By Kebba AF Touray Reporting from Brikama-Ba, CRR South
The Minister for Local Government and Lands, party leader and secretary general of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP), Hamat N. K. Bah, has said the Gambia will never return to military rule.
The NRP Leader made this statement while addressing thousands of his party supporters on Saturday, 17 May 2025, in Brikama-Ba, in CRR South, during his party’s 2025 Regional congress.
Mr. Bah believes that the country is moving forward under the leadership of President Barrow, who he said, is development conscious and has become the best performing President since independence in 1965.
The NRP leaders’ address centred on key areas of national concern: governance, matrimonial ill-treatment of women, diaspora voting, ties with Senegal, and protest.
On Governance, Mr. Bah said the Gambia is a country on the move and nobody can stop it, and those who have ill intentions to stop ‘our’ democracy will not succeed because the Gambia will never go back to military rule. He said all the chaos and anarchy that these people wish to bring to this country will return them to undemocratic rule.
“Democracy is here to stay in this country. Therefore, we ask you to join the wagon of democracy and form your party and move up, and let us keep the peace in our country,” Mr. Bah said.
He challenged the young people to learn skills to be able to manage and steer the affairs of the country forward when they assume national responsibilities in the future.
On the matrimonial ill treatment of women, Mr. Bah decried the way women are being dehumanised, maltreated and abandoned by men who do not care about the conditions and survival of their wives and children are, after divorce. This, he said, is increasingly alarming.
“I want to urge the National Assembly to engage the majority and minority leaders and the government and the Gender Ministry, for us to amend our laws that will protect our women. Our women cannot be used as tools anymore, and people abandoning their wives must pay a price for this,” the NRP leader warned.
Too often, he said, women struggle to pay the tuition fees of their children, pay for rent and feed their children, when the men who abandoned them are into other activities, “as if they have no responsibility to the children they brought to this earth.”
He said it is time that the National Assembly takes up the responsibility with the government to amend laws to protect women.
On Diaspora voting, Mr. Bah conveyed that the current electoral system cannot effectively cater for diaspora voting, adding that the voting system needs to be overhauled before such a thing can happen. In his view, diaspora voting cannot be meaningful without considering minority religious groups in the country.
“It is the electoral system that needs to be overhauled and amended for both minorities and for the diaspora to have the right to vote. This is made possible with the use of a proportional system of voting,’’ he said.
On the proportional system of voting, Hamat Bah explained that every vote is counted, and the voting list is presented and that one is compelled by law to include women and other groups in the list, adding “with this system, every vote can be counted and computed across the world.’’
On the Gambia’s ties with Senegal, Mr. Bah said that as a party, they have always advocated for close ties with Senegal.
‘‘Our party believes that Gambia and Senegal are intertwined. We must coexist, and we must live in peace. Therefore, let us promote the agenda of unity, collaboration and cooperation between the Gambia and Senegal,” he said, adding that the two nations need each other and share lots of things in common.
He assured that they will pursue their overall desire to promote Senegambian integration and peaceful co-existence, adding that this is also crucial for the economic development of both countries.
On protests, Mr. Bah told Gambians that they have a right to protest without causing chaos or disturbing the peace of the country. He said it is the right of every citizen to demonstrate when permitted to do so. He concluded by congratulating his party militants and all those who have in one way or another contributed towards the resounding success of the congress, which was attended by officials from the IEC, party representatives from APRC, GPDP, PPP, NAMs and the Ministers of Tourism and Agriculture.
