(JollofNews) – As Gambia is pushing towards a more open society, the newly appointed Government Spokesperson, Ebrima M.G. Sankareh, has expressed his readiness to carry out the responsibility to uphold transparency in addressing the public demands.“My role is to eliminate confusion, rumour, and rumour-mongering in this country. That is precisely why I was appointed,” Ebrima M.G.Sankareh told reporters last Monday shortly after being sworn into office by President Adama Barrow during a ceremony held at State House in Banjul.
The tiny West African nation is emerging from the shadows of two-decade long dictatorship that was marked by a culture of opacity carefully engineered by ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh. The new regime has vowed to right the wrongs of the past in committing itself to hold regular post-Cabinet press briefings as well as organising news conference with the Head of State every six months.
Under this new political dispensation, Gambia Echo news anchor reiterated gov’t to ensure that there would be transparency, clarity and accountability.
He said he is tasked with the responsibility to liaise with all the Permanent Secretaries in every department and have a summarised version of all events happening to be able to have briefings scheduled to take place for fixed day and time every week.
“My role is not to create confusion but to quash confusion,” Sankareh emphasized.
He further stated that Gambia gov’t is determined to be more transparent.
“Transparency means openness,” he remarked while making it very clear that democracy cannot happen without openness.
I know the new government spokesperson, Mr. Sankareh very well. In fact, I know him a lot more than I will admit. He is a great person. I know that he loves his country and has given up a lot to take the position of spokesperson. If you look at his credentials, you will that he could have been doing other things in a much quieter environment and far less scrutiny than his current position will expose him to. As he rookie on the job, he has made his first mistake. He said the government will be transparent and “transparency means openness.” That is true, but he needed to go further and say what he meant by “openness.” People may in the future used that against him. The government cannot tell the public everything. And it would be foolish if it tries to do so. The government will try to tell the public what it believes the public needs to know. This is how democratic governments work. So when the government says it will be “open” that has to be taken as a relative term. Gambians will sooner rather than later accuse the government of not being open and then Mr. Sankareh’s “openness” will come up. Like, “you said the government will be transparent and transparency means openness” however you guys are not being transparent at all. Mark my words! I hope he realizes this and choose his words carefully. Once again, because words may have more than one meaning depending on the context in which they are used, it is important to choose one’s words carefully and elaborate more just to be clear.