By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
The erstwhile Minister of Information, Communications and Infrastructure in the infancy days of the Barrow Government, Demba Ali Jawo has reacted to the new cabinet, noting that the appointment of Demba Sabally as the country’s Agriculture Minister is a political compensation, saying that the new minister doesn’t virtually know anything about Agriculture.
“Of course it is quite obvious that Demba Sabally’s appointment was just to compensate him for the great role he played in helping to neutralise the Gambia Democratic Congress party, which in no doubt helped President Barrow in his re-election,” he pointed out.
DA Jawo, who has become a vocal critic of the Barrow government since his fall out with the president in 2018 said that Barrow shouldn’t have replaced the former Minister of Agriculture, Amie Fabureh with Sabally.
“In fact many people were of the view that the former Minister, Amie Fabureh was not only an experienced agriculturist, but she was doing quite well and there was absolutely no need to replace her with someone who knows virtually nothing about agriculture,” he argued.
He went further to say that it is hard to get to the reason for having a person with no experience in agriculture occupy the post of the minister of Agriculture.
He affirmed that it is essential for a cabinet minister to have a good grasp of the area one is heading in order to function better.
“While the technical experts are there to guide the minister, but he/she is not supposed to be a complete novice in his/her portfolio as there are places and occasions such as during cabinet meetings when the technical experts are not usually present and the minister is expected to speak and defend his/her policies and programmes. Therefore if he/she is not quite familiar with his/her area of responsibility, then it would be hard to see how he/she can make a good case in cabinet”, he defended as he reacted to the appointment of Demba Sabally as the new Agriculture Minister.
DA Jawo is among the first persons to publicly query the appointment of Sabally as the new minister heading the Agriculture Ministry. Gambia Democratic Party youth leader, Omar Ceesay also pointed out that Sabally is not a good pick. Last week, the Youth Secretary-General of the United Democratic Party, Kemo Bojang, also argued that the appointment of Demba Sabally is a setback.
He said that Demba Sabally is a pharmacist and he has no idea of how to run the ministry.
