The news that Nani Juwara of NAWEC was redeployed to Gam-Petroleum from Nawec by the PMO on the orders of an Executive Directive is an utter abuse of power by the PMO, the Secretary General and the Office of the President.
None of these public institutions and public officers has the authority to appoint or dismiss or redeploy members of staff of public enterprises or parastatals. Parastatals have their Board of Directors and Managing Directors as the sole authority to appoint or dismiss according to the act establishing that parastatal.
This action by the PMO, the Secretary General and the Office of the President is therefore extremely worrying because this is the same arbitrarily and illegal actions that Yaya Jammeh used to interfere with parastatals hence undermine their efficiency, professionalism and performance and consequently deny Gambians the quality goods and services that these public enterprises were supposed to provide. This is why Nawec failed just like Gamtel or SSHFC among others have never performed well to the satisfaction of consumers due to political interference.
What is even more ridiculous is that Gam-Petroleum is a private enterprise hence how can the Government appoint staffs for a private company? Clearly this redeployment is another misinformation that the Government is hiding behind to sack a public servant. Not long ago the same Government said former Minister Mai Ahmad Fatty was redeployed into the Foreign Service only for Mai to refute that as false.
It is therefore highly concerning that Pres. Adama Barrow and his Secretary General Dawda Fadera are using the same dictatorial practices and misinformation tactics as Yaya Jammeh. One would expect that Mr. Fadera would provide professional and honest advice to Pres. Barrow about public sector management so that the President takes decisions and actions that are in line with the law. But to misguide the President to issue ‘Executive Directives’ in the management of public enterprises is a clear abuse of office, incompetence, dishonesty, corruption, negligence of duties and disregard of the rule of law.
Pres. Barrow must be informed that ‘Executive Directives’ are unconstitutional because there is nowhere in our Constitution where such action is provided even in the slightest sense. The idea of ‘Executive Directive’ is a Yaya Jammeh idea, which is an illegal idea, meant to abuse office and perpetuate corruption. Yaya Jammeh had used ‘Executive Directives’ just to personalize state institutions and plunder public wealth. Hence Mr. Barrow must desist from the use of so-called ‘Executive Directive’.
By its nature an ‘Executive Directive’ is an emergency measure to address urgent issues. One would expect the use of such a practice where there are no laws or there was a crisis that must be immediately addressed. But we know that there is always the law governing institutions and decision-making in this country. Secondly the Constitution has no provision for the use of ‘Executive Directive. Therefore ‘Executive Directives’ are not only unconstitutional but also unnecessary because there is already a prevailing law, structures and processes through which proper and timely decisions can be taken. So why then create and use an ‘Executive Directive’?
In fact in his first press conference in January 2017, Pres. Barrow declared that the practice of issuing ‘Executive Directives’ were over yet within his first 12 months he went ahead to use this bad practice multiple times. By this practice, Mr. Barrow is therefore showing us that he is not interested in system change. That would be a betrayal of the expectations of Gambians for electing him in December 2016.
The members of the National Assembly must therefore stand up to tell the President that he has no powers to issue an ‘Executive Directive’ more so to interfere in the governance and management of public enterprises. The so-called redeployment of Nani Juwara is nothing but a false attempt to dismiss the young man for his steadfast professionalism and commitment to protect the supreme interest of the Gambia in the energy sector. He must be returned to his post as Deputy Managing Director immediately.
All Gambians must stand up in solidarity with Nani Juwara by condemning his so-called redeployment which is a dishonest way of dismissing a public servant who has been known for his hard work, diligence and efficiency at Nawec over the years. Gambians must not stand by to watch yet again our Government abuse its power and personalize state institutions. Nawec does not belong to Pres. Adama Barrow. Nawec does belong to Dawda Fadera. We must not allow them to abuse Nawec as they wish!
For the Gambia, Our Homeland!
We need to know why he was removed before fighting for his case on the media. The minister of energy and the MD should be fired now that they have missed the deadline promised to Gambians to end the blackouts.
I think the President needs to be taken to task about the continued use of Executive Orders. There doesn’t seem to be any provision in the law that allows this practice. There are too many practices from the past that the present doesn’t seem ready to abandon. Questions about the “new” Gambia’s readiness for system change are genuine, given what we are seeing today.
It is disturbing to think that the Executive would interfere in the running of institutions that have their own governing bodies, but the governing bodies of these institutions have a responsibility to protect their staff from being abused. In the case of NAWEC, if the information carried here is true, the NAWEC Board should also be taken to task by the media, who should play the guardian role for society. It would certainly be odd if a public officer was indeed deployed from a public institution to a Private company. The public needs to know what is happening with Mr Juwara before anyone can fight for him.
The reason(s) for the removal(s) of public officials should be know in order to fairly judge between to two action/decision. In the absence of the critical information (reason/s), human mind naturally and unconditionally will seek for likely explanation(s) which is the path of rumours. For minor happenings in society, rumours can be ignored or left to remain so but all important national issues / interest for which a person or group claim to warrant their seeking of public office to remain as ‘rumours’ and left as such only demonstrate perhaps some sort of human qualities (closely associated with politicians who seek office with sweet words/promises they as individuals do not honestly cherish).
