UDP’s Lamin Manneh Says Faal, Kandeh and Ceesay Fell Victim to ‘Popularity Delusion’

By Seedy Jobe

Lamin Manneh, a prominent member of the United Democratic Party, has argued that the political trajectories of Gambia Democratic Congress leader Mama Kandeh, Citizens’ Alliance leader Dr. Ismaila Ceesay and APP-SOBEYAA leader Essa Faal were shaped by what he described as a “popularity delusion.”

Speaking on Eye Africa TV, Manneh said the three politicians mistook periods of heightened public attention, particularly enthusiasm among young Gambians, for durable electoral support. That miscalculation, he argued, encouraged them to pursue their own political ambitions before ultimately aligning themselves with President Adama Barrow.

Manneh traced what he described as the pattern to the 2016 presidential election, when Kandeh emerged as a significant opposition figure at a time of heightened political tension under former President Yahya Jammeh.

At the time, UDP leader Ousainou Darboe and several senior party officials were in prison, and public demand for political change was growing. Kandeh attracted large crowds at some of his early rallies, which Manneh said gave him an inflated sense of his electoral strength.

According to Manneh, those crowds contributed to Kandeh’s decision not to join the opposition coalition formed to challenge Jammeh. Kandeh instead contested the election independently, receiving about 83,000 votes.

Manneh said the experience eventually led Kandeh to pursue alliances with other political forces, including the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction, ahead of the 2021 presidential election.

He said a similar dynamic emerged around Dr. Ismaila Ceesay in 2018 and 2019, when Ceesay, then a lecturer at the University of The Gambia, became an outspoken critic of the Barrow administration.

Ceesay’s arrest prompted protests by university students and raised his national profile, particularly among young Gambians and on social media. He later founded the Citizens’ Alliance, assembling a relatively youthful executive.

But Manneh argued that Ceesay’s perceived popularity did not translate into the political organization necessary to sustain a presidential campaign. He pointed to difficulties surrounding the Citizens’ Alliance’s nomination process ahead of the 2021 election, saying Ceesay had acknowledged spending significant resources mobilizing supporters to satisfy nomination requirements.

Manneh said those challenges exposed the difference between public visibility and an established political base. Ceesay later joined the Barrow administration, a move Manneh portrayed as an effort to remain politically relevant.

Turning to Essa Faal, Manneh said the APP-SOBEYAA leader experienced a similar rise in national prominence through his role as lead counsel at the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission.

Faal became one of the country’s most recognizable public figures during the TRRC proceedings. But Manneh argued that Faal mistook the public attention generated by his work at the commission for grassroots political support.

He also recalled criticism from President Barrow during that period suggesting that Faal’s conduct at the commission was being influenced by presidential ambitions — an allegation that reflected the growing political tensions surrounding Faal’s public profile.

Manneh said the experiences of Kandeh, Ceesay and Faal illustrated a broader problem in Gambian politics: the assumption that national prominence or professional success automatically translates into electoral strength.

Not every person who earns public admiration through professional or public service, he argued, needs to seek the presidency to maintain that recognition.

“This popularity delusion is what is consuming these young politicians,” Manneh said.