Concerns have been raised over recent statements by President Adama Barrow suggesting that hunger and extreme deprivation are not widespread in The Gambia. Civic activist Madi Jobarteh, in a publicly shared Facebook post, challenged this position, arguing that such claims contradict both official government data and everyday realities faced by Gambians.
According to the government’s own National Development Plan (2023–2027), poverty levels remain high and have not been significantly reduced since 2017. While poverty was already widespread before the political transition, critics argue that the current administration has failed to deliver meaningful improvements. On this basis, claims that no Gambian goes without food are described as inaccurate and misleading.
Madi further argues that economic hardship is no longer limited to the unemployed. Civil servants, security personnel, and other salaried workers are reportedly abandoning stable jobs to take the dangerous Backway route because their incomes are insufficient to support themselves and their families. Salary increases, he notes, do not automatically translate into dignity or affordability, particularly in a context of high living costs and persistent income inequality.
He also rejects the narrative that young people embarking on irregular migration are irrational or reckless. Instead, he frames their actions as responses to desperation driven by poverty, inequality, and limited opportunity. From this perspective, migration is not a moral failure but a policy outcome.
The critique calls on the President to interrogate his own governance framework by asking fundamental questions:
How much is the state actually spending on youth development?What concrete job creation mechanisms exist?
How accessible and effective are public institutions meant to support young people?
The commentary also points to historical context. Poverty and hunger, it argues, are not new phenomena in The Gambia. The country has long relied on food aid from International Partners, including the United States, Japan, and others, an indication of structural vulnerability that cannot be wished away through rhetoric.
Attention is also drawn to the thousands of Gambians who remain in the country, working as artisans, teachers, farmers, vendors, engineers, and fishermen, yet struggling due to limited access to capital, tools, land, and institutional support. These citizens, the argument stresses, are not lazy but constrained by weak laws, poor policies, failing institutions, and corruption. From a human rights perspective, poverty itself is framed as an injustice.
The central message is a call for leadership that listens beyond praise singers and engages critics with openness and respect. Attacking deprived youths for seeking escape from deprivation, critics argue, only deepens alienation and fails to address root causes.
As the debate continues, the position advanced is clear: denying poverty and hunger will neither stop irregular migration nor deliver prosperity. Only honest leadership, accountable governance, and structural reform can address the conditions pushing Gambians, both young and educated to leave in search of dignity, opportunity, and security.
In a publicly shared Facebook post, Madi Jobarteh, Executive Director of the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice, challenged claims that no Gambian goes without food, arguing that such assertions contradict both Government data and lived realities across the country.
