Essa Faal has said the least educated Gambians should not be elected to leadership position as they do not have the skill set to develop the country. 

Mr Faal, former lead counsel of the Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, launched his presidential campaign on Friday as he seeks to unseat the incumbent president Adama Barrow. 

He told a crowd of supporters that he 

doesn’t know of a country in the world that has been developed by the least educated.

“Politics and leadership has for the longest time been the reserve for those who are not very successful in our society and let’s call a spade a spade,” Mr Faal said. 

“Let us not maslaha [conceal] the truth, those days [of having uneducated people in leadership position] should be over. That is one of the reasons why we are lagging behind. Let’s end the maslaha [concealing] of the truth.”

In what could be seen as a swipe at former president Yahya Jammeh and the incumbent president Adama Barrow, two leaders with a high school education, Mr Faal: “Our constitution says O Levels [for presidency]. I wonder why we should bring the bar so low.

“I don’t know a country in the world which has been developed by the least educated in that society. Do you know of any?

“The previous occupants of those offices did not have any better qualification, so we were stuck with that. We choose the not-so-educated and the not-so-accomplished to be our leaders.”

Mr Faal will run under an independent ticket with the slogan’Turn Around’.

He is seeking to change the fortunes of The Gambia.

He said the country is on a crossroad and needs to be rescued from corruption and incompetence.