NATIONALIST ALTERNATIVE FOR GAMBIA PARTY- NAfGP

MANIFESTO

FIXING A BROKEN SYSTEM

This Manifesto is the lighthouse which spotlights the Party's priorities and sets forth the guideposts for the attainment of the Party's Vision of a well-governed, internally secure and prosperous nation populated by nationalist citizens and law-abiding aliens.

PREAMBLE
At Independence on 18th February, 1965, The Republic of The Gambia (1970) acquired fundamental values which firmly entrenched it as a sovereign nation-state, consequent on which she had exclusive control over her geographical space, the autonomy to choose her friends from among other peoples and governments and conduct her relations with other societies without having to defer to any other authority or body, and regulate her own affairs within her geographical space as she sees and deems fit.

Here we are in 2025, sixty years after attaining political and economic independence, and heading to presidential election in 2026, yet our country remains under-developed in the simplistic term of the word. It has not achieved any significant breakthrough in its deliberate road to prosperity characterised by social and economic betterment sustained by a critical skilled workforce and self-supporting citizens, more jobs and high wages, good governance, stable and affordable energy, and food self-sufficiency. The rural Gambia remains impoverished and deprived of their fundamental rights to the basic necessities of life.
The Nationalist Alternative for Gambia Party hold that there remains a whole lot of vexing issues that this government has not addressed since coming to power in 2017.

The undesirable manner in which the country is being administered by the current administration compels a concerted rally around the Nationalist Alternative for Gambia Party’s flag to bringing about the ouster of the Barrow administration.

To ensure that the Nationalist Alternative for Gambia Party hits the ground running when elected into power in 2026, the Party prioritises these issues which are enumerated hereunder as being the most immediate and pressing concerns of the people that need to be addressed.

• The Constitution – in 2016 the Gambian people dared to dream, stood united and removed a dictatorship. They reclaimed their voice and in 2020, through a process that was inclusive and transparent, a new draft constitution was born. However, this new draft constitution was blocked at the National Assembly because politics prevailed over progress. A revised version came in 2024, but again it fell short. So here we are in 2025, still governed by a constitution written during the dark days of dictatorship.

• Energy – the stabilization of our country’s grid has been far too long in the making, leaving a lot much more to be desired. The impact of inconsistent and unstable electricity supply on the country’s economy has had far-reaching consequences.

• Water and sanitation – access to pipe borne water and sanitation is undeniably one of the rights of the people, particularly those in the rural communities, which has been trivialized.

• Poverty has been on the rise unchecked for decades.

• Youth Unemployment – hundreds of thousands of our youth are facing long-term unemployment. This is the more reason why they are being pushed into embarking on perilous journeys at sea trying to get to Europe in search of better lives.

• Inequality – the economic and social inequalities divide continues to widen.

• Cost of living vis-a-vis wages and salaries- the cost of living is rising on a daily basis without a relative increase in wages and salaries.

• Unchecked corruption and cronyism – rampant corruption is widespread, aided and abetted by cronyism across all walks of life.

• Debasement of our national values and ethics – instead of taking enormous pride in being a citizen of The Gambia and putting the country first, many in the public and in the civil service have now and again demonstrated that they are in office not necessarily for altruistic motives, but in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the people.

• Food self-insufficiency – prime farmlands are being expropriated by both government and land owners for real estate to the detriment of agriculture and agro-industry, thereby making the country highly dependent on the importation of food and essential commodities.

Cometh the Hour, cometh the Party!

• The Gambian people deserve a constitution which does not belong to a party, which does not belong to a president, but a constitution which belongs to the people.

• The Gambian people have a right to be rid of poverty and hunger.

• The Gambian people have a right to access quality and affordable healthcare services and live a life of good health and well-being.

• The Gambian people have a right to quality Education.

• The Gambian people have a right to clean water and sanitation.

• The Gambian people have a right to enjoy affordable, consistent and stable energy.

• The Gambian people have a right to roads and accessible markets.

• The Gambian people have a right to a political and economic enabling environment, decent work and economic growth.

Nobody in their right minds can gainsay the failure of all the past and present governments in affirming and achieving these essential and necessary embodiments of the universal human rights for the Gambian people.

The Nationalist Alternative for the Gambia Party - NAfGP has therefore evolved out of the failure of the government in addressing the persistent suffocating grip of under-development on the country characterised by a poor governance system, poverty, poor healthcare service delivery, youth unemployment, inadequate access to water and sanitation and other myriads of social challenges besetting the Gambian people in this modern day and age.

