The enormously high turnover of Secretaries of State in Gambia is both  
worrying and demoralizing. It has a tendency to diminish both the value and  
potential for the offices and the persons to occupy those offices.
 
The SOS position is a purely political office in The Gambia. It has  been 
since time immemorial. Persons appointed to these offices generally  only have to 
demonstrate unequivocal loyalty to the governing  APRC. They are not screened 
for expertise or knowledge, nor for honesty and  integrity. The recent 
appointment of Mr. Bojang to the Department of Works  and infrastructure bucks that 
trend to a certain extent and I hope it marks a  deliberate departure from 
what normal course of business and not a mere  aberration.
 
For the mere fact that SOSs are chosen for loyalty rather than acumen or  
capabilities, not much in the way of project implementation or value development  
is expected of them and therefore they are not generally conditioned to 
perform.  They are simply there as a tool for wealth distribution for the ruling 
party.  The old adage "you can't squeeze water out of stone" is apt in this 
case. Yahya  therefore, unless he follows the Mr. Bojang's more sober appointment, 
will end  up setting himself up for more frustrations and disgust. The remedy 
for such  frustration usually is the unceremonious removal of the SOSs and or 
dragging  them to court for charges of mismanagement and theft of public 
property and  funds. A case can be made for the propriety of such prosecution if 
Yahya  demonstrates a pattern of appointing unfit SOSs who are genrally 
ignorant  of the tasks of the department, regardless of the merits of the charges 
against  or the reasons for removal of the SOS. A further inadvertent effect of 
high  turnover in political appointments is the gradual alienation of party 
loyalists  that he can ill-afford especially at times when he needs the 
countervailing  voices of his party loyalists against the chorus of disdain outside 
APRC  circles.
 
I understand that the pool of productive men and women he draws on for the  
SOS positions is unfortunately small and ever-dwindling. But one of the 
problems  of the image that Yahya can hire and fire at will, mostly unceremoniously 
and  without substantive reason, feeds into a patronnage psychy that diminishes 
the  value of performance. It becomes more important to sing praises to him 
rather  than accomplish tangible gains in development and completing his own 
wishes.for  Gambia. There is no greater honour for a leader than the show of his 
 worth.
 
In such a scenario as exists in Gambia now, it may be advisable to rely on  
the under-secretaries and permanent secretaries for performance and  
implementation of departmental programs and projects and rely on the SOS  necessarily as 
intermediary between the President's office and those  technocrats to convey 
the President's platform for development. The SOSs must  not, for conflicts of 
interest reasons, be bursars or treasurers of project  funds. Appropriations 
to departments must not be made to the SOS. The SOS  must be viewed as the 
ceremonial head of the department and much of his time  ought to be accorded in 
holding public hearings and engagements. The  broader policy conveyor.
 
Recently, I have noticed that the idea and culture of "family" is  being 
propagated as incentive for performance and honesty. This I think  could be 
counter-productive and is ill-advised. Rather a culture of  professionalism and 
accountability would yield Yahya more favourable results.  Most business and 
professional persons will advise that the inordinate infusion  of family 
inordinately burdens decision-making and performance with nepotistic  considerations 
which are hard to qualify or mitigate. When you communicate a  culture of family, 
though seemingly benign, you are emphasizing inherent value  of pedigree and 
inheritance rather than merit. And in an environment where  an SOS is 
appointed based on loyalty rather than acumen, this could be a recipe  for further 
lethargy and conflicted interests. The rate at which such themes  travel within 
the fabric of the department is faster than that at which  productivity and 
performance make their way into psychies. A churchman Jacobs  out of Harrisburg 
Texas once noted: "Idle men with hungry families made a ready  audience for 
(graft and graffignette)".
 
I wish Mr. Bojang all the best as he efforts to break the mold of lethargy,  
non-performance, and graft.
 
Haroun Masoud. MQDT. Darbo. Al  mutawakkil.     
 
It is equally malignant to set the wrong theme for the departments of  state. 
   



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