Galo Saidy, the Managing Director of the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), has accused the opposition parties of politicizing the country’s current electricity crisis. The public is widely angry over the persistent power outages.
Mr. Saidy was responding to recent criticism from the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the United Movement for Change (UMC) both of which have raised concerns about the state of electricity supply in The Gambia.
Mr. Saidy maintained that the outages are neither deliberate nor beneficial to the government, stressing that authorities are actively working to resolve the problem.
“I can tell you even the government would not want something like this to happen at this time,” he said. “It is not something that we want to happen. Things just happen, and we are working to fix them. If people want to politicize it, then politics is just politics; it is just noise.”
He argued that the factors contributing to the power shortages are complex and extend beyond political control, suggesting that opposition leaders would face the same difficulties if they were in government.
“Even if they were sitting here today, they would not be able to resolve this problem because it is beyond their control,” he said.
The NAWEC chief further accused some politicians of exploiting the situation for political gain by assigning blame and portraying the crisis as more severe than it is.
“If you are on the opposition side and a problem like this happens, you take advantage of it and try to shift it to your side,” he said. “This is not desirable. To politicize it and make it appear as though the world is collapsing is not helpful.”
On measures being taken to address the outages, Mr. Saidy said NAWEC is relying on a combination of locally generated electricity and renewable energy sources to help stabilize supply while regional challenges persist.
“We are generating power locally from our own generators, and we also have solar plants. Those are the sources that are helping us at the moment,” he explained.
Mr. Saidy also acknowledged public concerns about NAWEC’s communication during power disruptions, admitting that the company needs to improve how it keeps citizens informed. He said relying primarily on digital platforms is insufficient and revealed that efforts are underway to expand public outreach through more accessible channels, including radio and television.
