Editorial: A possible way out of Gambia’s predicament

Last week news of the sacking of another batch of Gambian ministers visited the air waves, and, as Gambians have become accustomed to, there were no explanation as to the reasons for the latest sacking. This, as you would expect, leaves Gambians with no other alternative but to resort to speculations.
While there is nothing wrong with sacking of government officials, especially if they are found wanting in their responsibilities, as it seems to be the case with many Gambian officials these days, it is also obvious that you can’t possibly sack four ministers at one go without there being some convincing reason to it. Therefore there must be one of two possibilities here; either the sacked ministers will have wronged Gambians by failing to serve the purpose for which they had been appointed in the first place or they have failed to satisfy Yahya Jammeh as a person.
However, since it is close to certainty that we are never going to get any explanation for their dismissal, at least not now, going by past experiences, we can draw reference to past statements by the president – that he would keep dismissing government officials until such a time when he gets the right people to work with. In any case, what all this seemingly endless spree of hiring and firing suggests is that the ruling APRC party, or better still Yahya Jammeh, does not seem to have the right people around him for Gambia’s present development agenda. Isn’t this enough reason, therefore, for a rethink on the part of the president as regards his choice of appointment? The point here is that appointment for ministerial or whatever positions on party lines no longer appears to be a viable direction for Gambia. As a matter of fact, what the country needs is what would take it out of the bondage of poverty and all that continue to hinder its progress. It doesn’t quite matter who is on seat.
It therefore behooves on all those involved in Gambia’s democratization process to consider this line of thought and identify ways of circumventing their differences with the ultimate goal of ridding the country of our shared problems. This is especially crucial in that there doesn’t appear to be any sign of any viable alternative opposition that could have served as a force to push the present government into tangible actions on it own.
This is supposed to be a possible alternative to solving Gambia’s current predicament. At least, even if for the interim.