Amidst controversies surrounding Lands Minister Hamat NK. Bah’s recent warnings against efforts trying to trample upon his presidential ambition by some members of the NPP-grand alliance, political commentator and UK-based Gambian lawyer Melville Roberts opines the situation, drawing attention on Dr. Ismaila Ceesay and Citizens Alliance’s recent political rallies, which he stated is widely understood as seeking to “gain President Barrow’s trust and confidence as a potential successor” of the Grand Alliance.
Bah, the leader of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP) who was among the founding members Coalition 2016, went into alliance with the ruling National People’s Party in the lead up to the 2021 presidential elections, pressed an urgent alarm last week, warning that he will not negate his presidential ambition for neither Barrow nor any other person, an expensive comment that many saw as sign of discord among members of the Grand Alliance.
Dr. Ceesay, currently serving as the Information Minister of Barrow’s cabinet, was appointed after his alliance with the NPP proved successful.
While potential successor debates continue, President Barrow, who is about to complete his second term in office, the ruling party members have made it clear that Barrow’s third-term bid is a thing of non-negotiable, and that, his ongoing massive infrastructural development requires continuity.
In his commentary on the ongoing succession controversy within the ruling party on Thursday, Roberts pointed to Minister Musa Drammeh to have been gravitating
Towards the Sarahule faction, and “further complicating an already delicate internal balance.”
Meanwhile, with less than a year to the much anticipated and decisive elections in 2026, the opposition is yet to form a single-grand coalition, without which, many Gambian political commentators think it will be impossible to defeat President Barrow in 2026.
