{"id":94939,"date":"2026-02-25T16:34:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/ceesay-declines-comment-on-governance-rating-concerns"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:12:17","slug":"ceesay-declines-comment-on-governance-rating-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/ceesay-declines-comment-on-governance-rating-concerns","title":{"rendered":"Ceesay Declines Comment on Governance Rating Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong> <\/span><b>The Minister of Information, Ismaila Ceesay, told The Standard he would not respond to criticisms made by the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice on The Gambia\u2019s governance standing.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In a statement shared with The Standard yesterday, EFSCRJ said it received with grave concern the findings of the World Economics Governance Index 2026 regarding The Gambia\u2019s governance performance.<\/p>\n<p>According to the centre, the report evaluates governance across four core indicators: corruption perception, rule of law, press freedom, and political rights, measured on a scale of 0 to 100.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Gambia\u2019s overall score stands at 47.6, earning the country a Grade C (average). The Gambia\u2019s scores on corruption levels \u2013 31.6, rule of law \u2013 38.5 \u2013 Press Freedom \u2013 65.4 and political rights \u2013 54.8,\u201d the EFSCR said.<\/p>\n<p>The centre argued that the relatively higher scores in press freedom and political rights indicate that the civic space remains comparatively open.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the corruption score, the EFSCR said: \u201cThese scores are deeply concerning and reinforce findings from civil society monitoring, national surveys, and international assessments. EFSCRJ has consistently documented and raised alarms over rising incidents of corruption, abuse of office, weak enforcement of accountability mechanisms, and disregard for legal and constitutional standards. A country cannot sustain democracy where corruption flourishes and the rule of law is selectively applied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe lament that while the end of dictatorship in 2017 expanded freedoms, this democratic transition has not yet produced strong, rules-based governance capable of controlling corruption, ensuring institutional discipline, guaranteeing equal application of the law, and delivering equitable development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The EFSCRJ urged President Adama Barrow to treat this report as a governance warning signal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe future of the republic depends not merely on electoral democracy, but on disciplined constitutional governance grounded in transparency, accountability, and justice,\u201d it noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Gambia<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. The Minister of Information, Ismaila Ceesay, told The Standard he would not respond to criticisms made by the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice on The Gambia\u2019s governance standing. In a statement shared with The Standard yesterday, EFSCRJ said it received with grave concern the findings of the World Economics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":94937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-94939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","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>Ceesay Declines Comment on Governance Rating Concerns - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Gambia. 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