"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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~