Let us stop pretending. Ousainou Darboe stepping down from UDP leadership is about as likely as a goat becoming carnivore. As long as the man can shuffle to a podium and clear his throat, he is UDP, and UDP is him. The two are fused tighter than attaya and sugar.
History, however, is not amused. Gambian politics has long been a cemetery of political parties that could not survive the death, or even the nap, of their founders. Mr. Madi’s party? Buried. Reverend J. C. Faye’s Democratic Party? Six feet under. Jahumpa’s Muslim Congress? Vanished. Pierre Sarr Njie’s United Party, Sheriff Dibba’s NCP, Choi Yassin Secka’s NLP, Andrew Camara’s GPP? All gone, may their logos rest in peace. Even Jawara’s once-mighty PPP and Jammeh’s once-terrifying APRC are today little more than dusty exhibits in the Museum of Political Dinosaurs. At best, they often survive briefly on life support through coalitions with ruling parties and at worst, they vanish altogether.
The UDP is peering nervously into that same abyss while the abyss is winking back.
We’ve seen this theater before. In 1991, Sir Dawda Jawara coyly suggested retirement at Mansakonko, sending PPP bigwigs into cardiac arrest. “Without you, Sir Dawda, the PPP will collapse! The country will collapse! Even the sun might stop rising!” they wailed. Unsurprisingly, Sir Dawda stayed, smiling for another two years as loyalists fattened themselves at the feeding container. Moral of the story? Gambian leaders never retire; they just linger like guests who refuse to leave the party.
Fast forward to today. The UDP’s recent “call for applications” to replace Darboe is political theatre at its finest, a movie drama without the good actors. Since 1996, Darboe has run the party like a family business. In 2021, when three members dared to apply for flag bearer, including Senior Lawyer Lamin J. Darboe, their papers were dismissed quicker than fake dalasi notes at Serrekunda market. No explanation. No transparency.
Now in 2025, we’re suddenly supposed to believe in “internal democracy”? Please.
But something feels different this time. Members are whispering heresy, “Darboe should step aside in 2026.” And when the whispers turn to names, one stands out like a bright yellow taxi light, Talib Ahmed Bensouda. Young, ambitious, popular, and visibly hungry for power. The man has been playing the dutiful apprentice, bowing before the Master, while covertly eyeing the throne like a cat eyes an unattended fish.
Watch his Dakar interview closely. He praised Darboe, yes, but then dropped the bomb that maybe it’s time for youthful leaders to take over in The Gambia, with Senegal’s PASTEF as inspiration. That wasn’t a slip of the tongue but a mic drop, translating to “Darboe, I’m ready. You’re not moving fast enough, and I’ve already tailored my presidential suit.”
Some dreamt Darboe might pull an “Ousman Sonko”, graciously handing the baton to Talib as Senegal’s opposition did for Diomaye Faye. But the UDP is not PASTEF. Inside UDP’s belly are men like Yankuba Darboe, who once thundered: “If people don’t want a Mandinka president, they should leave the UDP and form their own party!” That kind of rhetoric doesn’t just burn bridges, it nukes them.
So what’s Talib to do? He can’t wait until 2031 to inherit the crown. He can’t fight the tribal undertones without torching his career. The whispers among his supporters are getting louder; “Form your own party, man. Save yourself!” And frankly, he might as well. Because inside UDP, Talib will never be flag bearer, not in 2026, not in 2031, not even in the afterlife.
The truth is bitter but simple, the UDP is marching toward the same funeral procession that carried the coffins of PPP, NCP, UP, and GPP to the graveyard of Gambian politics. Parties that thought their founders were immortal, only to discover otherwise.
Talk of reconciliation? Forget it. That train has left the station, derailed, and is now rusting in a scrapyard. Talib may not have formally left, but spiritually, his bags are already packed.
The UDP stands at a crossroads of reinvention beyond Ousainou Darboe or follow the proud Gambian tradition of dying with its founder.
And knowing Gambian politics, I wouldn’t bet on reinvention.
