Yankuba Darboe, Chairman of the Brikama Area Council (BAC), identified corruption as the preeminent obstacle confronting his region in 2023 during his New Year’s address.

He underscored the notion that corruption had transformed politics from a vehicle for individual benefit to one that promoted substantial progress in the area and the world.
Corruption, which hindered development in our region and country, employment opportunities for our youths, access to adequate housing, quality education, and health care services, among other things, constituted our greatest challenge of 2023 on a regional and national level. He stated, “Corruption had polarized our political system and reduced our patriotism to sycophancy.”

Darboe bemoaned its contribution to the fragmentation of communities along tribal lines, which resulted in a significant loss of life at sea as individuals sought sanctuary in societies renowned for their effectiveness in addressing corruption.
We have been polarized into communities despite the fact that the very nature of our societies requires that such polarizing lines be blurred. “Since the Atlantic Slave Trade, it has cost us more young lives in 2023 to perish in the perilous waters of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean in pursuit of societies that have defeated us in the fight against corruption,” he explained.

Darboe advocated for heightened endeavors to combat corruption as a means to safeguard the lives of the younger generation, while also allocating resources towards sectors including employment prospects, education, healthcare, housing, agriculture, and athletics, drawing from the lessons learned in 2023.
As a region and nation, we must surpass our efforts from 2023 in combating corruption and ensuring the lives of our youth in order to invest in the following: employment opportunities, quality education, quality health care services, adequate housing, agriculture, athletics, and more.”

A warning was issued by the chairman of the Brikama Area Council, emphasizing that the survival of Gambia was contingent on a shift in perceptions and the recognition of corruption as the sole peril. He emphasised the adverse consequences of corruption on progress and development, asserting that a country characterised as “corrupt” would experience constrained growth.
Darboe noted that corruption flourished due to the fact that evading consequences for corrupt behavior was simpler than effectively combating it. In order to achieve an improved Gambia for all, he urged the region and nation to unify in their fight against corruption in 2024, identifying it as a shared foe.

“Because it is easier to be corrupt and get away with it than to combat corruption and eradicate it, corruption continues to flourish in this nation.” We will inevitably relive the setbacks of 2023 in 2024 until the opposite becomes the norm. Therefore, he advised, “Let us unite as a region and nation in 2024 to combat corruption, our common enemy, so that we may all contribute to a better Gambia.”