By a Concerned Citizen
In a display of sheer tone-deafness and staggering arrogance, President Adama Barrow recently converted the State House—the highest office of our sovereign republic—into a private party ground. The occasion? A victory celebration for Arsenal Football Club winning the English Premier League. While the President clad himself in red and white to toast to a multi-billion-pound corporation thousands of miles away, the citizens he swears to protect were left to wallow in literal and metaphorical darkness.
It is difficult to decide what is more repulsive: the profound inferiority complex required for an African head of state to subordinate national dignity to an English football club, or his complete lack of touch with the gruelling realities facing everyday Gambians.
While the music played at the State House, the rest of the nation struggled to find water to drink or electricity to light their homes. This is not an accident of nature; it is the direct consequence of weaponised corruption eating away at the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC). While ordinary Gambians suffer under systemic failures, reports continue to swirl regarding the criminal abuse of public funds intended for utility infrastructure, with fingers pointing directly at corrupt networks linked closely to the executive.
The irony of President Barrow’s “fanaticism” is that he seems entirely ignorant of the history of the sport he purports to celebrate. Football has historically been the sport of the masses, born out of working-class struggles. Historically, the elite used distractions to keep the working class quiet while the aristocrats enjoyed their exclusive pastimes. Today, Barrow plays the role of the useful consumer, acting as a free advertising agent for TV rights and colonial sports revenue, while his own nation’s sports sector lies in ruins.
Can anyone imagine a low-level local councillor in England or any European politician hosting a state-sponsored gala to celebrate the victory of an African club? Would the British Prime Minister ever host a party at 10 Downing Street for a Gambian team? The very thought is absurd. Yet, our head of state willingly displays this submission on the international stage.
While Barrow celebrates a team he has never watched live at the Emirates Stadium, his own government has spent over 350 million Dalasis on a disastrous, never-ending renovation of our own Independence Stadium. A recent National Audit Office (NAO) report exposed deep irregularities, contract overlaps, and financial mismanagement regarding this national embarrassment. The contracts were handed to GIGO Construction and CFTM—enterprises deeply intertwined with the President’s inner circle, including connections tied back to First Lady Fatoumata Bah-Barrow, Chief of Staff Alieu Loum, and his nephew Amadou Sanneh.
The result of this alleged nepotism? Our national team, the Scorpions, has spent years banned from playing home games on their own soil, forced to host international matches abroad. At the same time, the stadium surroundings are reportedly carved up into lucrative land deals for business associates, valued at over 500 million Dalasis.
Furthermore, under Barrow’s watch, the national football team has failed to qualify for the African Cup of Nations, let alone the World Cup. Our local athletic infrastructure is starved of resources, and the very youths who should be filling modern sports academies and employment centres are instead denied opportunity. Out of sheer desperation caused by this government’s rampant corruption, our young people continue to board perilous wooden boats to cross the Atlantic Ocean—many dying before they ever glimpse the shores of Europe.
What exactly was Adama Barrow celebrating at the State House? It was not football. It was a celebration of ignorance, a victory lap for arrogance, and a direct mockery of our collective national pride. It is time for the Gambian people to look past the red-and-white smokescreen and demand accountability from a leadership that prioritises foreign trophies over domestic survival.
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