President Jammeh Effects Mini Cabinet Reshuffle

President Alhagie Yahya Jammeh last Wednesday, 19th March 2008 effected yet another mini cabinet reshuffle. The latest executive exercise saw Secretary of State for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Mr. Abdoulie Sallah; Secretary of State for Tourism and Culture, Ms Angela Colley; and Secretary of State for Communications and Information Technology, Mrs. