By Momodou Malcolm Jallow
Africa-Press – Gambia. The arrests of young Gambians protesting high data prices expose a deeper crisis: rampant corruption, suffocating poverty, and the political weaponisation of law.
The Gambia today faces an economic crisis of staggering proportions. Families are forced to make impossible choices between food, shelter, and survival. Prices of essential goods, rice, oil, fuel, have soared to historic highs, and wages remain stagnant. For ordinary Gambians, life has become unbearable.
Meanwhile, the wealth gap is widening at a shocking pace. A small elite enriches itself while the majority sink deeper into poverty. Corruption thrives, public funds vanish, and accountability remains elusive. This is the backdrop against which The Gambia’s youth have taken to the streets, not for violence, but to demand dignity, fairness, and a chance at life.
In this age, internet access is not a luxury; it is a necessity. It is the lifeblood of education, commerce, civic participation, and political accountability. For students, it is the classroom. For small businesses, it is the marketplace. For ordinary citizens, it is the megaphone through which they can demand justice and make their voices heard.
Yet the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) chose this very moment of crisis to impose a drastic hike in data prices, an increase that pushes internet access further out of reach for the majority. This is not just bad economics. It is bad democracy. To deny affordable internet in a country already suffocating under poverty is to deliberately silence the people. It is to cut them off from the world, from opportunities, and from one another.
History is clear: the first act of tyrants is always to shut down or restrict the internet. Why? Because they know that a connected people cannot be easily controlled.
When Gambian youths attempted to exercise their constitutional right to peaceful assembly to protest this injustice, the state responded not with dialogue, but with force. Dozens were arrested, charged under the Public Order Act, and some remanded at the notorious Mile Two Prison, a place once reserved for political prisoners under dictatorship.
This is not the application of law. This is the weaponisation of law. When peaceful assembly is criminalised, the Constitution itself is violated. When dissent is punished, democracy itself is betrayed. And when the youth, the majority of our population are treated as criminals for demanding transparency and justice, then the social contract has been broken.
We must not deceive ourselves. At the heart of this crisis lies corruption. The same corruption that drains our public coffers, that diverts development funds into private accounts, and that fuels inequality. While the powerful dine lavishly, ordinary Gambians are told to tighten their belts. While elites secure contracts and privileges, the young are locked out of opportunity. And when they dare to speak, they are dragged into prison cells.
This is not democracy. It is exploitation under a democratic mask.
The arrests of young Gambians are not a show of state strength; they are a sign of state weakness. A government confident in its legitimacy does not fear peaceful protest. A government rooted in justice does not silence its youth.
The danger before us is clear: if laws are continually twisted into weapons of repression, if citizens are denied their voice, if poverty is deepened by policies that choke opportunity, then the very foundations of Gambian democracy are at risk.
But there is also hope. These young men and women represent the conscience of our nation. They remind us that silence is not an option. That democracy lives only when citizens claim it. That justice comes not from fear, but from courage.
Gambia’s history is marked by struggle against oppression. We know what dictatorship looks like, and we know its cost. We must never allow ourselves to return there. That is why this moment matters.
To the authorities: uphold the Constitution. Respect the right to assembly. Reverse the data price hikes that strangle opportunity. End the persecution of young people who are only demanding what is theirs by right: justice, transparency, and dignity.
To the citizens: remember that the power of a people united is greater than any decree, greater than any prison wall, and greater than any tyrant’s fear.
The arrests of these young Gambians are not the end of the story. They are the beginning of a new chapter, one where the people of this nation must decide whether we will tolerate repression cloaked as law, or whether we will demand a democracy worthy of its name.
Source: The Standard Newspaper | Gambia
For More News And Analysis About Gambia Follow Africa-Press
