WHAT ARE THE LIKELY REASONS FOR THE PRESIDENT’S FAILURE TO APPOINT A VICE PRESIDENT?

According to the Constitution

“ (1) There shall be a Vice-President of The Gambia who shall be the principal assistant of the President in the discharge of his or her executive functions and shall exercise such other functions as may be conferred on him or her by this Constitution or assigned to him or her by the President.

(2) A person shall be qualified to be appointed as Vice-President if he or she has the qualifications required for the election of the President under section 62. Provided that the Vice-President shall not be a member of the National Assembly”.

Due to the weakness of the provisions of our constitution, the president has the full powers to appoint a vice president without any oversight authority that will put the person nominated to serve as vice president through a vetting process that would guarantee that someone fills the position with the highest calibre of competency to occupy the office.

Instead of the president looking to the spirit of the supreme laws to appoint the most suitable person based on the highest degree of competency to guarantee the officer’s integrity in serving the national interest, he will likely act in his selfish interest to take advantage of the weakness of the constitutional provision, to appoint whoever he wishes to select with the bare minimum of qualification to meet the set criteria in justifying his appointment by relying on the letter of the law.

If the president chooses to take advantage of the constitution to abuse the executive power vested in him, it shouldn’t surprise Gambians as he has manifested it several times. He recently made his intentions known to us

when he made the statement at the former vice president’s funeral that the only reason he appointed the late vice president was due to his lack of political ambitions to succeed him. Disregarding the late Vice President’s impeccable qualities.

RUMOUR OF AN EXISTING SHORTLIST FOR VICE PRESIDENT!

The rumour for the replacement vice president made the rumour mills even before the former vice president passed away. The speculation started when it became known to some people that he was seriously sick to the extent that he got evacuated to India to seek medical treatment.

The information came from the people within the corridors of power. These people knew about the seriousness of his condition to the extent of being sure that his chances of recovery were slim. This led them to start discussing his replacement while he was still alive.

The government’s failure to announce the severe illness and medical evacuation of the Vice President before his death and the rumour of the replacement whiles he was hospitalised in India fueled the talk of foul play on the vice president’s life, causing his Sickness.

It’s fascinating but not surprising to note that all the people mentioned in the rumoured shortlist for the replacement of the Vice President had service in the cabinet of Dictator JAMMEH’s government.

The rumoured names on the shortlist are

Sidi Njie, Presently Deputy Speaker of the House of Parliament and the last minister of information for president Jammeh. Madam Fatou Bom Bensouda, the Gambia High Commissioner United Kingdom and Former Justice Minister and Neneh Mcdole Gaye, residence in the USA and Former External Affairs Minister of JAMMEH. Later it got added that the present Chief Justice, Assan B Jallow is due to retire. Madam Bensouda is being considered to replace him while the president is considering appointing Mr Jallow as Vice President.

These names aren’t a surprise to many and not a disappointment, as the President has mainly appointed his relatives or the former Dictator’s enablers in his entire government administration structures from the ranks of the cabinet, diplomatic missions, Board Chairpersons, Managing Directors of Parastatal or the Leaders of the independent institutions. He hardly appointed or maintained in place any person out of these categories.

The question Gambians need to ask themselves is why the president still did not appoint a new Vice President two weeks after the burial of the late VP (Alieu Barbara Joof)—considering the threat to his life and the risk it has on our national security.

Reason one would be that the president is entirely indecisive. He can’t deal with the amount of lobbying to replace the late Vice president, making him fail to appoint a successor. The reason isn’t very likely, as any person with little interest in politics should be able to make such a decision within a reasonable time.

The other theory is that he’s holding the position open for his chosen candidate, waiting for that person to satisfy constitutional requirements before taking up the Vice President position. Similar to the case of former Vice President Madam Fatoumata Tambajang. Or maybe the chosen appointee is serving a notice to terminate or finish their present appointments, as in the case of the Present Chief Justice (Assan Jallow) if he was to get appointed as the replacement Vice president. This scenario is very likely as there was a recent precedent with the Minister for digital information and marketing (Mr Bah) when his ministry was without a minister for quite a while whilst he was waiting to terminate his dual citizen status with his US citizenship.

The final reason for the president neglecting his duty and posing a risk to his life and our national security by failing to appoint a replacement for the late Vice President might be due to the unpopularity of his choice of the Vice president, especially of the most prominent of them Mr Sidi Njie.

Because when the rumour first came out, only Sidi Njie got mentioned, which generated outrage from some sections of society, especially on social media.

As I have mentioned above, if any of the people on the shortlist gets appointed as Vice President, especially Sidi Njie, it should not be a surprise or shock to Gambians as we have witnessed the former regime’s state capture.

Sidi Njie has proved his influence and the control he has with the Barrrow Administration with his rapid rise to power from being the most vilified individual due to the role he played during the political impasse!

Gambians should think of how did these people manage to change their fortunes to be able to influence Barrow to occupy the second and third positions in the line of succession to become the president of the Republic.

People within the corridors of the statehouse have mentioned that Sidi Njie had the most significant influence in appointing Cabinet members. The president proposed he occupies the position of the Speaker of the House of Parliament, but he suggested that the president give the House Speaker position to Fabakary TOMBONG Jatta. He settled for the role he occupies at present as deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, knowing that he still has control over the speaker and is well positioned to chair the oversight committee on security and intelligence, giving him more leverage to control state capture.

Sidi Njie’s reach and influence shouldn’t be unrated. His rise to power and evidence of his impact on controlling the president is glaring.

Sidi Njie is highly likely the favourite choice of the President to occupy the vacant position of office of Vice President; the outburst from some quarters might cause the president to reconsider or delay the appointment until the situation dies down or when he finds the courage to take the controversial action.