Spontaneous candlelight protests have spread over the past 24 hours from Banjul to communities across the Greater Banjul Area and the West Coast Region.
Across the country Gambians have taken to the streets with one simple and legitimate demand: “We Need Light Now.”
It is a national distress call from families, students, healthcare workers, traders and businesses whose lives and livelihoods are being disrupted by persistent blackouts.
In a statement, The Founder and Party Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) The Gambia, Prince Ebrahim Sanyang, said he stands with every Gambian peacefully demanding reliable electricity, appealing for calm and responsibility while urging the authorities to protect the constitutional right of citizens to express their grievances peacefully.
“To H.E. President Adama Barrow, I say respectfully; please listen to the people,” he said.
According to Prince Sanyang, the electricity crisis has moved beyond being merely an operational problem at NAWEC to become a crisis of national productivity, public confidence, economic security and leadership.
He argued that temporary restoration of electricity after demonstrations begin cannot substitute for a functioning national energy system, and that announcing how many communities are connected to the grid is not enough.
“Access without reliability is not electricity. A pole, cable and meter cannot transform lives when the national grid remains dark,” he said.
His Highness said he warned publicly in May 2026 that NAWEC’s institutional weaknesses and the absence of sustainable generation, transmission and management capacity posed serious economic and political consequences, adding that the current demonstrations confirm the urgency of that warning.
He said his confidence in addressing the national electricity crisis is rooted in his own past experience that he delivered for Gambia, and not in promises invented for a the upcoming election campaign.
“In 2016, nearly a decade before ever dreaming of seeking the presidency, I facilitated, led, championed and successfully delivered high-level diplomatic and commercial engagements involving TBEA, a major global electricity transmission and infrastructure company, together with Chinese and Gambian stakeholders,” he said.
He explained that those engagements were focused on the rehabilitation, expansion and modernisation of The Gambia’s electricity infrastructure.
According to him, TBEA and its related solar subsidiary subsequently secured three major contracts through formal procurement processes under the Gambia Electricity Restoration and Modernisation Project (GERMP): the Brikama–Jabang transmission infrastructure project, Phase Two transmission and substation works in the Greater Banjul Area, and the Jambur solar-generation and battery-storage project.
He said the three contracts were worth approximately US$56.2 million combined and formed part of the wider GERMP programme valued at approximately US$164 million.
“The historical photographs accompanying this statement are not campaign productions. They were taken during those engagements and show me chairing meetings with Chinese and Gambian stakeholders on the strategic development of our electricity infrastructure,” he said.
“I do not claim that public contracts awarded and managed by the Government belong to me. I claim the record that is mine; identifying a national challenge, championing the solution by leading, negotiating and bringing serious international energy partners, and succeeding in directing and structuring needed financing for stakeholders at the same table,” he added.
Prince Sanyang noted that while international relationships can open doors, only competent leadership, effective supervision and institutional accountability can turn contracts into reliable electricity, which he said is the critical lesson of the present crisis.
He said he is ready, willing and able to immediately and without partisan conditions meet President Barrow, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, NAWEC, PURA, development partners and independent energy specialists to help formulate a credible emergency electricity-stabilisation programme.
“By Allah, I will help deliver permanent solutions within four weeks. The Gambian people should not have to wait until election day for me to contribute,” he said.
He outlined that an immediate national response must identify and recover all idle or underperforming generation capacity, secure dependable contingency power, critical equipment and strategic backup capacity, protect hospitals, water facilities and other essential public services from prolonged outages, publish honest information on generation, demand, faults and restoration schedules, accelerate domestic solar generation, battery storage and transparent private investment, reduce transmission, distribution and commercial losses, and professionally restructure NAWEC under competent management, measurable performance standards and full public accountability.
According to him, regional electricity imports should complement domestic capacity, not determine whether Gambian families live in light or darkness.
“Anyone can promise electricity during an election. The real question is: who possesses the experience, international relationships, technical understanding and capacity to mobilise the people, technology, expertise and capital required to deliver it? I do,” he said.
“I do not ask Gambians to judge my vision by promises alone. Examine my record. Examine the experience behind the vision,” he added.
He recalled that in 2016 he was already working to bring international energy expertise to The Gambia, and in May 2026 he warned of the consequences of failing to reform NAWEC.
“Today, as our citizens carry candles through the streets, I am ready to place that experience and those relationships at the service of our nation. The Gambia cannot continue living from one blackout to another. Our people need electricity. Our economy needs electricity. Our hospitals, schools and businesses need electricity. The Gambia needs a solution – and I am ready to lead it,” he concluded.
