In the early 1990s Congolese teachers, dissatisfied with work conditions and
salaries, went on a nation-wide strike that affected primary and secondary
schools throughout the republic.
In his usual decadent manner, Sassou Nguessou went on national television spewing acres of diatribes at the striking teachers and other officials. He said he did not care about the strike affecting the country's children since his own were going to school abroad!
President Jammeh's attitude towards Gambia is antithetical to such callous behaviour. Given the record of the past eight years, there should be little question as to whether he is well-intentioned towards the development of our country. I believe his intentions for the country are honourable and sincere. Yet, if for nothing else, that is precisely one good reason why
President Jammeh's numerous fire-guzzling, schoolmasterish rhapsodies about ministerial under-performance and soldiery love-of-country needs to be
heard with eerie familiarity.
In spite of his relatively short reign (by African standards) our President has become a world champion in the sport of hiring and firing secretaries of state. Assuming himself to be beyond all reproach and blame, the "failures" of ministers are presented to citizens as cases of
misguided or misplaced loyalties, the irritating grit that deliberately slows down Gambia's spinning wheels throwing the entire national effort into debilitating and demobilising stoppages. Even the sensibilities of obviously intelligent people are swooned by Y.J.Js call-and-response homolies, deafening the rest of us with a ringing chorus of " the president is very very good, but the people close to him are very very bad" . Unfortunately, all that is an appaling rerun of the old mantra: Jawara is good, but his ministers are bad! (BTW, is there anyone here who has not heard of that before)?
If President Jammeh is world leader in firing and hiring ministers, the obvious question we need to ask is how he has excelled in that disreputable sport. How is it that President Jammeh, given all the administrative and intellectual resources at his disposal has managed to excell so singularly in appointing Secretaries of State who prove consistently that they are unmade of ministerial material? How does the President manage to maintain stability in government and in the pursuit of government policies when his ministerial appointments are dismal failures? Is it that he simply selects randomly from the 1.4 miillion Gambians on his slate?
Gambians do not only have a right to know why our President dismisses ministers with such unacceptable frequency. Gambians should demand to know why these ministers, by the president's standards, "fail to deliver". The President is supposed to serve the interest of Gambians not the other way round, and the media at home need to pressure the president for explanantions! The rule is that the Captain of any ship takes responsibility for the failures of its crew! The President's intentions are thus irrelevant in this regard. Any other suggestion may perhaps be a matter of political convenience, but cannot be intellectually respectable.
Momodou S Sidibeh
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