Adama’s Gambia gamble

Backing their man: Supporters of the United Democratic Party cheering for their presidential candidate Adama at a rally in Banjul, Gambia. — Reuters

WHEN news came through of the shocking win of Adama in the Gambian presidential elections, it prompted a bunch of Battlestar Galactica jokes from friends with whom I shared it. Pictures of Lorne Greene, the exchange of slogans like “and so say we all” and “by your command” and pedantic pronouncements that “Roslin was actually president, while Adama was a commander” naturally followed.

But aside from the jokes, I was experiencing that rare bout of euphoria that happens when a dictator miscalculates his manoeuvres and has to stand down. Adama Barrow’s victory represents a shift of potentially seismic proportions for a country that has spent virtually all of its existence under the yoke of just two leaders.