FORMER GRTS DIRECTOR GENERAL BORA MBOGE CHALLENGES OBSERVER OVER CRITICISM OF EDUCATION MINISTER DR HABIBATOU DRAMMEH

Former Director General of the Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS), Bora Mboge, has weighed in on the debate surrounding the Daily Observer’s criticism of Education Minister Dr Habibatou Drammeh, agreeing that public officials should be subjected to scrutiny but arguing that some of the claims made against the Minister went beyond what could reasonably be attributed to her. In particular, he challenges the attempt to connect students’ poor examination performance to the Minister’s own command of English and questions whether ministers should be expected to remain politically neutral while serving as political appointees.

Below is his full intervention:

I like to join issue with Kevin and thank him for his rejoinder, which spoke for me as well when he so clearly addressed some unsubstantiated claims by the Observer. I understand that any concerned party has every right to criticize any public servant, including the Minister, for failing in her duties. However, linking the poor exam results of some students to her ‘personal poor skills in writing and reading the English language’ is unfair, and she deserves an apology. I was surprised that she even apologized for questioning the performance of a presidential aspirant who is opposing her own presidential candidate. Her tone was however respectful and measured. I stand to be corrected, but I believe technocrats are also citizens who have the right to belong to any political grouping of their choice, and no position of authority should limit or control that constitutional provision. I know that as the political head of the ministry and the president’s chief adviser on basic and secondary education, the buck stops with her. However, her role as minister is limited to guiding, directing, and monitoring her fellow technocrats as they formulate policy and oversee its successful implementation. It is no longer her job to teach, design, or implement education policy directly. Blaming her for the catalogue of issues listed by the Observer — such as inadequate funding, teacher shortages, or facility deficits etc —is overstating the argument. Finally, expecting Minister Drammeh to limit her role in cabinet to just policy advice and remain totally apolitical is like trying to separate a person from their acquired and innate characteristics. Its only Saints (and they are now amongst the world’s most endangered species) who defend the common interest first). All reasonable people accept the fact that politics is a game of numbers. Any cabinet member who wants to remain apolitical in cabinet under the 1997 constitutional provisions is in the wrong place, because maintaining that cabinet position would depend largely on successfully defending your party’s campaign to sweep the polls. This I believe is the popular global practice. Therefore, in my view, the Observer can make a strong case if it were to advocate constitutional protection and guarantee of tenure of technocrats as political appointees rather that heaping blame at the feet of a cabinet minister who is at the mercy of the national political chief.

Editor’s Note: We take the criticisms raised by Mr Mboge, Kevin and other readers seriously. After reviewing their arguments, we accept that parts of our original commentary went too far and were not sufficiently supported. We therefore offer our unreserved apologies to our readers and to the Minister for those specific shortcomings.

The post FORMER GRTS DIRECTOR GENERAL BORA MBOGE CHALLENGES OBSERVER OVER CRITICISM OF EDUCATION MINISTER DR HABIBATOU DRAMMEH appeared first on Daily Observer Gambia .