By Umaru Fofana
A cabinet reshuffle, as we know it, is no longer in vogue. Unless where there is a change of government, reshuffle happens now when there is a huge policy shift of government in which case those who are sceptical about or opposed to such would be required to leave government. Especially in a presidential system, cabinet reshuffle is a rarity these days. Generally appointees would rather resign or be asked to do so if their conduct or performance has become unsatisfactory or their position untenable.
But in Africa cabinet reshuffles are becoming even more and more frequent. This is because in our neck of the wood where jobs are few and far between and political appointments are, strangely, the highest paying in more ways than one, a cabinet reshuffle is the weapon of enhancement or mass destruction in the hands of the president. A reshuffle also happens so frequently because appointments are not made based on merit or after careful meritorious considerations. It is all about cronyism and who contributed or will contribute what during elections. And parliamentary scrutiny of appointees needs a lot of scrutinising itself.
Add to that the fact that these jobs are not necessarily for public service. Many who clamour for positions or are appointed, get the job citing loyalty to the president, and pledging that if the president asks them to jump they will ask how high. The ever-blurring lines between loyalty to the state and to a man are increasingly disappearing. So when President Julius Maada Bio for the second time since his election raised the spectre last week, it left me unimpressed.
Respectful sacking
Constitutions around the world allow heads of state to hire and fire almost at will. But decency would require such to be carried out with careful national considerations and respect for the holder who is being axed. The dignity of those who agree to serve the public should always be maintained by the president who asked them to, and even by the president who inherits them, say after a change of government. Where they behave dishonourably and have to be removed with that dignity in tatters it is just proper that the reason for such be made known to those who entrusted their lives with the president by voting for him, giving him that power to hire and fire. Sadly, however, our leaders keep repeating the same mistake of playing Tin Tan Toe with us by removing someone from one ministry or department today, supposedly for some wrongdoing, and after some family or party or pep talk putting them elsewhere as if the country is a revolving door.
Sadly in Sierra Leone, presidents see cabinet reshuffles as an opportunity to prove they are the boss and in charge, by hiring people as if they are doing them a favour, and firing people in a manner that appears to demean them. No prior telephone calls are put through to prepare the minds of a minister who is up for axing. And in most instances they do not even get a thank-you letter from the president for their service.
Who wants to be appointed?
Such is how the power to appoint and dismiss has been abused that you wonder why people clamour to want to be appointed into a position where there is no security of tenure and where you cannot disagree with your boss however wrongly that boss behaves, or even where undeserved ignominy is likely to witness your exit.
I witnessed an instance in the last decade or so where a deputy minister had gone to the state broadcaster to do a prearranged public awareness raising phone-in programme about her ministry. Bizarrely and ignominiously the would-be radio show was preceded by an announcement on the very radio of a cabinet reshuffle that left her sacked. The producer was left apologising to the audience for not being able to bring the programme, while with egg on her face the sacked official was left apologising to the producer who kept saying to the minister “not your fault ma’am”.
A lady who was dismissed apparently as part of the purge that accompanied the controversial sacking of Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana told me more than two years later that she had received no letter from President Ernest Bai Koroma thanking her for her service, let alone a warning that she was going to be sacked even though she had done nothing disgraceful. I can go on and on and on.
Unimpressive reshuffle
Back to the present, with a cabinet reshuffle comes a new thinking for the administration – or so one would think. But the cabinet reshuffle last week will be remembered more for those who were not sacked than for those who were fired. More of the same thing in place. I do not want to sound like a US Republican Party member or supporter but I believe in a lean and efficient government, especially in a country where the wage bill is ludicrously high compared to the stubbornly eclectic economy. I will not delve much into areas that activists have already talked about.
Finance Ministry
Even my mother who does not know an A from a bull’s eye knows that the country’s economy has not recovered from the austerity it was plunged into in the latter years of President Koroma’s administration. While tax collection has greatly improved in the last 18 months due to the leakages that have been impressively minimised, the sources of revenue have shrunk. The mining companies have dried up and with that, further job losses. Small and medium-scale enterprises are struggling in part because of the weak exchange rate, but also because of the high cost of doing business and the unfriendly nature of the tax regime.
The Millennium Challenge Cooperation scorecard which gave the government a clean bill of health seriously impugned the areas dealing with the economy especially around policy framework. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to know that the Theory of Saffanomics is not working. If for some reason finance minister Jacob Jusu Saffa cannot resign or be asked to – or even be sacked – despite the grinding financial hardship the country faces, then he should change tact and fast. Otherwise why is he in the same post?
In what appears to me at least to be a mea culpa, President Bio has added another deputy to the finance ministry. That is admitting to the fact that the current leadership in the sector – the finance minister and the central bank governor – are out of their depths. There can only be one solution – and that is not adding another deputy minister to the department. Doing so is akin to always deploying soldiers even to quell riots at weddings – an indictment of the police – yet leaving the police leadership intact.
Internal affairs
You are bound to be left bewildered that there was no shakeup in the ministry of internal affairs in view of what is happening – or not even happening – there. This is one ministry for which I miss the latter years of the Koroma administration due to the sterling job performed by Pallo Conteh in his role as minister there. His sustained agile and result-oriented approach to dealing with gangs and unruly motor bike taxi riders in the city centre was admirable. He would walk on the streets to make things right. Now those so-called Okara riders have improved in the art of lawlessness because of inertia in the ministry in charge and the ambivalence at best of city councils, especially the Freetown City Council and the Mayor.
Basic and secondary school education
Education is the flagship programme of the president. The outgoing minister Alpha Timbo was a presidential aspirant for the now-ruling SLPP party. He was also touted as a potential running mate at the time. Having been a secondary school teacher for years, he is au fait with the workings of the ministry of basic education. For him to have been removed despite the impressive things we see happening in that ministry, is perplexing. Except there were certain shenanigans we were now privy to, which takes me to one of my earlier points that reasons should be made known so there is no recycling of bad apples.
If there was no untoward happening in the ministry, it should be said that Timbo is back to a familiar territory. He was a union leader for many years and has been sent to the labour ministry where he had served before also as minister. And incidentally the outgoing labour minister was completely out of his depth, and was fighting with mine workers who consistently accused him of all sorts of wrongdoing albeit without incontrovertible evidence. If Timbo does not decline his new job or resign shortly after accepting it, his hardworking tendencies will help transform the ministry.
Enter Dr Sengeh!
The reason for bringing Dr David Moinina Sengeh as minister of basic education has not been articulated. But he has worked so much wonder as the country’s Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) that one can only assume that the idea is to bring that technological innovation and tie it up with the school system. School laboratories are grossly inadequate. By the way I hear Dr Sengeh remains the CIO.
Good riddance!
I have to say that the sacking of the minister of water resources was good riddance. Under him, the ministry became Ministry of Drought as he presided over dry pipes even when there was flooding especially in the capital. Clearly we need a new thinking in that ministry. No one expected he would work miracle to bring back piped water after decades of decay in that sector. But nobody knew what, if anything, his ministry was up to, apart from the donor programme he inherited with SALWACO and the provincial water system.
Of the seven new ministerial appointments, there are three northerners. That is impressive! Of the five new deputies there are two northerners. Also very impressive! Although women were unfairly treated: only one new minister and zero new deputy ministers.
On balance, the new announcements were good for regional balance, bad for gender and the retention rate too high in view of the level of incompetence currently being displayed by many ministers. It’s only brought about confusion and possibly commotion that we will have to contend with as a nation.
© 2019 Politico Online
