After several months of waiting, Gambians were last evening finally given the new line up of Ministers of the Republic who will work with His Excellency the President to realize the basic ingredients of his mandate in the next five years.
Indeed, Gambians were right to be impatient because since the elections in December 2021 and the inauguration of His Excellency President Adama Barrow there have been lots of talks, lots of expectations, and indeed lots of speculations about the cabinet lineup. After the inauguration of the president and interim cabinet was established, which was basically the outgoing cabinet members so as to give the president and his party enough time and concentration to work on the parliament election and now that the parliament election has gone and the president party, the NPP, has won a majority people expected the cabinet at that time also, but suddenly, we were into Ramadan and later Koriteh but now the waiting is all over.
We have a new vice president for example and we also have new ministries, so indeed, this is a cabinet with a different.
Talking about the vice president who is the most senior members of the cabinet as far as order of president is concerned we welcome him. He is a known technocrat of many years standing, a former teacher also a formal international civil servant who in the past five years has done a lot to transformed his docket at the Ministry of Higher Education including but not limited to establishment of the University of Science and Technology of The Gambia. This is indeed one of the great achievements of His Excellency the president, and also of the outgoing Minister of Higher Education. We welcome Honorable Joof to the vice presidency.
Another very important development in the new cabinet lineup is really the appointment of Professor Pierre Gomez as Minister for Higher Education, Science Research and Technology. He is a known academic, very accessible, highly experience, modest, and well educated. For many years running he won the title of the Best Lecturer of The Year at the University of The Gambia and was until recently acting vice chancellor of the University in addition to several if not many academic achievements that he has registered. So his appointment is indeed a square peg in a square hole. It fits, and a very appropriate appointment. We wish our friend Professor Gomez an excellent tenure.
It has to be said also, that the cabinet has seen a lot of the old guards still in place like the dynamic Minister of Tourism and Culture in place, likewise the Minister of Foreign Affairs International Cooperation is also in place, and the Minister of Justice. These are key government Ministries in the next five years. Example, the Minister of Justice will be taking this country through the final moment of the TRRC including reparations, possible prosecutions, amnesty and so on. So it is important that we also welcome Honorable Dawda Jallow again to another successful tenure.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs has been in this portfolio for the past several years and also is work is cut out for the next five years particularly on the issues of Gambian migrants which hold very difficult tax of convincing some of the European countries not to deport Gambian migrants who are in their countries to make a better living. So the Honourable Minister we are sure will also continue to work very hard towards that.
We cannot conclude our preliminary observations about the new cabinet without mentioning the very important innovation in the cabinet lineup which is that of the Minister for Civil Service Reform and Productivity. This is highly welcome, it is long overdue. The civil service in any country is the backbone of that country. It is the brain out of which the country comes out. Therefore, for a very long time people have always wondered why The Gambia is one country in the sub region that did not have a dedicated Ministry for the civil servant, so we want to say thank you Mr President for this innovation. The new Minister has a very difficult task ahead we all know that productivity is not as it can be in the civil service in spite all the efforts as civil service reform all habits die heart, people go to work late, people close earlier than 4pm, absenteeism is also a perennial issue. Therefore, the new Minister has a very big task ahead of him and we want to urge all Gambians to give him full support. If the civil service is efficient our country will be efficient, if the civil service is lackadaisical our country will be slow and not move as it should be.
All told, we want to welcome the new Ministers and we want to tell the outgoing Ministers that thank you for a job well done!
It has to be known or remembered that sometimes Ministers are changed not because they have not perform well, sometimes Ministers are changed because the President wants to change them, as it is the right and duty of the President to appoint and make changes. Those Ministers who have not been re-higher into the new cabinet lineup, we want to tell them bravo, bravo, bravo for a job well done for your country and we wish you all the best in your future endeavours.
However, gender activists will react to this lineup cabinet looking at the fact that the women representations could have be more but please let us not despair there are two or three cabinet positions build up including the Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Digital Economy, it is our hope that when those ministerial portfolios are fill up they will be given to the deserving women so as to give women fair representation in the cabinet.
