D. A. Jawo, you're right on the money.  Who are we kidding, but our selves.

Read on:

The Cabinet Palaver Rages On

The Independent (Banjul)

COLUMN
March 18, 2002
Posted to the web March 18, 2002


D.A. Jawo
Banjul

There is No More Miserable Human Being Than One in Whom Nothing is Habitual
But Indecision - W. James

It is now five months since President Jammeh was re-elected for a second
term as head of state, (hopefully his last), and it is three months now
since his flamboyant inauguration, and he has still not appointed a new
cabinet, contrary to everyone's expectations. It seems to have gone against
all the grains of people's expectations that it has now become the hottest
topic of discussion in town.

However, I am not quite sure that Section 71 (4) (a) that some people are
quoting has really compelled the president to appoint a new cabinet after
being sworn in. They seem to misinterpret that section, which simply says
that "The office of secretary of state shall become vacant (a) on the
assumption by a person of the office of president". As far as my limited
knowledge of the law goes, the provision simply refers to a serving and not
to the president - elect assuming office. Therefore, as far as I know, there
is no specific provision in the 1997 Constitution, which compels the
president to appoint a new cabinet on assuming office.

Even though there may not exist such a provision in the constitution
(apparently part of the deliberate omissions in the constitution), it is
still the most logical thing everyone expects a president - elect to do
immediately on assuming office. It does not really matter whether or not he
would re-appoint the out-going cabinet members but people still expect him
to form a new government.

As it is often the case in a society like ours where there is very little
flow of information between the government and the governed, there is
certainly bound to be quite a lot of rumours and speculations as to what may
be responsible for such an unconventional situation.

Therefore, if the government is not prepared to involve the people in the
decision making process, then the people themselves would reserve the right
to give their own interpretations to the actions and omissions of the
government.

There are indications that the unprecedented delay in the appointment of a
new cabinet is caused by President Jammeh's apparent inability to still
determine whom to include in his new cabinet and whom to drop from among the
out-going cabinet. There are rumours that the out-going vice president does
not want to continue in the next cabinet and as a result, there is intense
struggle among the anointed few as to who would succeed her. While everyone
had assumed that the out-going secretary of state for Works, Communications
and Information to be the 'national' successor to that position, there are
rumours that someone else within the inner cabinet is tipped to be next vice
president and that has engineered a lot of horse-trading within the 'kabudu'
which may also be a factor in the delay of a new cabinet.

However, it is also possible that the delay could have been caused by
President Jammeh being bombarded by all sorts of lobbying from people who
feel that both he and the APRC owe them a lot of obligations and they should
be compensated to cabinet positions.

There are also rumours that he has been presented with a long list of
possible appointees by certain self-appointed king makers who want their own
boy-boys and cronies to be appointed secretaries of state.

It appears that President Jammeh is beginning to be confronted with the
reality that it is not easy to run a government through the use of political
patronage, as it seems to have been the practice in his administration.
While he may be the richest head of state in the sub-region, he has to
realise that the running of a government is much more than the frequent
dishing out of money and material gifts as well as the distribution of
public service positions to party loyalists and praise singers. Such a
situation is not only expensive and unsustainable but there are not also
enough public service positions to go round to all those who kow-tow after
him. Therefore, the only reasonable thing to do is to appoint the right
people in the right places, regardless of their political affiliation or
social status.The frequent sacking of public service employees, apparently
for being suspected of sympathising with the opposition is no doubt part of
the scheme to create more jobs for the party loyalists and praise-singers.

That in itself is not only unsustainable but is also having a negative
impact on productivity within the public service. The situation is so bad
that the public service is now less than half as productive as it had been
before the coup in 1994. One possible reason for that is because most of the
seasoned professionals within the public service have been replaced by
mediocres whose most important qualifications had been their loyalty to
President Jammeh and the APRC.

While President Jammeh may have the best intentions for the progress of this
country and the 'sky is the limit' for his intention to make this country
into a model in Africa, but unless he gets the right calibre of people to
man the various sectors of his administration and help him implement his
Vision 2020 dream, he cannot make a headway. Therefore, it is time that he
realised the futility of encouraging political patronage and instead start
to encourage every well meaning Gambian with the necessary talents and
skills to participate in nation building, regardless of their political
inclinations. He should therefore disregard all the bad advices he had been
receiving from his praise-singers and cronies, most of whom are only
interested in their own personal aggrandizement.





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