By Seedy Jobe
The chairman of the Brikama Area Council, Yankuba Darboe, said that responsibility for the long-delayed repair of the access road into Tanji rests with the central government, not with the local council, as residents continue to grapple with flooding on the route.
Mr. Darboe made the remarks during a tour of community development projects in the region, where he said the state of the road—which floods during heavy rains—has become a persistent source of frustration for residents, the local ward councilor, and the council as a whole.
He said the council lacked the legal authority to carry out the repairs itself. Major road construction, he explained, falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Works, and current regulations do not permit the council to take on such projects independently.
Mr. Darboe also raised questions about how fuel levies collected by the government are being used, noting that a portion of the tax on every liter of petrol sold is designated for road construction.
“Where that money goes, only Allah knows,” he said. “Because a road as important as this one still has not been constructed, and that is very worrying.”
He said the government had pledged to repair the road before the start of the rainy season but had not followed through, and he called on the minister of works, Ebrima Sillah, to act.
“No stealing, no lying, only jobs,” Mr. Darboe said. “If the work were done the way it is supposed to be done, this road would have been constructed by now.”
Addressing suggestions that the council itself should finance the project, Mr. Darboe outlined the council’s budget in detail. He said that when the current council took office, its annual budget stood at about 73 million dalasis, most of which was spent on salaries, fuel, and vehicle maintenance. Since then, he said, the council has curbed revenue leakages and increased its income to 240 million dalasis last year.
According to Mr. Darboe, the council now spends about 7 million dalasis a month on staff salaries, 2 million dalasis on fuel, and between 10 million and 12 million dalasis on administrative costs, leaving roughly 120 million dalasis a year for development projects.
Of that remaining amount, the council distributes 1 million dalasis to each of its 28 wards for local needs. It also spends about 17 million dalasis annually on university fees for students unable to afford tuition, 5 million dalasis on health support, and between 10 million and 20 million dalasis on capital projects.
Mr. Darboe said concreting the roughly two-kilometer stretch of road connecting the highway to Tanji would cost between 20 million and 30 million dalasis per kilometer—an expense he said the council cannot currently absorb given its other financial commitments.
Mr. Darboe used the occasion to make a direct appeal to voters in Tanji, a stronghold of the United Democratic Party, ahead of next year’s election.
“They promised you that before the rainy season they would construct this road,” he said, referring to the government. “The rain came, and they did not. But God willing, in the coming election of 2026, if you vote for Ousainou Darboe, he will construct this road for you.”
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