The National Assembly Member for Latrikunda, Hon. Yahya Sanyang, has said that the electricity crisis has subjected millions of Gambians to unbearable darkness.
He made this statement on Thursday, 11th June 2026, while addressing parliament under Matters of the Day.
Rising under the relevant provisions of the Standing Orders, he brought to the floor a Matter of the Day that, according to him, “strikes at the very heart of our national survival, our economy, and the dignity of the Gambian people—the catastrophic electricity crisis currently plaguing our nation.”
He called on the legislature to demand an immediate, transparent roadmap from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and NAWEC on how they intend to stabilize the grid before mid-June.
“As we sit in this august assembly, millions of Gambians across the Greater Banjul Area, the West Coast Region, and beyond are being subjected to unendurable darkness,” he told his fellow lawmakers.
He stressed that this is no longer a mere inconvenience but a full-blown economic and social emergency.
“Our small and medium-sized enterprises—the lifeblood of our economy—are collapsing. Tailors, mechanics, hairdressers, and corner-shop owners are watching their livelihoods evaporate because they cannot power their businesses,” he said.
He lamented that due to power outages, citizens are losing millions of Dalasis daily as food items rot in refrigerators.
Households, he added, are being forced to throw away hard-earned food supplies at a time when the cost of living is already suffocating the average Gambian family.
He stated that what makes the situation completely unacceptable is that it was entirely preventable.
According to NAWEC, “our current woes are due to a 60-megawatt drop in regional imports and missing spare parts.”
Calling for honesty, he said, “this crisis is the direct result of this government’s chronic lack of investment in our domestic energy sector.”
For years, he argued, the administration has “neglected local generation capacity at facilities like Kotu and Brikama, choosing instead to outsource our national security and sovereignty to cross-border networks.”
Hon. Sanyang asked, “Where did the lights go?”
He said that by over-relying on imports without building a robust, self-sustaining domestic backup, the government has left the Gambian people completely vulnerable to external shocks, regional fuel hikes, and foreign debt entanglements.
He noted that while Gambians endure ten to twelve hours of blackouts daily, some officials appear during press briefings to casually downplay the agony of the people.
“To call a systemic breakdown that paralyzes hospitals, schools, and markets a mere ‘temporary glitch’ or a ‘two-week challenge’ is a gross misrepresentation of reality,” he said.
Public officials, he added, should stop misleading the population, hiding behind the narrative of “unprecedented universal access expansion” while the infrastructure already in place is crumbling from neglect.
“The executive must stop shifting blame to geopolitics and regional networks. The executive must accept responsibility for its failure to prioritize strategic capital investment in local energy independence,” he challenged.
He further called on the legislative house to demand an immediate, transparent roadmap from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and NAWEC on how they intend to stabilize the grid before mid-June, along with a comprehensive strategy to urgently upgrade local generation capacity.
He concluded that Gambians pay their taxes, they pay for their cashpower, and they deserve reliable electricity—not excuses, and certainly not misleading propaganda.
