By Makutu Manneh
Essa Mbye Faal, leader of the APP Sobeyaa Political Party, has strongly criticized President Adama Barrow’s monthly salary of D500,000, describing it as an example of what he called the government’s excessive and unjustified expenditure.
In a video posted on his Facebook page and addressed to a gathered crowd, Faal compared the president’s salary to that of civil servants earning D5,000 per month, arguing that the disparity reflects deep inequality.
“President Adama Barrow is getting paid D500,000 a month while they are paying your children D5,000. Is that not sad?” he asked.
Faal said the president’s salary is equivalent to eight years’ wages for lower-income civil servants. He also highlighted the president’s additional benefits, including rent-free housing, free medical care, fuel, education support, and a D150,000 daily food allowance.
He further referenced recent discussions at the National Assembly about increasing lawmakers’ salaries, noting that the Speaker earns D19 million every five years.
“These are the same people who say the country has no money, yet an individual can receive D19 million in five years,” he said, criticizing what he described as the misuse of public funds to benefit a small elite.
Faal warned that economic hardship would continue if President Barrow remained in office.
“Do you want to continue eating only once or twice a day?” he asked the crowd, which responded “no.”
He urged Gambians to vote out the Barrow administration and elect a Sobeyaa government under his leadership, promising a more equitable system in which salaries are reviewed fairly.
“There will be nothing like someone being paid twelve times more than another,” he assured.
He lamented that many Gambians have been reduced to begging, calling the situation an “embarrassment,” and pledged to create a system that allows citizens to live dignified lives through their own work.
Faal also referenced the findings of the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC), saying those who tried to escape accountability could not.
“If you elect us, we will work for the country and its people,” he said.
He concluded by assuring voters that a Sobeyaa-led government would bring meaningful change.
“The day you give us the government, know that The Gambia will change. Mothers will rest, we will wipe their tears, and the youth will be happy,” Faal said.