In addressing the complexes of under-development and national security, the NAfGP shall appropriate robust ways and means to safeguard the sovereignty of the country, the indivisible integrity of our geographical space and the security and well-being of the people.

The NAfGP believes that a constitution is not just a set of laws. It is the blueprint of how we live together, how we protect the rights of every man and woman, and how we prevent the abuse of power.

The NAfGP maintains that the 2020 draft constitution is still the strongest foundation Gambians have because it came from the people and it can still serve the people.

In order to restore legitimacy, renew trust in governance and put country over convenience, the NAfGP shall be pragmatic when elected into office, and call for national unity.

In the first one hundred days of its administration, the NAfGP shall form a core independent group – free from political interference – to refine the 2020 draft constitution, an act that will compensate for the 2020 draft constitution imperfections by fixing what is flawed and conserve what is sound. The refined draft shall then be submitted to a national referendum in order to let the people – not politicians or cabinet – have the final say.

The NAfGP shall adopt a firm posture on the implementation of a clear-cut strategy of reform of the armed forces, both structurally (shape and build) and operationally with a view to transforming it into a sustainable and formidable force in times of peace and during armed conflict at home and abroad.

The NAfGP Foreign Policy shall draw from these fundamental tenets of sovereignty, indivisible territorial space and the security of the citizenry at home and those living abroad. In this regard, the NAfGP shall cooperate and partner bilaterally and multilaterally in pursuance of mutually beneficial aspirations and the national interest.

The NAfGP shall uphold the principles of International Law and diplomacy, the Charters of the United Nations, African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and the Commonwealth.

The NAfGP shall consider the conduct of one nation’s armed incursion into the Gambia as a violation of the country’s territorial integrity and Sovereignty. This shall be emphasized in all diplomatic quarters, while demanding that The Gambia’s respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations be reciprocated. In this regard, all treaties and agreements that accommodated and gave recourse to “hot pursuit” shall be refuted.

The NAfGP shall waive the necessity of the presence of the ECOMIG troops in the country, thereby normalising the theatre operationally so that the country’s Armed Forces are empowered to take full charge of their Constitutional mandate of guarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, and protecting the people of The Gambia.

The NAfGP shall maintain a firm and strategic relationship with the Republic of Senegal in keeping with the mutual interests and aspirations consistent with the desire for a peaceful co-existence.

The NAfGP shall have recourse to review long standing cooperation agreements, awards of contract and memoranda of understanding in the extraction and production industries and the service delivery sector with a view to safeguarding the national interest.

The NAfGP shall launch initiatives aimed at reforming and purifying the Civil Service and public institutions whose preserve is to safeguard national interest, economic, social, cultural and political rights and freedoms.

The NAfGP shall revamp the National Strategic Infrastructure and the overburdened Executive Branch to mitigate wastage of strategic national resources.

The NAfGP shall hold the preceding government accountable for all acts of impropriety that might have conflicted with national interest.

Corruption, crime and criminality are the bane of every society. These are self-centred behaviours of people who harm others for their self-interest and benefit.

The NAfGP acknowledges the many reasons why people engage in criminal activities or financial impropriety in the work place; either they are driven by greed and desire to make a lot of money and live lavish lives, or they are unemployed youth who, because of lack of empowerment through education and skills training, are lured into criminality to earn money to fend for themselves, or that because of poverty, there are fewer opportunities open to them, hence their resorting to criminal activity.
The NAfGP shall promote nationalistic mentalities across all walks of life as a countermeasure to the retrogressive impact that Tribe has had on the country’s road to social cohesion, progress and political pluralism.

The NAfGP subscribes to the truism that tribe is a primordial heritage that shall exist only as a fundamental mark of cultural identity which should not be utilised as a tool and basis for political decision making. Tribe shall therefore be expunged from all national documents and social research questionnaires for the simple reason that its emphasis thereupon discriminates, and aids and abets social exclusions.

The NAfGP shall penalize acts of financial impropriety, while equally clamping down on crimes and criminality. The NAfGP shall neither countenance corruption in any form nor shall it entertain the “sacred cow” predisposition. In this regard, the Serious Crime Unit/Fraud Squad under the Gambia Police Force shall be revamped and transformed into a Judicial Police under the ambit of the Judiciary, and their powers to arrest, detain and prosecute individuals deemed to have committed financial impropriety shall be beefed up correspondingly.

The NAfGP shall revamp the education system and infrastructure, building bespoke science and engineering, Information and Communications Technology, and Home Economics laboratories and libraries in every school across the length and breadth of the country without exception, including Technical, Vocational Education and Training, and shall appropriate 0.5 to 10 per cent of GDP to the sector.