How people say openly one thing and then do a different thing, yet they can meet and look at other people in the eye and then go home and also manage to sleep, is beyond me. Maybe am too old fashioned or unfit for the 21 C survival techniques, but am certain of one thing, even if I am so low minded/thinking, uncultured into the ‘modern criminal mindset’ as a means to survive in the so called’modern world’; the one thing am certain of is a simple fact, that is I AM NOT ALONE in this low line of thinking. The article above and a very heart touching ‘open letter to the President of The Gambia’ by someone I could nominate for many important public office had I known her other (hopefully brilliant qualities/qualifications, records etc), she is a concern, righteous, patriotic, balanced minded female contributor – FATOU BOYE – published on the Freedom on-line news outlet on 07/01/2018, reproduced here below verbatim as I wish to share what I felt with her words, how she put her message and everything in that message that goes beyond the message to point to great qualities embedded in the character of the author. Gambia do need you and your likes, Allah bless you !!!
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BARROW: ‘PLEASE, I BEG YOU…DON’T RUN FOR A SECOND TERM. GO HOME WITH YOUR HONOUR INTACT’
January 7, 2018 3216
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BARROW
‘PLEASE, I BEG YOU…DON’T RUN FOR A SECOND TERM. GO HOME WITH YOUR HONOUR INTACT’
‘THOSE POLITICIANS ASKING YOU TO RUN AGAIN ARE DOING SO FOR SELFISH INTERESTS’
AD
‘…Kindly permit me to be as brutally frank as possible. As a concern citizen who made his modest contribution to your emergence as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, I owe you nothing but the truth. I was not a member of your party when I volunteered to support your mission and ambition in 2016. I was elated when Gambians succeeded in chasing away the profligate and reckless government of the AFPRC, led by President Jammeh. I never expected that our situation could ever get worse under the coalition government that almost literally promised heaven and earth. But it has become evident that it is easier to govern by mere words than concrete action.
It is indeed shameful that those like me who supported you so vociferously have become butts of jokes everywhere we go. Sir, I plead with you to ignore your acolytes who may be telling you that all is well in the Gambia. My unequivocal verdict, without any fear of contradiction is that things are VERY BAD. While I will not, in all honesty, totally heap the blame on you, there is no doubt that your government has been LESS THAN COMPETENT. I’m reasonably convinced that you have not availed yourself of the abundant talents it has so pleased God to endow Gambia with. Rather, you’ve chosen to saddle yourself with hungry lions and dead woods that you’ve resurrected from penury and oblivion. Leadership should be about managing people and resources. Most of the people you are working with are already retired or tired and with little or nothing new to contribute.
It is grossly unfair that it was very convenient for us to lampoon and scandalise Yahya Jammeh, yet most of us have remained funereally silent and unreasonably complicit in the evil that the current men of power are perpetrating and perpetuating under your watch. Unknown to you Sir, SOME PEOPLE ARE MERELY USING YOU TO RULE BY PROXY. There is no evidence of discipline in your team, one of the greatest things you preached so fervently about in your first coming as Head of State. Your acolytes are virtually getting away with every crime. Someone, somewhere, sat down with birds of the same feathers, to conjure and compile the most disgraceful list of political appointees ever and yet nothing has happened to those who brought such perfidious insults on our nation. Instead, we are being regaled with tales by the moonlight to gloss over serious maladies in the polity and damning treachery against our nation. No serious apologies. No penitence. Only some foolhardy cockiness from those who will repeat the same nonsense when tomorrow comes.
Your Excellency, it has become very difficult, if not impossible to defend the excessive shortcomings of your government, please, permit my oxymoron Sir. We definitely want you to succeed but it seems some demons are desperately determined to make you fail by all means. The more your administration unravels, the more ridiculously hopeless it seems. You have waltzed from crisis to crisis instead of from glory to glory, as most of us expected. We thought you truly possessed the magic wand and talismanic effect to make all our problems evaporate and vamoose in a jiffy. We did not expect to be regularly mesmerised by IMPOTENT EXCUSES GALORE.
I sincerely doff my hat to Honourable Halifa Sallah for his rare and uncommon courage. Regardless of what his detractors may say, he is the only insider who has been trying to say it as it is. Even if some of his critics feel he’s seeking for relevance in your kingdom, it is still within his rights. I’m sure that when the day of reckoning comes, you will remember and appreciate him timely warnings. Without mincing words, what honourable Sallah has been trying to tell you in clear terms is that this government is swimming in a big foul mess and that you should not be carried away by the FAKE ADULATION and FALSE ADORATION you see all around you. There is no government in the Gambia that did not enjoy the services of praise-singers who disappeared as soon as the government itself collapsed like a pack of cards. Ask President Jammeh!
