The Gambian President in another abrupt cabinet reshuffle has eliminated three ministerial departments and positions and fired four cabinet ministers without prior warning. As usual the President has taken over the portfolio of the department of Forestry under the purview of the office of the President. In a statement read on the GRTS evening news Wednesday, the erratic dictator Yahya Jammeh has relieved four ministers of their cabinet appointments without any replacement. Mr Lamin Nyabally former SG and Minister of Fisheries, Dr Edward Saja Sanneh Minister of Energy, Mrs Yambaba Njie Keita Minister of Presidential Affairs and Mr Burama Sagnia the newly appointed first Minister of Planning have all been sacked with immediate effect.
The press release on GRTS stated that Mrs. Yam Bamba Njie Keita who was two weeks ago appointed Minister for Presidential affairs has been appointed as Deputy Secretary General which is a new position created by Jammeh. As usual no reasons were advanced for the sacking of these ministers and the elimination of their various ministries.
In yet another twisted reshuffle of his cabinet the president announced that he is taking over the department of Forestry under the purview of the office of the President. The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum has been merged as one ministry. The Ministry of Fisheries has now been integrated with the Ministry of Resources, Environment, Wildlife and Climate Change.
Readers may recalled that on several occasions the President took over the ministry of Agriculture and Petroleum which led to a total chaos of the Agriculture ministry leading to the arrest and detention of several seasoned civil servants. Critics pointed out that the openly corrupt President who doesn’t shy away from publicly taking over public institutions, land and companies has vested interest in agriculture and petroleum which is motivating him to bring these departments under his purview. He is also reportedly into wood carving and export business thus the need to have a direct hand into how that department is operating.
Since he took over the ministry of agriculture, the one time most viable institution in the country, the President turned several privately and publicly own land into his personal property. He has become the richest farmer in the country with huge harvest while the rest of the farmers are wallowing in dismal crop seasons. This year the price of groundnuts – the cash crop of the country was not announced deliberately until late January. The President is believed to be venturing into buying farmers’ produce to increase his business outreach. He earlier amended the constitution which previously banned the President from getting involved in commercial business to allow a level playing field among private investors. That has since been history thus the President is the biggest business tycoon in the country and beyond. He has driven private investors and prevented individual citizens from running their own businesses in the country. If you want to be a successful businessman/woman in Gambia, the President will have to have his share!
It is a sad reality that a man who came to power 21 years ago on the pretext of fighting corruption and long term stay of the Presidency is now moving into his third decade and has become the richest leader the nation has ever witness. President Jammeh does not shy away from seizing public properties and or corporations and turning them into his personal enterprise. He dismantled with the help of the robber stamping Parliament the Gambia Public Transport Corporation and turn it into his own. He now has over 50 man power buses running across the country using public depots and transporting students to and from school. The new Gambia Transport Corporation is registered and own by the President. In essence the Gambian leader has institutionalized corruption to a level never seen in Gambian. Now what happens to the dismissed ministers is still in the air. Minister Nyabally who was disgracefully sent from the meet the farmers tour and deployed to another ministry has seen his matching orders again. The lesson is nothing new as Jammeh hires and fires with impunity. He is reported to be leaving the country and traveling to Ethiopia this evening.