Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – The outrage over the recent video involving young TikToker Binta Dibba and her insulting remarks about the President and the First Lady should force The Gambia to look at, and beyond the young woman at the center of the controversy.
Yes, there must be standards of public conduct. Yes, freedom of expression does not mean freedom from responsibility. And yes, political criticism can be fierce without becoming abusive.
But there is another question that deserves to be asked, and it is one that many adults would rather avoid: Who taught our children how to disagree?
Binta Dibba is an adult and must ultimately take responsibility for what she says and publishes. But society also has a responsibility to examine the environment in which young Gambians are growing up.
A child does not learn respect, restraint, self-control, and empathy from social media. Those values are supposed to be cultivated long before a young person picks up a phone and speaks to thousands of people online.
The Family Was Supposed To Be The First School
In Gambian society, the family has traditionally been the first school of life.
Long before a child enters a classroom, the home is expected to teach the basic rules of living with others: respect for elders, courtesy, discipline, compassion, religious and moral values, and the understanding that one’s freedom must exist alongside the dignity of others.
And that responsibility has never belonged only to parents.
Grandparents, uncles, aunts, older siblings, neighbors, teachers, and religious leaders have traditionally played a role in raising children. There has always been a strong Gambian understanding that a child belongs not only to a household but to a community.
That social contract is weakening.
Too many children are growing up in an environment where adults themselves insult one another, ridicule opponents, and confuse aggression with strength. We then act surprised when young people reproduce the same behavior online.
We cannot demand from children a standard of conduct that adults refuse to practice.
Politicians Are Teaching the Wrong Lessons
The political class must accept an uncomfortable share of this responsibility.
When politicians insult opponents, question their patriotism, mock their appearance, spread personal attacks, or use inflammatory language to mobilize supporters, they are not merely fighting among themselves.
Young people are watching.
When religious figures and community leaders tolerate abusive political rhetoric because it comes from people they support, they are also sending a message.
The message is simple: respect is conditional. You respect your own side and humiliate the other.
That is a dangerous lesson for a country approaching a presidential election in which political passions are already running high.
The Gambia does not need a generation that believes political disagreement is a license for hatred.
The President of the Republic is both a political office-holder and an institution of the Gambian state. Citizens have every right to question the President, challenge government policies, expose failures, and demand accountability. They have every right to vote against the government.
But none of this requires personal abuse.
Indeed, the strongest criticism is often the criticism delivered with discipline and evidence. An argument does not become more powerful because it is louder, crueler, or more insulting.
Insults are not arguments. Humiliation is not political courage. Hatred is not activism.
We Must Stop Blaming Only the Young
There is a tendency in moments like this to condemn young people as disrespectful, irresponsible, or badly behaved.
But before we condemn the younger generation, adults should examine the example we have given them.
What have they heard at home?
What have they heard from politicians?
What have they heard from religious leaders?
What have they seen on television, at political rallies, and on social media?
And what have we taught them about the difference between criticism and abuse?
A young person who sees respected adults routinely attacking one another may reasonably conclude that this is how public life works.
That is why the Binta Dibba controversy should become a national conversation about civic education, parenting, community responsibility, and political culture, not simply another social media outrage.
The Election Makes This More Urgent
The timing could hardly be more important.
The Gambia is heading towards a presidential election that is expected to generate intense political competition. Social media will play an even greater role in shaping political narratives, mobilizing young voters, and influencing public opinion.
That creates enormous opportunities, but also enormous risks.
If political parties and their supporters turn social media into a battlefield of insults, misinformation, and personal attacks, young Gambians will absorb those behaviors as normal political conduct.
And once politics becomes a contest between identities, personalities, and enemies rather than ideas and policies, the consequences can go far beyond social media.
The country has already experienced enough political tension to understand where unchecked rhetoric can lead.
Responsibility Must Begin With Adults
The answer is not to silence young people.
Nor should this debate become an excuse to restrict legitimate criticism of public officials.
The answer is to teach young Gambians that democracy requires both freedom and responsibility.
Parents must reclaim their role as the first educators. Families must teach children that disagreement is normal, but disrespect is not.
Religious and community leaders must reinforce those values rather than selectively condemning bad behavior.
Schools must strengthen civic and democratic education.
And politicians must understand that every speech, rally, and social media post is also a lesson to the next generation.
The state, for its part, should strengthen civic and republican education, particularly among young people and in digital spaces, while applying the law impartially whenever legal boundaries are crossed.
Political parties should also consider committing themselves to a basic code of responsible public discourse during the election campaign, one that promotes robust debate without personal humiliation, incitement, or hatred.
This would not weaken democracy. It would strengthen it.
The Gambia does not need less political debate. It needs better political debate.
Binta Dibba’s words may have shocked the country. But the bigger shock should be the possibility that we are becoming a society where too many adults have forgotten that children learn more from what we do than from what we tell them.
If we want responsible citizens tomorrow, we must raise them responsibly today.
And if we want a peaceful and democratic election, the responsibility begins long before the ballot box.
It begins in the home, in the mosque and church, in the classroom, in the community, and above all, with the adults who are supposed to know better.
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