[VIDEO] Exclusive – Dr. Ismaila Ceesay: “Barrow Is Presiding Over the Most Corrupt Gov’t In Gambia’s History”

The scholar-politician, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, says President Adama Barrow is presiding over the most corrupt government in Gambian history. He questions Barrow’s developmental priorities which are more focused on lavishing millions into motorcades instead of addressing the dire basic needs of Gambians, such as water, while poverty continues to grip the nation. 

Dr. Ceesay has recently been nominated as the presidential candidate for Citizens’ Alliance party, pending a confirmation due this Saturday. He remains active as a political science lecturer at the University of The Gambia. He has started the revocation process of his Sweden citizenship to be able to be qualified to contest the election in The Gambia.

Dr. Ceesay spoke to The Chronicle’s Kebba Jeffang on Friday at his residence on diverse issues ranging from his party’s vision to reforming or revamping Gambia’s ‘not-fit-for-purpose’ education system, failing health care, COVID-19 ruined economy before taking on President Adama Barrow with a strong charge.

“He is presiding over the most corrupt government The Gambia has ever seen in history, with very little regard to the plight of the population. With so much focus on his agenda [is] to entrench himself at any cost, even putting lives at risk. And that’s the unfortunate part, that moving away from Jammeh, we’d come to have a president like that, who cares less of Gambians, who cares more about his political ambition and who doesn’t care about what’s happening in this country.”

Due to history of bitter exchanges between the two, Dr. Ceesay has been regarded as Barrow’s fiercest rival in the Gambian political scene. In August 2018, the president furiously questioned ‘where was Dr. Ceesay’ during dictatorship, implying that Ceesay was among the silent Gambian intellectuals during the brutal regime. Prior to the president’s weird reaction, In February 2018, Dr. Ceesay was arrested by the police and detained at the police headquarters in Banjul overnight after his comment was published in the newspaper asking the president to visit the military barracks in order to boost the confidence and morals of soldiers in post-Jammeh. Ceesay argued that ECOMIG is not a lasting security solution for The Gambia. The police said at the time that the order of his arrest came from the top.

“When I saw them politicking in Niamina recently, taking brand new pickups – each pickup cost [about] $30, 000 and taking those pickups to villages that don’t even have clean water… If you really care about those people before buying pickups, bring them water and electricity. How can you come to my village in my poverty with a brown new vehicle telling me to vote for you and your vehicle can get me water? When did this NPP come to government [power] and now they are showing us that they are richer than anybody else in this country?”

Watch the full interview embedded in this article.