NPP-LED ALLIANCE DISMISSES OPPOSITION ‘TRI-VERGENCE ACCORD’ AS MERE THEATRICS
The National People’s Party-led alliance has dismissed the newly signed ‘Tri-Vergence Accord’ by six opposition groups as a hollow theatrical gesture designed to mask their disunity and lack of viable ideas ahead of the 5th December, 2026 presidential election.
A statement issued by the alliance secretariat signed by its national coordinator, Mai Fatty read: “We acknowledge the theatrical gesture. We do not mistake a press photograph for political reality. The NPP-led alliance has governed this country with purpose and discipline. We have built roads, hospitals, schools, bridges, and institutions, stabilised the economy and set this country on the foundations of greatness.
“We have secured peace, restored democratic norms, and elevated The Gambia’s standing in the community of nations. We have done all of these and more for one reason only, and that is because we were called to serve. No agreement signed in a conference room changes that record, erases that legacy, or diminishes the depth of confidence the Gambian people have placed in President Adama Barrow and this alliance.
“The signatories of the agreement have failed to appreciate or perhaps have always known but hoped the public would not notice that an agreement on paper carries no weight when it is contradicted within hours by the very parties that signed it. Within hours of the agreement being announced with much ceremony, recognised members of at least one signatory party took to various platforms declaring, without apology or hesitation, that they would not withhold criticism of some fellow signatories. Let that register. The agreement collapsed not in weeks, not in days, but within the same news cycle in which it was born.
“This is not a simple failure of discipline. It is a revelation of character. It tells us, with clinical precision, what these groups of signatories are made of, and what they are not. It tells us that the men and women who signed that document did so either without consulting their own membership, or worse, with full knowledge that it would not hold.
“The Gambian electorate deserve better than to be offered a political performance and told it is a plan towards unity. Those who have observed the political space for years know that the mutual contempt among these parties runs deep, bitter, and personal. Their leaders have spent years weaponising each other’s names. Their followers have traded accusations of treachery, opportunism, and incompetence in language that would embarrass the most partisan of commentators…
“We must also, with the gravity the matter deserves, address the political culture that certain of these parties have cultivated and normalised. Certain political parties among the signatories of this agreement have, over the years, elevated deliberate falsehood, calculated personal vilification, and the systematic use of abrasive and offensive language into what they appear to regard as instruments of political engagement.
“It would be wrong to call it strategy, for strategy implies purpose aligned with outcome. What they have practised is closer to political vandalism; the destruction of civil discourse for its own sake, in the mistaken belief that those who shout loudest win… President Barrow and this alliance have overseen an era of transformation that has no parallel in this nation’s history, including infrastructure development on a scale never before attempted.”
The statement concluded by chiding that none of the opposition leaders has the stature, governance capability, trust, or popularity that President Barrow commands.
Source: The Standard
