Accompanied by over two hundred of his supporters, the YCD founder, Buba Bojang, met President Adama Barrow at Mankamang Kunda to officially announce his reasons for joining the NPP.
The group was received by the president, the NPP administrative secretary, Seedy Ceesay, the deputy political adviser, Dodou Sanno, and several other senior NPP executive members. President Barrow said his party has been attracting huge solidarity from all corners of the country. He said the coming of the youth political group will add value to the party’s restructuring process.
He commended Buba Bojang and assured him that the NPP would work with his group. The president was also impressed with the number of supporters who accompanied Mr Bojang to Mankamang Kunda. The president said the NPP is open to working with all political parties. He urged his supporters to stay united and embrace all newcomers. The Gambian leader urged his party executives and supporters to avoid undermining each other. He said the party has a good chance of winning the 2026 presidential election if they stay united.
The founder of Youth for Change and Development (YCD) and resident of Jambanjelly, Buba Bojang, commended the president for accepting to work with his group but insisted that they are not surrendering themselves to the NPP as such.
“We joined the NPP to share our ideas and programmes with them and help the government achieve its development aspirations,” he affirmed. “We believe that this country cannot achieve its aspirations without strong institutions. We are not looking for positions or anything. All we want, is to through our master plan, help the government affect the needed changes,” he said.
He said the group has developed a detailed manifesto that will help the NPP connect more with the government through its policies and ideologies, which will be aligned with their plans and ideas.
“We believe that the government should not operate with policies and programmes different from the NPP manifesto,” Bojang said.
He said the three hundred people who accompanied him to the president demonstrated that they have numbers and that their coming is genuine and based on the interests of the country.
“It is now left to them to embrace us, or else we will go and look elsewhere. We are not going to surrender ourselves to the NPP.
The chance of us staying together highly depends on what happens next,” he added.
Bojang said his group wants to champion the politics of truth and accountability.
“We want this country to serve as an example for other countries, and we have the ideas to make this happen in partnership with the NPP,” he said.
He said the agreement with the NPP will revisit the ruling party's constitution and manifesto and align it with theirs.
“We believe the president should not rely on the cabinet to design government programmes when there is a political party he campaigned under and won the election. The status quo cannot continue,” he said.
He said the Coalition of 2016 failed because they had no tangible plans.
