"Jumping To Conclusions Seldom Leads To Happy Landings" the Presidency - an
Over-Concentration of Power

The Independent (Banjul)
OPINION
November 25, 2002
Posted to the web November 25, 2002

By D.a. Jawo
Banjul

The recent spate of sackings of secretaries of state and senior civil
servants is yet another reminder of the excessive powers given to the
president by the 1997 Constitution. That indeed was a mistake but it was no
doubt part of the scheme by those in power at the time to doctor the
Constitution apparently in order to pave the way for the AFPRC junta to
succeed themselves as civilian rulers.

Just by a casual look at the Constitution, one cannot fail to see that too
much power was concentrated on the president, thus weakening the other arms
of government. Even the eventual removal from the draft Constitution of
certain recommendations made by the Constitutional Review Commission such
as the two-term limit for the president and the lowering of the age limit
for a presidential aspirant from the 40 years recommended by the CRC were
all part of that scheme to succeed themselves. There is no doubt that the
CRC also recommended the National Assembly to be involved in the
appointment and removals of secretaries of state and other senior
government officials, and that too may have been deliberately removed
before the draft Constitution was put to the people in a referendum.While I
am not in anyway defending those sacked or the rationality of sacking them,
but like most Gambians, I am concerned about the arbitrariness of the
action. Of course if public servants fail to deliver, then they should be
removed to make way for those who can deliver. I agree with President
Jammeh that there are over 1.3 million Gambians from whom he can choose a
secretary of state.

Therefore, there is no justification to retain those who do not measure up
to the task. However, the system should have been such that there was no
room for such action to be done at the whims and caprices of an individual,
but in a collective and transparent manner. It is certainly not enough for
the President to quote certain abstract provisions of the Constitution to
justify his actions, but the people need to be told in a language they
understand why people they entrust with certain responsibilities were being
removed. That is where the National Assembly comes in. In all countries
where democracy has taken root, all ministerial appointments must be
endorsed by the National Assembly before they take effect, why not The
Gambia? One therefore wonders why such arbitrary powers were given to the
president in the first place to do whatever he wanted with very little
checks and balances in place as expected in a democracy.

Under the circumstances, it is only the National Assembly which has the
power to rectify such a situation by curtailing some of the powers of the
president to take arbitrary actions. However, knowing the present
composition of the National Assembly and the condescending nature of most
of its members, it is like asking for the impossible. It would be hard to
imagine any bill challenging the supremacy of the president being
entertained in the National Assembly, let alone passed. However, government
is just too important a business to be left to the whims and caprices of an
individual. It should always be a collective responsibility.

One important aspect of the recent events is the decision by President
Jammeh to assume direct responsibility of the Department of State for
Agriculture. Like many other people, I would question the rationality of
such a decision.

Agriculture is just too important a sector to be placed in such a secluded
place like the Office of the President, which is far removed from ordinary
Gambians, particularly the farming community.

It is no secret that the civil servants of all categories nowadays do not
have the guts to take any decision on their own, no matter how
insignificant unless they get the approval of their political bosses.

Therefore, it would be quite interesting to see how the permanent secretary
of the Department of State for Agriculture or the other senior officials
can be able to get such regular access to President Jammeh as they used to
have with their Secretary of State in order to make things work. That would
only mean one things, and that is more delay in the implementation of
decisions and eventually poor performance of the sector. Indeed the
situation is even more likely to adversely affect the farmers because they
no longer have access to their Secretary of State to discuss their
problems.

"This is the first time in the history of this country that agriculture has
no minister and I cannot see how such a system can work", said a retired
agriculturist. He is indeed quite right. It is not only likely that it
would not work but as usual, it is the civil servants in that sector who
would eventually be blamed for whatever failure and they would be used as
scapegoats, while someone up there would claim whatever successes
registered.

I sometimes wonder whether enough consideration is usually given to certain
decisions by the government before action is taken. There is no doubt that
lack of adequate consultation is sometimes responsible for the frequent
reversals of decisions and actions taken by the government, including the
sackings and frequent re-instatements within the public service. Some of
the decisions, it appears are taken based on sentiments rather than facts
and figures. Certainly, if someone is sacked today only to be re-instated a
few days later, then it is an indication that something was seriously
flawed in the decision making process.

It is quite hard to believe that President Jammeh has either the time or
the ability to give maximum personal attention to agriculture and all the
other sectors currently under the Office of the President. Apart from his
numerous state functions, he has also got his farms and animals in Kanilai
to look after and I cannot see how he can be able to give all that his
maximum attention. We have seen for instance that putting the energy sector
under the Office of the President did not seem to bring any noticeable
improvement to that sector.

Therefore, I cannot see how agriculture can benefit from such a transfer

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