The NAfGP shall provide free University education to all. In this regard, a university campus shall be built in every Region whose location shall be equidistant from all points of that Region.

The NAfGP shall create a Special Scholastic Fund, and a corresponding Council instituted whose role among others shall be to cost, budget and mobilize funds for the specific purpose of financing free university education.

The NAfGP shall have recourse to the State-Owned Enterprises which shall be prevailed upon to show commitment to their social corporate responsibilities by subscribing to the Special Scholastic Fund.

The NAfGP shall revamp the National Health Service and infrastructure with a view to modernising it and making it accessible, qualitative and affordable to all, and shall allocate 0.5 to 10 per cent of GDP to the sector.

The Gambia is increasingly being inundated with waste from inorganic products while waste management and containment efforts are worryingly ineffective. The NAfGP shall revamp the National Environment Agency by strengthening the regulatory and enforcement measures to mitigate hazardous impact and exposure to toxins, thereby ensuring environmental health and safety.

The NAfGP shall revamp the public transport service, making it more reliable and attractive and the transport service of choice for the civil servants and the general public. This evolution shall precede a drastic reduction of government expenditure on vehicles, maintenance and fuel.

The NAfGP shall promote and encourage investment in agriculture and agro-industry by providing incentives and subsidies.
Jahally and Pachar, Kuntaur and all strategic farmlands shall be nationalised, turning them into employment opportunities for all indigenous small-scale farmland holders and those seeking to earn a living in the sector.

The NAfGP shall commit to a firm posture on the Blue Economy, by ensuring a sustainable and beneficial use of our territorial waters and Economic Exclusive Zone resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ecosystem.

The NAfGP shall adopt a Blue Economy safeguarding policy of monitoring, control, prevention, proportionality, protection and partnership, promising a robust guarding of our maritime and riverine resources and legitimates the provisioning of the essential military/naval assets required for effective and sustainable monitoring, control and surveillance of the territorial waters, the economic exclusive zone, coastal and riverine resources.

Every nation, whether big or small, must have recourse to (a) natural resources, (b) human resources, (c) capital resources and (d) self-supporting citizens in order to prosper.

The Gambia is relatively less endowed with minerals of the earth. Its population of about 2.8 million according to provisional results of the 2023 census is not overly literate, numerate, sophisticated and knowledgeable about processes in wealth creation. It is thankless to state that The Gambia lags far behind in the creation and conservation of national wealth. As part of the global village, The Gambia’s chances of benefiting from a large national income are all too evidently slim because the citizens are not self-supporting. The majority of enterprises are foreign-owned resulting in capital flight.

While cognisant of the overarching importance of collecting customs duties and Excise duties (Tax) which account for 70 per cent of the government’s ordinary revenue, the NAfGP shall harmonize the multiplicity of tax regimes and review incentives offered by Investment laws in order to mitigate unforeseen and unintended high tax expenditure burden on the economy.

The NAfGP shall commit to stimulating economic activity in the country and guaranteeing the optimum use of our national resources.

The NAfGP shall create a Sovereign Wealth Fund to serve its normative critical objectives for the country’s economy and it’s citizens, specifically for effective national wealth management, protecting the economy from shocks, ensuring long-term prosperity and the pursuance of development objectives.

The NAfGP shall make opportunities available so that the youths are enthused to accept training, to learn new things and engage in life-long self-supporting entrepreneurship.
The national income shall be stimulated if not expanded, and the remote resources shall be made accessible by creating road networks and promoting productivity in the rural areas.

The NAfGP, in its drive to revitalize the digital economy, shall revert the management of the Telecommunications super highway and gateway to the State-Owned Gambia Telecommunication Company.

The NAfGP shall revamp the roles of Local Government Authorities and their relationships with central government. The fact that The Gambia is not governed under a federal system of government promises the LGAs enjoying semi-autonomous control over their own affairs. In this regard, the LGAs shall be made to fixate on their social amenities provision role, and be more proactive in stimulating economic activity and growth within their localities.

Equipped with this Manifesto, the Nationalist Alternative for Gambia Party rests convinced that it would hit the ground running when its candidate and flag bearer Retired Captain Joseph Paul Jassey is elected as President of the Republic in 2026.

For the Nationalist Alternative for Gambia Party - NAfGP

Retired Captain Joseph Paul Jassey
Founder
October 2024

Party Colours/flag
Bright green fading into bright red; and a hammer and anvil superimposed where the bright green fades into the bright red.

Party Symbol
Hammer and Anvil

Party slogan
Fixing a broken system
Copyright October 2024