By Seedy Jobe
Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang, a former vice president of The Gambia, said President Adama Barrow did not have the leadership capacity to chair the Economic Community of West African States, arguing that the country had lost a chance to assume the bloc’s rotating leadership.
In an interview with Kerr Fatou, Ms. Tambajang was asked why The Gambia does not currently hold the ECOWAS chairmanship. She said the country could not lead the regional body without a president she considered qualified for the role.
“He is not qualified for it,” Ms. Tambajang said of Mr. Barrow. “He doesn’t have the competence as a leader to chair ECOWAS.”
Her remarks were directed at supporters of Mr. Barrow, who have pointed to his former chairmanship of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, and argued that it is a larger international body than ECOWAS.
Ms. Tambajang questioned what concrete gains The Gambia and the region had received during that tenure.
“What benefit did he bring to ECOWAS? How many years has it been now?” She asked.
She also said Mr. Barrow had not demonstrated the kind of sustained diplomatic engagement she believed was required of a regional leader. Citing the 2017 plane crash that killed Libya’s foreign minister and members of his delegation, she said she had not seen a comparable diplomatic response from The Gambia.
“I haven’t heard that The Gambia sent a delegation. Until today, I haven’t heard that he went on a mission, just as Turkey did. When the OIC was chaired by Turkey, every year, every now and then, they organized meetings,” she said.
Ms. Tambajang said the ECOWAS chairmanship comes with institutional support, including funding for official travel and logistics, and argued that the government had failed to pursue opportunities that could advance the country’s interests.
She cited her own role in mediation efforts in Sierra Leone after the country’s disputed 2023 election. She said ECOWAS, the Commonwealth, and the African Union had appointed her as chief mediator in negotiations that led to an agreement between the government and the opposition.
“ECOWAS, the Commonwealth, and the African Union appointed me as chief mediator. I went, and within three days, God helped us, and they signed an agreement. Now they are implementing the agreement. The APC, the opposition, has gone back to the government. So I am an international moral guarantor in Sierra Leone,” she said.
Ms. Tambajang said she had spent years working on behalf of other countries and wanted now to serve The Gambia. She said her political ambition was rooted in a vision of a country that is just, democratic, and peaceful.
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