The opposition just roasted the president's hollow Christmas message. Hagi Suwaneh, the National Youth President for the main opposition United Democratic Party, slammed President Adama Barrow's recent address for ignoring a massive youth crisis. Suwaneh argued the speech showed a total lack of care and urgency while young Gambians face desperate unemployment and deadly migration attempts. He cited numbers showing national unemployment jumping from around four percent to over six and a half percent since 2018, with youth unemployment sitting above ten percent. Suwaneh specifically called out the government's groundnut pricing, saying farmers get only about thirty-eight thousand Gambian dalasi per metric ton despite higher global prices, a policy he claims wrecks farming incentives and fuels rural poverty.
He blasted the economic structure, keeping over seventy percent of workers in insecure, informal gigs like petty trading or subsistence farming, which offer no real future. With population growth near three percent annually and graduates stuck without jobs, Suwaneh said frustration is sky high. He highlighted the brutal human cost, stating over fifteen hundred Gambians died this past year trying to reach Europe, with more than a hundred ninety people vanishing recently on one route alone. The youth leader accused the government of focusing on grabbing international loans while staying quiet about these deaths at sea. Suwaneh demanded real policy shifts toward sustainable job creation, fair farm prices, and skills development so young people can actually build a future at home.
He blasted the economic structure, keeping over seventy percent of workers in insecure, informal gigs like petty trading or subsistence farming, which offer no real future. With population growth near three percent annually and graduates stuck without jobs, Suwaneh said frustration is sky high. He highlighted the brutal human cost, stating over fifteen hundred Gambians died this past year trying to reach Europe, with more than a hundred ninety people vanishing recently on one route alone. The youth leader accused the government of focusing on grabbing international loans while staying quiet about these deaths at sea. Suwaneh demanded real policy shifts toward sustainable job creation, fair farm prices, and skills development so young people can actually build a future at home.
