Ladies and gentlemen, this waiting game is ridiculous by any standard. It
is time the citizens demand that Pa Sallah Jeng and others assume office
NOW, not some future date. Please read on.
"What a Fool Does in the End, the Wise Man Does At the Beginning" the New
Local Government Councils When Will They Assume Office?
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The Independent (Banjul)
May 20, 2002
Posted to the web May 20, 2002
D. a Jawo
Banjul
It is now getting to one month since the local government elections were
hurriedly organised by the Independent Electoral Commission, brushing aside
all the appeals and concerns expressed by the general public, and yet still,
the newly elected councils are yet to be inaugurated. One would therefore
wonder why the IEC had insisted on going ahead with those hushed-up
elections before the new Local Government Act had even been enacted, let
alone be disseminated to the people to understand what they were voting for.
There is no doubt that it was what eventually led to the boycott of the
elections by certain political parties as well as the general lack of public
interest in the process. To add to the confusion, the government also went
ahead to introduce the Local Government Bill to the National Assembly for
enactment with a certificate of urgency right in the middle of the process
by the IEC to hold elections. The very fact that the National Assembly
members were not given adequate time to study and digest the Bill, they had
to briefly debate it and pass it with quite a lot of flaws and
inconsistencies. Despite all that rush to get the Bill debated and passed
and the IEC going ahead with the elections before all the necessary things
were in place, the newly elected councils are still waiting to be
inaugurated. One would therefore not fail to see the inconsistency between
the rush in passing the Local Government Bill and the holding of the local
government elections and the present situation we find ourselves in. We
would therefore wonder why the rush and what is holding the inauguration of
the new councils.
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It appears that there is much more to this unprecedented delay in the
inauguration of the new councils than meets the ordinary eye. According to
rumours, the delay is apparently caused by the regime still trying to come
to terms with the election of an opposition mayor for Banjul, which they
never bargained for or even ever anticipated. Therefore, they may still be
trying to work out a strategy as to how to deal with such an unusual
situation. Rumours have it that the regime is weighing several options as to
how to deal with the situation, which, according to the rumours, include a
call by some of the hawks in the regime to refuse to recognise Pa Sallah
Jeng as Mayor-elect for Banjul and to instead go ahead with the appointment
of their own interim mayor until they could find a way out of the situation.
That is indeed the craziest solution anyone could ever contemplate.
While the intolerance of this regime to any form of dissent is quite
obvious, but I cannot imagine them stooping that low just to prevent an
opposition mayor from assuming office. Indeed the election of Pa Sallah Jeng
is a foregone conclusion and I cannot imagine what anyone can now do to
prevent him from assuming his legitimate position as Mayor of Banjul. As
they say in Mandinka; "minning minning tafal, tonya le be labanna" (no
matter how one meanders, it is the truth that will prevail at the end). He
is the choice of the majority of the people of Banjul, and as such, it is
heretical for anyone to try and deny him and indeed the people of Banjul the
fruits of their labour. Another phenomenon which seems to give credence to
these rumours of an attempt to marginalise the mayor-elect is the fact that
even though he has been elected de facto mayor of Banjul, but there seems to
be deliberate attempts to exclude him from all activities where he should by
protocol be involved. We have seen for example that both the mayor-elect of
the KMC and all the other chairmen-elect and councillors are being invited
to official functions, and yet Pa Sallah is being treated as if he does not
matter. That is very unfair a big indictment to the democratic credentials
of the regime. It is also understood that all attempts by him to see the
Secretary of State for Local Government to discuss the issue have been
unsuccessful. One would therefore wonder whether all that is part of the
scheme to marginalise him to the point of frustration and eventually he
would throw in the towel? I hope both the Secretary of State and his
colleagues in the regime are aware that everyone is keenly watching them on
this matter, and whatever action they finally decide to take on it would
have some far reaching implications, both on the image and credibility of
the regime.
It is also quite interesting that whether by default or by design, the new
Local Government Act is completely silent as to when and how the newly
elected councils are to assume office. There is a possibility that such a
provision was deliberately omitted in the bill in order to give the regime
enough leverage to deal with such a situation as obtains in Banjul. One
would therefore tend to question their sincerity in actually giving enough
autonomy to the local government councils to run their own affairs if it is
the Secretary of State for Local Government for instance who has the sole
power to determine when and how councils are to be inaugurated. At this
stage of our development as a nation, we should have long ago passed such
arbitrariness in the implementation of policies and programmes dealing with
the people, because that seems to run counter to both the letter and spirit
of decentralisation of the local government process as proclaimed by the
regime.
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