By Yaya Dampha, NPP Diaspora Coordinator – Sweden
It is both ironic and pitiful that Gagigo — a man whose voice was completely absent during the dark years of Yahya Jammeh’s brutal dictatorship — has suddenly reappeared, wagging his finger at those who actually stood up when it mattered. After decades of silence, he now wishes to lecture President Adama Barrow and the Gambian people on moral courage. How convenient.
Let’s not mince words: this is the real vulture — one who feeds on the sweat, blood, and sacrifice of others. While Gambians risked everything to reclaim their freedom, Gagigo was nowhere to be found. He neither spoke up nor stood up. He vanished during the struggle, only to reemerge now that democracy has been secured by others.
WHERE WAS GAGIGO WHEN GAMBIA NEEDED HIM?
When Adama Barrow, alongside countless ordinary citizens, dared to confront Jammeh’s regime at great personal risk, Gagigo was missing in action.
When activists were jailed, when journalists were silenced, when innocent Gambians were tortured or exiled, Gagigo’s name was nowhere in the fight.
Now that the nation has triumphed — through courage, through unity, through sacrifice — Gagigo seeks to claim the moral high ground. This is not courage. It is cowardice wrapped in ambition.
Leadership is not tested when the coast is clear. It is tested in the storm. And while Adama Barrow stood up when it was dangerous, Gagigo only appeared when it was safe — and when he saw political opportunity.
ON BARROW’S ROLE AND GAGIGO’S CONVENIENT AMNESIA
It is laughable for anyone, least of all Gagigo, to downplay President Barrow’s historic role in leading the coalition that ended 22 years of dictatorship.
Barrow didn’t inherit power — he earned it through the will of the Gambian people, united behind a cause that demanded courage and conviction.
To suggest otherwise is an insult not only to Barrow but to every Gambian who cast a vote for change in 2016, every activist who risked arrest, every journalist who refused to be silenced.
Gagigo’s attempt to erase that sacrifice is not political commentary — it’s intellectual dishonesty.
THE REAL MORAL FAILURE
Gagigo pontificates about “moral authority” and “transitional justice,” yet he carries no record of moral courage. Where was his voice when Gambians were crying for justice under Jammeh? Where was his pen when the TRRC victims were still being silenced? Where was his outrage when innocent people disappeared into Jammeh’s dungeons?
He was silent. He was comfortable. And now he is ambitious.
It is the height of hypocrisy for a man who contributed nothing to the fight to suddenly question those who bore the brunt of it.
BARROW STOOD WHEN OTHERS HID
President Barrow’s record is not one of perfection — no leader’s is — but it is one of courage, patience, and national unity. He stood when many fell silent. He led when others hesitated. And he continues to steer a nation that is rebuilding itself after two decades of fear and division.
Those who today throw stones from the sidelines were spectators when it mattered. They want to reap the harvest from a field they never tilled.
That, fellow Gambians, is the true image of a political vulture.
LET THE PEOPLE REMEMBER
The Gambian people have not forgotten who was there in 2016 — who stood in the rain and the sun, who risked their lives to make change possible. And they will not be fooled by those who appear years later pretending to care for a cause they abandoned when it mattered most.
So yes, if Gagigo feels attacked by President Barrow’s metaphor of “vultures,” he should check the mirror. Sometimes, the truth hurts precisely because it fits.
FINAL WORD
Gambia’s democracy was built on sacrifice — not opportunism.
It was sustained by courage — not cowardice.
It was defended by doers — not talkers.
And so, as the nation looks ahead, let us beware of vultures circling above the progress we’ve made — those who contributed nothing but now wish to feast on the fruits of others’ struggle.
President Adama Barrow led when it was hard. Gagigo only arrived when it was easy.
History will remember the difference.
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