Momodou Sabally, former presidential affairs minister and secretary general, has criticised the Barrow government over the country’s rising unemployment rate as thousands of University of The Gambia students graduated over the weekend. 

According to Sabally, who is now a campaign manager for the opposition United Democratic Party, said most of the students are leaving higher education without any prospect of jobs due to high unemployment rate. 

“For many, this is the day of transient relief from academic rigour; and the beginning of a life of destitution, coming face to face with the reality of “blasted hopes”. 

“In a country where the biggest employer is the  public sector; with no more room to hire people, where do our young graduates head for?,” Sabally said. 

He continued: “Lots of them will try desperate moves of attaining further ‘paper qualification’, grasping the next available half-scholarship to pursue disciplines that they have no business studying; absorbing more of the meager resources of their families, only to come back home to joblessness and more frustration, for themselves and their struggling families.

“And this sad situation is all because of a leadership that does not have reliable data on unemployment; neither do they have any plans for sustainable job creation for our young brains.”

“Adama Barrow and his Youth Minister BAKARY Badjie as well as his minister in charge of employment Baboucarr Joof do not have a clue how to handle this crucial national nightmare and neither do they really care.

“How can we harness the potential of our demographic dividend if our government does even understand the basic facts and figures about unemployment and employability of our youths. 

“And when you talk about the unemployment problem, they start touting their old worn-out fad: young people should be job creator,”he added. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba