By: Momodou Justice Darboe
Top UDP official Lamin Manneh has sharply criticized President Adama Barrow’s recent cabinet appointments, describing the new ministers as square pegs in round holes.
Despite acknowledging that Mr. Barrow has the right to pick and choose his ministers, Mr. Manneh said the President should always exercise this prerogative with theenhancement of performance at the back of his mind.
“Well, he [President Barrow] has the prerogative to appoint ministers and reshuffle as and when he wants and often as he wants. Even though proper management will require you to get some stability in any institution to avoid such a very high turnover, it has been a long spell for some ministers. It is good. The trouble is… Is the performance commensurate with the time spent in government?” he told Coffee Time With Peter Gomez on Tuesday.
According to the top UDP official, President Barrow appeared not to have been bothered by his Cabinet’sperformance.
“We need to mean business but what we’ve seen is thatthe President doesn’t seem to be bothered about performance in his government,” he added.
He pointed out that key ministries such as agriculture, finance, and foreign affairs have not changed hands despite failing in their agenda.
“The key sectors…agriculture has not changed hands. Finance has not changed hands. Foreign affair has not changed hands. You have a lot of embarrassment and a lot of ministries that fail in their agenda. What we have is I see a President, preparing for his re-election in 2026 andhe is bringing ministers, who can do his bidding for him,for the 2026 presidential election. That’s how I see it,”Manneh stressed.
Hamat Bah
The UDP official said he was surprised that Hamat was moved to the lands and local government ministry.
“I am surprised that Hamat Bah, who had performed so poorly in the tourism sector, who had destroyed our tourist sector, is moved to lands and local government. For what? To go bully the Alkalos and Seyfos for 2026[general election]?” said Manneh.
According to him, Hamat has ravaged the Gambia’s tourist sector.
“This gentleman [Hamat]has destroyed the tourism industry and now you moved him from tourism to local government. What’s he going to do there? To check on the reserve lands and sell those as well as [what] happened in the TDA and to bully Alkalos. If that’s on the line, he’s in for trouble. We would not take that lying down. We will fight back,” asserted Mr. Manneh. He continued: “What we need in this government is more unity, more performance in government for the Gambian people. But we are not seeing that. What we see Hamat will do anything to please. This is a guy who has been working on tribal lines, talking difficult things about tribes, pitching one tribe against another while destroying the tourism sector at the same time. Local government should promote unity. But when you take someone toxic like that, [spewing] toxic language against tribes… When you put such an individual [in position], what do you expect?More confrontation and more destruction of our reserve lands like in the TDA. You take somebody to lands, who does not have the track record of preserving our lands.”
Abdoulie Jobe
On the redeployment of Mr. Abdoulie Jobe to the tourism ministry, Mr Manneh said: “To take a petroleum guy to tourism… Are you not putting square pegs in round holes? I would have thought you would take him somewhere, which is in line with his qualification. So,he’s going to go about learning on the job? I am not sure that’s how he wants to go about if he wants to develop the tourism sector.”
Dr. Ismaila Ceesay
According to Mr. Manneh, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay has been in education throughout his career.
“I would have thought you would take someone like that to the education ministry. Take him to primary and secondary education ministry.”
He wondered whether President Barrow wanted Dr. Ceesay to be a spin doctor.
Abdoulie Sanyang
Mr. Manneh contended that Abdoulie Sanyang has been decried as IGP for all the “wrong decisions” he had been making. He continued: “And now, you promote him to the interior. Are you preparing for another conflict with the opposition, civil society, and other people? This is a man, who bought a whole set of Belgian dogs and trainedthem, and put them in the police. I thought he would havetaken them to crime areas such as in Banjul and around Senegambia but is he preparing for another demonstration to unleash them on protestors? The dogs seem to have been added to the repressive arsenal of this government. That is not the guy I would appoint as interior minister. Gambians will no longer condone that.”
