Gambia: Barrow’s first 100 days marked by impatience

By Mustapha K Darboe

BANJUL, Gambia

As Gambia’s new president Adama Barrow celebrates his first 100 days in power Friday, reactions on the street of the capital Banjul regarding the accomplishments of the nascent administration are mixed.

Critics say the new president lacks clear vision on how to tackle country’s challenges following a 22-year dictatorship under Yayha Jammeh.

Political analyst and lecturer at University of the Gambia, Ismaila Ceesay, tells Anadolu Agency that the new government had failed to “articulate its development priorities in these first 100 days”.

“The problem is that the government lacks a vision. They were only focused on removing Yahya Jammeh and they have no plans beyond that,” Ceesay says. “We want to see a short-term, medium term and long-term plan but we have a government that does not seem to know what it is doing.”

Adama Barrow has inherited a broken economy with debt at about 115 percent of the GDP and youth unemployment at 38 percent, government sympathizers have said.

Gambia’s vice president Fatoumata Jallow, who recently won the New African Magazine’s African Woman of the Year Award, tells Anadolu Agency that the new administration are committed to Barrow's campaign promises.

“The government will achieve its campaign promises because it is committed to it [...] This is a three-year transition period and we have developed a reform agenda in all the key areas,” she says.

“Rome was not built in a day," she adds. "This government is not asking for people to be complacent but we need to manage the expectations. There is need for patience because we are working on reversing a trend that went on for 22 years.”

- Reforms in the summer

Barrow’s government has come to power on promises of sweeping legal and constitutional reforms.

He will be 100 days in office on Friday with a parliament that started working barely two weeks ago and a broken judiciary that was politicized by Jammeh.

Jallow says the government was delayed by the two-month political impasse which rocked the small nation after Jammeh refused to step down claiming the election had not been fair.

“We had an election on Dec. 1 and we won but we were only able to settle in February and inaugurate the president on Gambian soil,” she said.

“The reforms will start most probably by July or August.”

Gambia’s information minister, Demba Jawo, says Gambians are “expecting quite a lot in a very short time”.

Alieu Secka, the CEO of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce, a private sector pressure group in the country, tells Anadolu that the business sector is encouraged by the assurances of the new government though “there is still some impatience after three months”.

- Tongues loosened

“We are encouraged by their openness but there are pressing issues the business community would want to see addressed especially in the area of energy,” Secka said.

Sidi Sanneh, a Gambian political analyst and former minister under Jammeh, says: “It is way too early, in the case of Gambia, to apply the First One Hundred Day benchmark on the Barrow administration because of the unique challenges they have faced."

Meanwhile, the new administration has started reforming the prison system by releasing all political prisoners and dozens others who were convicted of minor offenses.

Change is also clearly noticeable in the streets of capital Banjul where residents openly shared their views regarding the government or various policies -- an atmosphere hardly fathomable over 100 days ago.

And while this may not be the direct result of government policy and rather part of benefits of a dictator stepping down, Adama Barrow can be credited for not having impeded the loosening of tongues.