Imam Ba Kawsu Fofana Says Ministers Should Let Performance, Not Politics, Speak for Barrow

By Seedy Jobe

Prominent Islamic cleric Imam Ba Kawsu Fofana has urged government ministers to focus on delivering results in their respective ministries rather than campaigning for President Adama Barrow at political gatherings.

Speaking in an interview on Kerr Fatou’s Grand Bantaba program, Imam Fofana said the most effective way ministers could promote the Barrow administration was through competent leadership and tangible improvements in the sectors entrusted to them.

“A minister’s propaganda is not about holding microphones at meetings,” he said.

Imam Fofana argued that when the president appoints a minister to oversee a portfolio such as agriculture, that minister’s responsibility should be to improve the sector rather than attend political meetings and urge citizens to vote for the president.

The minister’s record, he said, should demonstrate how the sector has changed under his or her leadership, with improvements significant enough for citizens themselves to recognize the government’s achievements.

“A minister’s mouth should not even talk about political issues,” he said.

He said the same principle should apply to the health sector. Rather than following the president around the country and speaking at political events, he said, the health minister should concentrate on improving hospitals, ensuring the availability of medicines and strengthening health services.

If citizens can see meaningful improvements in health care and acknowledge the progress themselves, Imam Fofana said, that should constitute the minister’s political contribution to the government.

He said ministers responsible for the economy, electricity and other sectors should be judged by the same standard.

Imam Fofana also proposed a different approach to the president’s nationwide tours, suggesting that they should provide opportunities for citizens to directly question ministers about the performance of their ministries.

Under such an arrangement, he said, the president could travel with his Cabinet in a nonpartisan setting where residents could raise concerns directly with the ministers responsible for addressing them.

Farmers, for example, could tell the agriculture minister about their needs, challenges and areas where government assistance is lacking, he said.

Imam Fofana said such engagements would differ fundamentally from political rallies by creating a forum in which ministers could be questioned directly and held accountable by the citizens they serve.