Even if you are being forced by circumstances beyond your control to compromise and capitulate on your known principles to contest in the up coming presidential election don’t try it, Is it not better, and more profitable, to return home, triumphantly, with your reputation intact than to win a pyrrhic victory with everything you ever stood for wasted on the altar of vainglorious aggrandisement? What guarantees do you have that you will win the next election even if you agree to sell Gambia to the political gladiators?
Sir, I’m pleading with you in the name of God, the Merciful and all-powerful, that you don’t need two terms, or ten years in power, to prove your greatness. Nelson Mandela spent only one term in power and retired to superlative glory as the world’s most respected and revered and idolised statesman. Robert Mugabe spent about four decades in power, yet he returned home in total infamy and unenviable disgrace. It is a lesson of life that we must all learn, sooner rather than later, that man shall not live by power alone. I know my preaching is not likely to touch you and your hardened supporters but, at the very least, I want it to be on record that I spoke publicly, out of genuine love and concern, while you were being goaded on by those who stand to gain more if you win a re-election. For most of those asking you to continue, by fire and by force, it is always about THEIR PERSONAL AGENDA AND SURVIVAL. They know their political careers would come to a shuddering halt and abrupt standstill should you fail in your bid to come back. In their DESPERATION to come back at all costs, they are going to do exactly what AFPRC did, or even much worse. What moral authority would you then have to justify the continued detention and harassment of some of the AFPRC operatives accused of wasting government resources and killing innocent souls during Jammeh’s regime,
The upcoming election promises to be an interesting one. You will soon discover how treacherous human beings can be when some of those hailing you today as the authentic messiah begin to show you their true colours. Our country is bleeding dangerously while some over-pampered politicians can only think of winning elections by hook or by crook. The quality of your appointees in recent time points to how DIRECTIONLESS your government has finally become. In a country overflowing with so many amazing brains and talents, it is incredibly shameful that those are your best representatives for our country. The easiest way for a leader to fail is to continue to attract those much worse than himself. Conversely, the best way to succeed is for a leader to recognise and attract and surround himself with those much better in all aspects of human endeavour. This does not erase or take anything away from the leader but it actually enhances his personality and how he is perceived by everyone.
Gambia has never been in short supply of electricity but Gambia started dying when our leaders stopped respecting merit and preferred to enthrone mediocrity. The truth is mediocrity begets further mediocrity. The few good leaders in your government have not been able to display their wizardry out of fear and trepidation that some cabal would mark them out and hack them down so ruthlessly. It is a sign of the times, that the courage, astuteness and brilliance that made them stand out in the political crowd has suddenly taken flight and they are now little more than wimps in your insipid government.
If I were in your shoes, I would consider that it is not too late to groom and propel some of the best brains in the Gambia even those living beyond the shores of the Gambia to succeed me. You do not need to look far in this regard but I will not make any suggestions today, lest it be misinterpreted that I am touting any particular individual as a worthy successor. I’m reasonably convinced that you have worked very hard and seem to have reached your peak. To God be the glory. In a country of nearly 3 million people, God has been too kind to you. You will be able to justify this unmerited favour by leaving Gambia much better than you met it. The only way you can do that in the next remaining years is to SACRIFICE YOUR OWN PERSONAL AMBITION and hand over the country to proven and tested modern and cosmopolitan technocrats. The world has moved beyond the backwardness that we are being saddled with in the Gambia today. The world expect us to be the true example in Africa not by words but in deed.
My appeal to you is to urgently do a self-assessment to determine and decide on whether you are what Gambia needs at this time and age for our country to join the community of other nations in their march towards technological advancement, political stability, social security and economic prosperity.
With all due respect, Sir, if your answer is yes to the above, you may go ahead and contest but if in all honesty, the answer is no, my prayer is that you will find the courage and selfless spirit to quit the stage while the ovation is loudest. That in itself would be a deserving legacy. I’m watching and waiting for your patriotic decision with bated breath.
Thank you, Mr President, for your attention and kind consideration of my latest memo to you, FATOU BOYE.
Written By Fatou Boye
Alex/bax,
You have many pending questions unanswered since this INEPT administration took over in January 2017. Who will answer the removal of an official. These USELESS people at State House have taken the Gambian people to be dumb, numb, indifferent and naive. So they don’t bother to inform nor answer.
Unless we wither them out for INEPTITUDE, INEFFICIENCY, CORRUPTION and CORRUPTIBLE practices, the Gambia will never move ahead into any progressive development agenda. But Adama Barrow knows absolutely NOTHING! How can he deliver?
His China press conference was the WORST from a “head of state”. The female journalist knew that her questions were not adequately treated by this illiterate man who found it difficult to discern the contents of her questions. So she decided to quickly wrap up the interview. We are lost as a country with a an illiterate at the helm of matters.
I continue to urge our learned, dedicated, patriotic youth population to muscle up to remove this USELESS administration with a British Argos watchman in presoidential attire.