{"id":83013,"date":"2025-07-30T06:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T06:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest"},"modified":"2025-07-30T07:14:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:14:50","slug":"minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest","title":{"rendered":"Minister Defends Sillah&#8217;S Call for Pro-Government Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Gambia\u2019s Minister of Information, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, has defended the recent call by Minister Ebrima Sillah for a demonstration in support of the government, asserting that criticism of such a move is fundamentally anti-democratic.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking during his regular appearance on Coffee Time with Peter Gomez, Dr. Ceesay emphasized that democracy guarantees equal rights for all citizens\u2014not only to protest against the government but also to demonstrate in its support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is democracy. And when I see people criticizing Ebrima Sillah and those who want to organize this, I say, well, where is the democracy we are talking about? That is an anti-democratic behavior,\u201d Dr. Ceesay stated.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Ceesay also clarified that there is a misconception on this issue as it is not the government planning to organize a counter-protest, \u201cas they call it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that these citizens have the right to openly express their approval and confidence in the government.<\/p>\n<p>When questioned about criticisms that protests led by a minister are inherently problematic, Minister Ceesay clarified that Ebrima Sillah is not only a minister but also a politician and a citizen.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Ceesay further explained that Minister Sillah\u2019s actions do not represent the government\u2019s official stance. He noted that other politicians, such as Essa Mbye Faal and Rohey Malick Lowe, also publicly supported GALA in their protest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf politicians can come out and support GALA and express their displeasure, it\u2019s their right to do so. The minister wasn\u2019t speaking for the government. That needs to be very clear. The minister was speaking as a citizen who is a politician,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether the ruling National People\u2019s Party (NPP) is officially organizing the event, Dr. Ceesay said he had not seen any formal communication from the party but did not rule out the possibility of its involvement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Gambia\u2019s Minister of Information, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, has defended the recent call by Minister Ebrima Sillah for a demonstration in support of the government, asserting that criticism of such a move is fundamentally anti-democratic. Speaking during his regular appearance on Coffee Time with Peter Gomez, Dr. Ceesay emphasized that democracy guarantees equal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":83012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-83013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Minister Defends Sillah&#039;S Call for Pro-Government Protest - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gambia\u2019s Minister of Information, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, has defended the recent call by Minister Ebrima Sillah for a de ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister Defends Sillah&#039;S Call for Pro-Government Protest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gambia\u2019s Minister of Information, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, has defended the recent call by Minister Ebrima Sillah for a de ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-30T06:12:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-30T07:14:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/07\/sm_1753847042.504229.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"945\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Minister Defends Sillah&#8217;S Call for Pro-Government Protest\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-30T06:12:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-30T07:14:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest\"},\"wordCount\":325,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/07\/sm_1753847042.504229.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/minister-defends-sillahs-call-for-pro-government-protest\",\"name\":\"Minister Defends Sillah'S Call for Pro-Government Protest - 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