By Fatou Sillah
Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, the country’s Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, said residents in remote parts of The Gambia credit a sweeping road construction program with preventing their communities from being cut off from essential services.
Speaking about the government’s 1,500-kilometer road initiative under the Yiriwaa National Development Plan, Dr. Ceesay described recent visits to project sites in the Upper River Region and Central River Region, where construction is underway.
“I have been to places on Sunday where the people were like, without those roads they would have been cut off from civilization,” He Said.
The projects, he added, are designed not only to improve transportation but also to link clusters of rural villages and expand access to electricity, water, and other basic services. Some of the roads, he said, form loops connecting as many as seven or eight communities.
The program has drawn criticism from opposition figures, who argue that the timing of road inaugurations is politically motivated. Dr. Ceesay rejected that characterization, saying infrastructure development should not be viewed through a political lens.
“Development is about the people, and you cannot politicize development; otherwise, you put lives in danger,” he said.
He urged critics to acknowledge the administration’s achievements while holding it accountable in other areas. Rather than dismissing the projects outright, he said, the opposition should focus on what he described as substantive policy debates, including the delivery of healthcare and other services.
“I think they should commend the president for what he is doing and then look for weaknesses in the government and look at those weaknesses. You cannot take the entire opposition’s narrative against the government on these issues,” he said.
Dr. Ceesay also criticized the opposition more broadly, describing it as ineffective and lacking strategic focus. “They are focused on petty things like, oh, you’re doing this election here. What else do they have against this government apart from that? What else? The debate should be about, “You are doing this in healthcare; this is not the way it should be,” he said.
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