The chicken swallows pebbles, drinks water, and eats grains. Yet, she complains of having no teeth. If she has teeth, will she eat gold? Let her go and ask the cow that has teeth but yet eats grass. Cut the grass and let the snakes come out. That's the current status of our country's political landscape. Privacy becomes a mini-market, politics turns into a supermarket, and a lack of respect for authority and elders becomes a boutique. Our society has become so demoralized to the extent that there is no middle left. You're either in the very far-left or in the very far-right.
The politics of hate and destruction should be expunged from our soil. But if you want to know how, when, and where, you were born, go and stand in an election in The Gambia; assume a public office, or closely work with the government. To make a child remarkably embarrassed, insult his mother. In the words of Ashanti King Osei Tutu Kwadwo (Ghana) to the British Governor Sir Charles McCarthy on 21 January 1824, "I will use your skull as a drinking cup, and your jawbones to beat my drums if you dare to invade." Should Gambian elders start using this adage on the youths? Better still, the South African word vulindlela, a Zulu and Xhosa word that means "make way" or "clear the path," which is often used in the context of a wedding to instruct people to make way for the bride and groom, can be suitable for Gambian youths. We should start telling our youths 'vulindlela' if they don't want to be told how they were born.
What we need today—what I call the new intellectual young man— is any man or woman who is willing to think responsively. Meaning—young people who know that a man’s life must be guided by reason, by intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims, or mystic revelation. Our youth must value their lives and not give in to today’s cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence, and they must not intend to give up the world to the Dark Ages and to the rule of the collectivist brute.
As John Henrik Clarke famously observed, “Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.” The politics of opportunism adds to this exhalation. Let's get things right: visibility without value is just noise. Clout may bring crowds, but it doesn’t build trust or long-term results. The truth is less poetic. Destruction is a joint venture. But the citizen who throws garbage in the gutter and the official who sells a hospital contract to his cousin—they belong to the same machinery. Don't they? This is the conception of super-marketization in Gambian politics. A society that advocates for immorality and teaches foolishness in schools; it is no surprise to see the elephant laying eggs in our national park. That's the level of our social cohesion. Popularity has become a suitable yardstick to measure who runs for the presidency in a country where nothing is enough for a man to whom nothing is actually enough. What we are witnessing today is not just a failed society with moral degradation or public apathy; but it’s the slow erosion of divine knowledge on all sides. What the scriptures call the disappearance of knowledge—that's exactly our time.
It is advisable to refrain from incurring additional debt of ingratitude to party politics and political affiliation should we wish to develop as a country. Our future, as a country, is too valuable to be diminished by ongoing youthful obligations. I am a fan of education, and in fact, it is good for every young person to learn dividedly and have a say in our affairs as a country: but we must not allow women to continue giving birth to insignificant children who amount to nothing other than disrespecting elders on social media. Young girls who do not wear panties nowadays and young men who bet their lives in the name of football. What a wasted sperm! The Gambia must commit to making a decision that will facilitate a rigid law-abiding society in the name of transformation. While the process may present challenges, the benefits are significantly necessary. State information and private communication must not be carelessly divulged in the name of vying for the presidency.
Having conducted a philosophical cross-examination of our national problem, I can conclude psychologically with a prognosis that our problem frantically started immediately children who overfed on cornflakes, poop on the potty, and among them those who didn't suckle the breast of their mothers, graduate from university. Young people who speak English more than the British and dress in suits and ties. Those who know more than their parents and their teachers; young men who were circumcised at the hospital;
These are the kinds of young people The Gambia is seeing: emotionally drained youths who vent their frustrations on social media. In those days, with just one look, elders sent children to the conventry and made them suffer the indignity of unremembered graves. But the post-Jammeh era is a generation of baby walker children who now run for president simply because of gardening fame from a village as remote as Sarre Pateh. Interesting, isn't it? That is the height of our country's name on the planet.
Instead of young people having mentors and learning to be responsible citizens who add value to our society, they often glance at our elders and their calm demeanor, unwavering patience, and consistent positivity, and mistakenly assume their path has been smooth and easy. What they fail to see are the countless battles they've fought in silence—the times they felt completely drained, yet somehow found the strength to rise again. They don’t know how many moments they stood at the edge of surrender, questioning whether they should keep going. They haven’t seen the inner wars they’ve waged, confronting fears, traumas, and doubts that threatened to consume them. Their resilience was forged in fire, not comfort, and their journey has been one of quiet courage, relentless perseverance, and a strength that defies easy explanation.
A few years ago, if you had stumbled on any profile on Facebook, you wouldn’t have seen much—just a flower as a profile picture. But all that changed when President Adama Barrow ushered in "freedom of speech and assembly." It is time to initiate an occult of humility and simplicity. There are only two times I become speechless: when I see highly respected elders in our society responding to youths who pee on the potty (poop sï pötti sambur, it is called in Wolof); and when I see haphazardly educated youth with only WAEC results and plenty of F9s advising President Adama Barrow on Facebook. It makes me laugh at our intellect as a country.
Patriotism isn't a decadence; it's a calculated investment of responsibility, and in today's modern wasteland of cheap popularity, hypergamy, and entitlement, the youth must vet politicians like a high-stakes business deal. If you don't, you will be just another famous Bob Keita.
I’m a naturally reserved person. I wasn’t trained with social media shenanigans, and I never saw the need to post anything—not even birthday wishes. My page was just there… silent. The urge to promote Gambian literature and publicize my writings led me into social media usage.
In today’s noisy world, focus isn’t just a habit—it’s a superpower. Be so grounded in your purpose that distractions no longer have a say. You don’t need to chase every shiny thing—just the one thing that truly matters. In both my professional and social life, I apply three ethical principles (Kantian, Utilitarianism, and Virtue ethics) to avoid offending and treating people unjustly, at least not intentionally. So, if you ever feel offended by any of my actions, I am sincerely sorry, and please forgive my shortcomings as I am only human.
But the Kantian ethics taught me that my only motive for doing good is when it is a duty (moral and/or legal), not out of personal interest, and must be universally applicable.
Utilitarianism reminds me of the consequences of my actions. The utilitarian perspective of good moral ethics is mainly concerned with the consequences of an action and balancing its relative advantages and disadvantages from the standpoint of creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people, in my view. This means that in order to assess an action as being right or wrong in a given situation, one must look at the consequences of applying that action and take full responsibility for your actions.
Virtue ethics, on the other hand, has taught me an approach according to which the basic judgments in ethics are about character. In virtue ethics, an action will be considered right if it is what a virtuous agent would do in the circumstances. Virtue ethics tend to consider the personal values of an individual, with the notion that if the virtues of people are encouraged, then there would be no need for problem-solving since each and every individual would be acting from the goodness of their heart. Not so?
If ever our country is to develop, the youths, who have a key role to play in our development, must be both patient and educated.
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