Although I do not keep up with the organisation’s activities as perhaps I should, the matter of our fellow citizens being presented as candidates for the important office of Secretary General and of none other than Gambia’s current Foreign Minister compels us to share some ideas and thoughts on Mr Momodou Tangara’s candidature. It has also been a topic of discussion among my fellow Gambian professionals and community leaders at this time.
I do not know Mr Tangara personally, nor have I had an opportunity to interact with him personally or professionally in any of his roles as Gambia’s Minister or Ambassador to the UN, so my opinions are based on publicly available information on his integrity, leadership quality, and public persona. Many would argue that the idea of the British Commonwealth had long outlived its expiry date. Still, I believe that is a short-sighted assessment, if for no other reason than to nurture convivial relations among peoples and cultures of similar and historic experiences. Further, many of my acquaintances come from families whose very lives have depended on and continue to revolve around the organisation’s activities and aspirations. For all intents and purposes, the organisation does good work and helps to foster peace and eschew conflict among its member nations.
Regarding Mr Tangara’s candidature, and putting aside the brilliant mind behind his nomination for the critical role of Commonwealth Secretary General, I do not believe Mr Tangara has the requisite temperament, integrity, or leadership acumen to represent the other citizens of our fellow member nations of the Commonwealth or me in any capacity.
As part of a tyrannous government of merely a decade ago, Mr Tangara participated in the opacity surrounding several episodes of murder, forcible disappearances, and pilferage of the public treasury for an otherwise exemplary nation, which had cultivated a cherished reputation for human rights, transparency, conflict mitigation, and for good governance in Africa, and around the world. One incident which comes to mind is Tangara’s secret negotiations with his native Malian government to return journalist Ndey Tapha Sosseh to face the guillotine in Yahya Jammeh’s Gambia when Sosseh fled to save her very life for merely appearing to criticise Yahya and Tangara’s government. It illustrates Tangara’s intolerance for divergent opinions, for women, and the value of journalists in the arena of transparency and accountability.
As Gambia’s Ambassador to the UN, Tangara led a veritable fiefdom, a menagerie manor of self-dealing and familial transactions, and only when it was incontrovertibly evident that Yahya’s presidency was no longer tenable in 2016 did he consider resigning, and reluctantly at that.
After we rid ourselves of the tyrant, and in the role of Foreign Minister for the wheelbarrow of President Adama, Mr Tangara led a diplomatic corps riddled with scandals of the persona non-grata scale, including denials of accreditation for his Ambassadors and criminal fraud conduct of his Ambassadors and staff, particularly in the US, where I have called home for decades, and in remote outposts such as Cuba.
Mr. Tangara’s record while representing us and Gambia abroad should, at the very least, elicit serious concern and apprehension from any prospective employer or serious organisation. I advise caution for the Commonwealth if the organisation wishes to consider Mr Tangara for the consequential and dignified role of Secretary General for the storied organisation.
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By Haruna Darbo