Op-Ed: Lease Does Not Ownership Make – A Reaction to Essa Faal

Gunjuronline.com
Jul 29
3 min read

By Securing Futures: Land Rights Action Collaborative (SFLRAC)

The TDA Lease Expired in 2020 - Full Stop

Following Mr Essa Mbye Faal's appearance on "Coffee Time with Peter Gomez" today (Monday 28 July 2025), SFLRAC reiterates that the fundamental legal realities surrounding his land allocation remain unchanged, regardless of his explanations or justifications.

Mr Essa Mbye Faal is said to have been allocated land by the government to build a resort at the site pictured.

Many Gambians may not realise --and Faal certainly should--that the state never owned the Tourism Development Area (TDA). The state held a 50-year lease agreement that the elders of Kombo North and Kombo South entered with Jawara's government in 1970, documented as Lease P18/1970, which expired in 2020. These elders acted as representatives--the landowning clans gave them permission to enter a lease with the state. The clans who owned the land still own those lands.

That lease has expired. As we documented in numerous opinion pieces, our investigations revealed that the Registrar General could not produce the original master lease and stated this to the Janneh Commission as such in 2019. Unless the government presents a signed, valid lease extension--one that the rightful landowners consented to--it lacks lawful authority over the area today.

Even during the lease's life, the state's power to sublease faced constraints. Subleases cannot ordinarily extend beyond the original lease. Legal principle dictates: you cannot give what you do not have. So, if the government subleased land to any investor whilst its own lease expired in 2020--that sublease becomes null beyond the expiration date.

The implication stands clear: any allocation granted after 2020--or which purports to extend beyond 2020--lacks legal basis unless a new lease from the landowners exists.

The 99-Year Extension That Never Was

SFLRAC has consistently raised the critical question: where is the evidence of the alleged 99-year lease extension? The state claims to have extended the original 50-year lease, but this extension allegedly occurred without the knowledge, consent, or compensation of the landowning clans.

More importantly, the burden of proof lies with the state and Faal to demonstrate this extension's validity. The GT Board's inability to produce foundational documents when the lease expired raises serious doubts about any claimed extensions.

Administrative Compliance Cannot Cure Legal Nullity

In his interview, Faal emphasised his payment of deposits to the GT Board and his reliance on state processes. However, procedural compliance within a legally void system cannot create valid rights.

The GT Board held entirely derivative rights: it only possessed what the state leased from landowners, and that too only until 2020. Basic lease law dictates that subleases must exist within the confines of the parent lease. Acting otherwise means acting ultra vires--outside legal authority.

Whether Mr Faal's allocation ran for any duration--it became invalid the moment the state's lease expired unless a new agreement with the customary owners exists.

Mr Faal's Professional Duty

Mr Faal, as a trained lawyer and former TRRC counsel, should be acutely aware of lease law fundamentals, especially concerning expired agreements over customary lands. His assertion of due diligence cannot be complete if it relies solely on state processes without verifying the underlying customary title.

What stands out most about Faal's explanations is what remains missing: any demonstration that he consulted the landowning community whose ancestral land faced allocation without their knowledge or consent.

The Legal Reality

Following this interview, SFLRAC's position remains unchanged: the fundamental issue centres on the state's lack of legitimate authority to allocate land post-2020.

The original TDA lease has expired. Any purported extension lacks documented consent from the rightful owners. Without valid underlying title, all subsequent allocations stand on legally questionable ground.

We maintain that genuine land justice demands recognition of the ancestral land rights of the Kombo landowning clans. A lease does not confer ownership--for the state, for Mr Faal, or for anyone. The expiration of Lease P18/1970 in 2020 places the burden squarely on those claiming authority to prove the legitimacy of their claims.

They have provided no such proof.

Securing Futures: Land Rights Action Collaborative (SFLRAC) operates as a think tank legally registered in The Gambia, committed to empowering Kombo's dispossessed land-owning communities through rigorous, evidence-based research and advocacy for equitable governance policies that secure ancestral land rights.