(JollofNews) – A former Gambian secretary general and minister of Presidential Affairs has defended working in the erstwhile regime of President Yahya Jammeh.
Kalilou Bayo, said although he found Mr Jammeh’s style of leadership and conduct odd, he remained in the job with the hope of bringing sanity in the heart of government.
Giving evidence in the ongoing probe into alleged mismanagement of public funds, abuse of office, and willful violations of public funds by the former President Yahya Jammeh and his associates, Mr Bayo said his former boss has his own rules, which runs contrary to government’s own rules and public expectations.
He added that he found it astonishing to see Jammeh spend a lot of time and effort in his private business dealings instead of his presidential duties.
“In my experience, the president should not be a signatory to any government owned bank account. The president should concern himself with signing bills into law and not signing cheques,” Mr Bayo said.
“We were operating in a volatile situation and had to work under presidential directives. If you know the temperament of Jammeh you cannot tell him what to do. The practice of the president signing cheques on government accounts is unusual, but it was already entrenched when I was appointed.”
He added that he found the practice of the president signing checks odd and had tried shortly after his appointment to help the president make informed decisions, but his suggestions were binned.
He added: “It is unusual for the president to be signing cheques but this is what Jammeh wants to do and he did it without anyone stopping him.”
Mr Bayo said he once considered resigning from his position but decided to stay on out of fear for his safety.
Again, it is the fear factor that is cited as reasons for staying on and knowingly acting against the law to facilitate Jammeh’s illegal conduct, but whether this is a legitimate defence for complicity is for legal minds to debate.What is absolutely clear is that there is complicity here, and complicity in a crime, is punishable by law. Time will tell whether this government will do the right thing and hold every official of the past regime that needs to be held to account.
Another former government official passing the buck. If you know what you are doing is against the law, why can’t you do the honourable thing and resign or refuse the job offer in the first place? I fully understand these people have got families to feed, with their qualifications surely they could find jobs in other areas. Our country is full of such self-centred individuals who will prostitute themselves so as to make a name “I used to be such and such minister” and so on, they will never raise their hands up and say sorry or accept responsibility for their poor judgement.
If the pilot of the plane is reckless, no one dares grab the wheel. They grab each other.
Is a blame game now,Mr Bayo, you had all the opportunity not to accept the offer in the first place,because even the ordinary man who has not worked for the government knows that many things were not right with the government.You could have resigned but decided to stay in order to aid and abet crime.
The best thing to do was to work with President Jammeh. The corrupt Commission of Inquiry is trying to vilify innocent Gambians for their patriotic work. They facelifted the Gambia in 22 years from the 31-horrendous years of the Jawara regime. In fact the Commission members were all part of the Jammeh government, they were in The Gambia.
Bax, JanJan1, Solo and Mike, I have made two observations in this commission hearings so far and I think that will help the Government to easily rubbish the fear factor that most of these cretins want to rely on, (1) All those before the commissions are Muslims except for one or two. These are the very people who are always shouting that it is only Allah that one needs to fear. (2) How comes we are not seeing the Akus and Sarahulehs in the commission? Why are all these people Mandinkas, Wollofs, Jolas and Fulas? I can understand that most Sarahulehs have their own businesses but that is not the only reason because we have seen private business men from the afore mention tribes before the commission. Akus and Christians have resigned from Jammeh’s government and nothing happened to them and if sacked once they are never recycled like we have seen with the other tribes and “Allah Fearing Muslims” . Bax, I believe the Government has all the political will to fully implement the commissions recommendations, however, I find it very curious that Gambians are not debating the revelations at the commissions, instead we are engaged in mudslinging contest. Media platforms like Jollof should be serializing the events at the commission daily alongside other contributions. Bax, could you please enlighten me if possible why Foroyaa is not serializing this commission as they did with the Alghali Commission? Foroyaa was the only paper I and most people use to read then with regards to the Commission for factual reporting.
I agree with you 100% about the seeming lack of media interest in the ongoing commission of inquiry. I think it should have been among the topmost issues for discussions on our various platforms. Opinion shapers (columnists, editors & news reporters), for whatever reasons, have chosen other issues as priorities over the commission and that’s how the discussions are shaped.
I think your question about Foroyaa is a very good one, but unfortunately, I am unable to give any answers. May be someone should address that question to the Foroyaa Editors. However, I think Foroyaa still provides a much more detailed reporting of commission sittings than many papers, but some might say, that still falls far short of the reporting we saw during the Alghali Commission.
Bax, thanks your suggestion on the Foroyaa issue. I quite agree with you that Foroyaa still provides more balance reporting of the event at the commission. What is your take on the issue of Christians and Akus not been seen in the commissions. They were not center stage in the Alghali commission nor in the Janneh commission so far.
Buba, I do not want to generalise and see individuals appearing before the commission as members of particular groups. Rather, I would want to see each witness as an individual, whose actions/inactions, are not reflective of the behaviour of his/her group and thus, should be individually held to account.
However, it is an observation that is worth noting and I’m sure many would have noted it too.
The lack of much mainstream media interest in the Janneh commission is a real cause for concern. Some are busing trying to denigrate the composition of the commission instead of praising the revelations emanating therefrom.
Several factors explain this silence mainly due to the intricate nature of our family relationships and a cautious attitude of what will happen to the present government in a future commission when the Coalition political mandate ends.
Thank God the records can be googled anytime for posterity.
We only wish the commission’s recommendations will be applied by President Barrow.