Hon. Mai Fatty, Party Leader of GMC
By Buba Gagigo
Mai Fatty, leader of the Gambia Moral Congress (GMC), has expressed confidence in President Adama Barrow’s leadership, stating that Barrow is a more tolerant and capable leader than many individuals in the opposition.
In a recent interview with Kerr Fatou, Fatty defended the decision to form an alliance with the President’s National People’s Party (NPP) ahead of the 2026 presidential election. He emphasized that Barrow’s leadership qualities, including his political tolerance, distinguish him from many of his political opponents, some of whom Fatty claims display a more authoritarian approach.
“I believe that President Barrow is a much better leader than many people in opposition today because President Barrow is a more tolerant political leader today than many people who are his opponents, not just in opposition parties but who are elsewhere. The fact that I resigned from the government previously, or the fact that the President relieved me of cabinet responsibility, does not change the fact, the fact is, President Barrow is a more tolerant political figure and political leader in this country. Because a good political leader must be very tolerant. President Barrow is a highly tolerant political person, and in that sense, he is very much more tolerant than a lot of dictators who invade our airspace, our public space, and people who believe Mai Fatty should not go there. If he does he’s a bad man,” Mai Fatty told Kerr Fatou.
On the subject of the alliance between GMC and NPP, Fatty dismissed critics of the partnership, stating that it was a decision made by two sovereign political parties.
“It is a decision of two sovereign political parties to go into an alliance if we decide to go in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to enter the deal there, whose business it is if you are not a member of NPP and GMC? If our membership accepts that we go into President Barrow’s bedroom, whose business it is if GMC members and NPP accept. If we agree we can go to my bathroom and sign it there or talk there. Who’s business, it is? This is too sovereign political parties, their members agreeing on how to do their own things. What is your business about that if you are not a member of those two political,” he said.
Fatty clarified that while GMC had entered into an alliance with NPP, he had not joined the party itself. “I have not joined NPP in the first place” he stated. “even if I do, is my right? If I intend to join the NPP I will and it is nobody’s business but for my party to go into an alliance with the NPP is a decision of the Gambia Moral Congress, National Congress. Stop talking about Mai Fatty. It is the National Congress that made the decision. As the party leader, I have a responsibility, a mandate, to implement the decisions of the National Congress. And one of those decisions is to go into an alliance with the NPP, a process, which I have managed up to now. I am performing the role of a leader of a political party whose people ordered him to bring into motion a process. So this is not Mai Fatty,” Mai Fatty explained.
Responding to those he claimed are saying he is too prominent to align with NPP, Fatty rebuffed the criticism, calling it an insult to the thousands of Gambians who support the party.
“People who are saying Mai Fatty as an individual is too good to join the NPP have insulted, seriously insulted, grievously assaulted the integrity and the personality and the citizenship rights of hundreds of 1000s of people who are members of the NPP, not only that, they have spit on the sovereign decision of this country, because 2021, we all went into presidential elections. President Barrow won with the largest majority ever recorded in the history of this country, in terms of popular votes, the largest majority. Now, are you telling me that the largest majority, hundreds of 1000s of Gambians are also not good enough for me, because that is their decision,” he said.
Fatty also acknowledged that no government is without flaws but argued that the current administration has made significant progress that is widely appreciated by Gambians.