ostensibly The Gambia’s leading daily decided to insult the intelligence of an entire nation. Look at that front page. In bold, screaming, centre-page type that should be reserved for matters of grave national importance — corruption, electricity, cost of living, matters that touch the daily survival of the Gambian people:

“DARBOE DECLARES HE WILL NOT CONTEST IN 2031”

Let us be blunt: This is not news. This is not journalism. This is stupid, insane, low-grade, lazy, pedestrian, bush-league, intellectually bankrupt, resplendent in its putridity, sordid in its turpitude, and profoundly unprofessional journalism.

An American high school gazette staffed by 16-year-olds would reject this pitch in the editorial meeting. “Mr Darboe is 78 today and says he won’t run in an election that is five years away, after the next presidential election in 2026 hasn’t even been contested?” The faculty advisor would throw it in the trash.

Let us do the math The Standard refuses to do: 78 today. A man who will be over 80! 78 now, 83 then in 2031? And you make THAT your lead? For a gerontocrat who is chasing the presidency for the 6th time, with all indications being that the incumbent shall prevail? How can a declaration about not running 5 years from now, when the next election hasn’t even seen a single ballot cast, be newsworthy enough to attract the headline of the day? It is senseless. It is stupid. It defies logic.

For a national daily to elevate this to its lead headline is dumb and rudimentary. It is cavalier. It is sensationalism without sensation. And it seriously exposes editorial indolence and a complete collapse of news judgment.

And this — THIS — is what they choose to lead with when the country is on fire with real news?

Where is the journalism?
Last week, massive Nawec generators arrived at the Banjul ports. Under what arrangement? Under which contractor? A ghost contractor operating in complete secrecy? What are the terms of the contract? How many millions? For how many years? Who signed off? Was there a public tender? Was it tabled before the National Assembly? What is the procurement trail? What is the cost per kilowatt-hour to the Gambian taxpayer?

These are A-plus journalistic questions. These are the questions a leading daily should be screaming on its front page. That is news. That is what affects the taxi driver whose battery dies in traffic because there is no light, the homes plunged into darkness, the hospital operating theaters where patients lie on tables with surgeons holding torches, the mothers whose fish rots in freezers. That is the story!

Instead, The Standard tells us a 78-year-old man will not run when he is 83.

We live in a country where the potential presidential frontrunner is engulfed in major, explosive allegations. The facts are yet to be fully assembled. The principal involved is yet to come out and face the press, to face the nation. This is where your reporters should be — out in the field, working overtime, knocking on doors, verifying documents, chasing sources, demanding answers.

Where is the investigative piece? Where is the follow-up? Where is the public interest journalism?

Nowhere. Because that requires work. That requires courage. That requires a spine.

It is far easier to sit in a comfortable office on Kairaba Avenue, take a WhatsApp quote from a perennial candidate saying “I won’t run in 2031,” slap it on the front page, and call it a day. That is not journalism. That is stenography. That is press release recycling masquerading as news.

And now, a final admonition.

In these remaining weeks to the election, if I may admonish the Gambian media fraternity: The country is at a crossroads with so many challenges — malfeasance, corruption, abject poverty, excruciating cost-of-living hardship, politicians switching parties as easily as they change clothes. This country, truth be told, is not heading in the right direction. The period to correct that trajectory, to strengthen the foundation for another five years, is NOW.

And for that, the media must take on its onerous, sacred, and non-negotiable responsibility to fulfill that duty by informing the voter adequately, judiciously, and with complete awareness. Not with trivia about 2031, but with truth about today.

Only an informed electorate can bring about permanent solutions to the basket of troubles and ills that demand urgent redress. That is your job. Do it.

Musa Bassadi Jawara
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA