Early Life, Education and Career
President Adama Barrow was born on 15 February 1965 in Mankamang Kunda, a small village near Basse Santa Su, three days before The Gambia achieved independence from the United Kingdom. He is the son of Mamudu Barrow and Kaddijatou Jallow.
He attended Koba Kunda Primary School, and later Crab Island Secondary School in Banjul. He then received a scholarship to study at the Muslim High School. After leaving school, he worked for Alhagie Musa Njie & Sons, a Gambian energy company where he became a sales manager.
In the early 2000s, he moved to London where he studied for qualifications in real estate. Concurrently, he worked as a security guard at a local store to finance his studies. He later described these experiences as formative as he worked several hours daily.
President Barrow returned to The Gambia and in 2006, he established Majum Real Estate, and from 2006 to 2016 was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company.
On 12 June 2019 [three years into his presidency], he received The Great Builder Super Prize award which is The Africa Road Builders Babacar Ndiaye Trophy. This was for his leadership in building the Senegambia Bridge.
He started his political career with the National Reconciliation Party (NRP) headed by his current Minister of Tourism and Culture, Hamat Bah together with the current Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) leader, Mamma Kandeh. However, in 2007, he parted ways with the NRP and joined the UDP when Bah advised him not to contest against their former colleague Mamma Kandeh who had cross-carpeted to the ruling APRC.
2016 Gambian Presidential Election
On 30 October 2016, Barrow was chosen by a coalition of seven opposition parties as their endorsed candidate for the 2016 Gambian presidential election. Prior to becoming a candidate for the presidency, Barrow had not previously held any elected office, but he had been the treasurer of the United Democratic Party (UDP). He resigned from the UDP on 3 November to contest the election as an independent, with the full backing of the coalition, dubbed Coalition 2016.
During the campaign, he promised to return the Gambia to its membership of the Commonwealth of Nations and the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. He also promised to reform security forces, pledging to increase professionalism and separate them from politics.
In the election, Barrow won with 43.34% of the vote, defeating the 22-year- serving President Yahya Jammeh (who received 39.6%) and third-party candidate Mama Kandeh (who received 17.1%).
Presidential Transition and Inauguration
Initially, the then President Yahya Jammeh indicated that a smooth handover of power would take place but later, in a television broadcast, he declared that he rejected the result of the election. This was met with both national and international outcry.
The UN Security Council called on Jammeh to respect the choice of the sovereign people of The Gambia and the African Union declared Jammeh’s statement “null and void”. Jammeh’s refusal to step down was criticised by the United States, neighbouring Senegal, ECOWAS, and others.
Fearing for his safety, Adama Barrow left the Gambia to Senegal while urging Jammeh to step down. Jammeh appealed his loss in the election to the Supreme Court. When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court declared that the court would not be able to consider the case for at least four months, Jammeh declared a state of an emergency preventing Barrow from being sworn in as president.
Barrow was then sworn in as President of The Gambia at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, Senegal, on 19 January 2017. On the same day, military forces from Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana entered the Gambia in an ECOWAS military intervention involving land, sea, and air forces to compel Jammeh to leave. The military forces of the Gambia did not oppose the intervention, which only met with isolated minor clashes near Jammeh’s hometown of Kanilai. ECOWAS halted the incursion after only a few hours and gave Jammeh his last chance to step down. On 21 January, Jammeh left the Gambia for an ECOWAS-arranged exile, paving the way for the transition of power.
On 26 January, Barrow returned to The Gambia, while about 2,500 ECOWAS troops remained there to stabilise the country.[30] Barrow asked for the ECOWAS troops to stay for six months. A crowd in the hundreds were waiting at Banjul International Airport to welcome him home. Barrow was also greeted by military officials and members of the coalition government.
On 18 February 2017 Barrow took the oath of office a second time, within the Gambia, at an inauguration ceremony held at Independence Stadium in Bakau outside the capital Banjul.
Human Rights and Other Reforms
On 28 January 2017, Barrow announced that the official long-form name of the Gambia would be reverted from Islamic Republic of The Gambia to Republic of The Gambia, reverting a change made by Jammeh in 2015. He also said that he would ensure freedom of the press in the country. On 14 February, Gambia began the process of returning to its membership of the Commonwealth of Nations.
In his inaugural address on 18 February 2017, Barrow announced that he had ordered the release of all persons detained without trial under the repressive regime of Yahya Jammeh. A total of 171 prisoners held in Gambia’s infamous Mile 2 Prison were set free.
Barrow pledged to have the Gambia end human rights violations and cancelled the pending withdrawal of the Gambia from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. On 23 March, the then Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou announced that a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) would offer reparations to victims of former President Yahya Jammeh’s government.
Barrow dismissed General Ousman Badjie, the Chief of the Defence Staff, along with 10 other senior officers in February 2017. Badjie was replaced by the former chief of staff Masaneh Kinteh. David Colley, the director of the prison system was also dismissed and arrested along with 9 men suspected of being members of the “Junglers”, an alleged death squad under Yahya Jammeh.
On 21 September 2017, a few hours after his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly, Barrow signed a treaty abolishing the death penalty as part of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
He also signed the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
National Intelligence Agency Reform
On 28 January 2017, Barrow announced that he would rename and restructure the country’s intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Agency, pointing out its association with the oppressive regime of Yahya Jammeh. He said the NIA was “an institution that has to continue”, but added “the rule of the law, that will be the order of the day”. He said that additional training would be given to NIA operatives.
On 31 January, Barrow announced that the NIA would be called the State Intelligence Services (SIS). The next day, he fired the NIA Director General, Yankuba Badjie, and replaced him with former NIA Deputy Director Musa Dibba. Barrow also stripped the NIA of its law enforcement functions and temporarily occupied all NIA detention centres with police officers. As part of Barrow’s reforms, former head of NIA Yankuba Badjie and director of operations Sheikh Omar Jeng who are accused of human rights violations were arrested on 20 February and were being investigated for potential abuses of power. The ban on gambling enforced by Jammeh was lifted by Barrow in May 2017, in an effort to attract investors and create employment opportunities.
In February 2017, one of Barrow’s first foreign policy actions was to overturn the decision made by Jammeh in October 2016 to leave the International Criminal Court. The process was formalised by a letter sent by the Minister of Foreign Affairs on 10 February, with the government expressing its commitment “to the promotion of human rights”, and to “the principles enshrined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court”.
On 8 February 2018, Barrow became a Commonwealth head of government, as the Gambia reverted to being a Commonwealth republic, which was the case from April 1970 to October 2013.
Personal Life
President Barrow is a Muslim and says that his faith guides his life and politics. He practices polygamy and has two wives, Fatoumatta Bah and Sarjo Mballow. Both wives are from the Fula ethnic group. He has four children. Habibu Barrow, his eight-year-old son, died after being bitten by a dog on 15 January 2017.
Barrow could not attend his son’s funeral because, following ECOWAS recommendations, he was in Senegal where he had escaped the post-electoral trouble.
He is a fan of the English football club Arsenal. His support for the team started in the early 2000s when he was residing in the United Kingdom.
President Adama Barrow seeks re-election as he is one of six candidates being validated by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for the 4th December 2021 presidential election.
