Halifa Sallah Calls for Local Control of Tax Revenue, Says Gambians Have Power to End Poverty

By Makutu Manneh

Veteran Gambian politician Halifa Sallah has called for greater local control over tax revenue, arguing that communities should retain the taxes they collect to finance their own development rather than depend on decisions made by the central government.

Speaking in Fass Njaga Choi during the ongoing nationwide tour of the Team Gambia Grand Coalition, which he helped initiate, Sallah said Gambians have the collective power to break the cycle of poverty that has persisted for generations.

He described a country where people are born into poverty, grow up in poverty, work throughout their lives in poverty, and eventually die in poverty, questioning whether such conditions should continue to define the lives of Gambians.

Sallah urged citizens to recognize the power of their votes, pointing to the 2016 presidential election as evidence that ordinary Gambians can bring about political change. He emphasized that every citizen has an equal voice at the ballot box, with each voter possessing the same single vote as the president and other elected officials.

“People living in hardship must question the causes of their situation, failure to reflect is a failure to exercise the human ability to think,” he said.

The veteran politician also drew attention to the struggles facing Gambian families, particularly mothers who endure the hardships of pregnancy and raising children, often hoping those children will eventually lift them out of poverty.

He lamented what he described as the country’s failure to provide adequate support for parents and children, leaving families trapped in difficult economic circumstances.

Sallah further expressed concern over the lack of opportunities for young people, saying many are unable to secure employment or build meaningful futures at home. As a result, he said, some undertake dangerous irregular migration journeys in search of better opportunities to support their families, with others losing their lives along the way.

He argued that such hardship and desperation should not define the future of the country.

Outlining one of the coalition’s proposals, Sallah advocated a decentralized system of revenue management under which taxes collected in Fass Njaga Choi and other communities would remain under the control of their respective Village Development Committees to fund local development initiatives.

He criticized the longstanding practice of collecting taxes from communities and transferring the revenue elsewhere, arguing that residents have little knowledge of how the money is ultimately spent.

According to Sallah, this arrangement has persisted since independence, leaving communities without meaningful control over resources generated locally.

His remarks formed part of the Team Gambia Grand Coalition’s broader appeal for citizens to take greater responsibility for shaping their political and economic future, with decentralization and community empowerment at the center of its proposed approach to development.