![\"\"](\"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/gambia-new-1024x685-1.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
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Did you know that 56 years after The Gambia gained independence from colonial rule, the country has only had 3 Presidents?\u00a0Dawda Kairaba Jawara.\u00a0Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh. Adama Barrow.<\/p>\n
As the smallest country within mainland Africa, The Gambia has had a chequered history in its quest for democratic governance and the rule of law.<\/p>\n
The West African nation achieved independence on 18 February 1965, as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth, with Elizabeth II as Queen of the Gambia, represented by the Governor-General.<\/p>\n
On 24 April 1970, the Gambia became a republic within the Commonwealth. This was after a first referendum shortly after independence failed to receive the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution.<\/p>\n
The Gambia\u2019s first President Dawda Jawara steered the affairs of the country between 1965 and 1994 when he was removed from power by Yahya Jammeh in a bloodless coup. Adama Barrow became The Gambia\u2019s third president in January 2017, after defeating Jammeh in the December 2016 elections.<\/p>\n
As the Gambia looks forward to the first post-Jammeh election, let us take a look back at\u00a0the Gambia and its 3 presidents so far.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Dawda Kairaba Jawara<\/b><\/p>\n
Dawda Jawara\u00a0served as Prime Minister of the Gambia from 1962 to 1970, and then as the first President of the Gambia from 1970 to 1994.<\/p>\n
The greatest challenge to Jawara\u2019s power came in 1981 when an attempted coup d\u2019\u00e9tat took place and soldiers from neighbouring Senegal were forced to intervene.<\/p>\n
Jawara continued to rule until 1994 when a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat led by Yahya Jammeh seized power. Following this, he went into exile, but returned in 2002, and lived in retirement in The Gambia until his death.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh<\/b><\/p>\n
Yahya Jammeh was the leader of The Gambia from 1994 to 2017.<\/p>\n
In July 1994, he led a bloodless coup d\u2019etat that overthrew the government of Sir Dawda Jawara and installed himself as chairman of AFPRC, a military junta. He ruled by decree until his election as president in 1996.<\/p>\n
Jammeh was re-elected as president in 2001, 2006 and 2011, but lost to Adama Barrow in 2016. His time in office saw the authoritarian oppression of anti-government journalists and opposition activists critical of his rule.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Adama Barrow<\/b><\/p>\n
Adama Barrow\u00a0is the third and current President of the Gambia and has been in office since 2017.<\/p>\n
Barrow\u2019s political career started as\u00a0a treasurer of the United Democratic Party, an opposition party, and then became its leader in September 2016 after the previous leader was jailed<\/p>\n
Acting as the arrowhead of an opposition coalition,\u00a0Barrow won the 2016 presidential election with 43.34% of the vote, defeating long-time incumbent Yahya Jammeh.<\/p>\n
He is currently leading the National People\u2019s Party (NPP) in pursuit of a second term in office.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By Sulayman Saye<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Did you know that 56 years after The Gambia gained independence from colonial rule, the country has only…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"coauthors":[492],"class_list":["post-4500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":50,"label":"Politics"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Sulayman Saye","author_link":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/author\/sulayman-saye\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":50,"name":"Politics","slug":"politics","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":50,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":19,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":50,"category_count":19,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Politics","category_nicename":"politics","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4500"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6277,"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500\/revisions\/6277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4500"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enspirefx.com\/royale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}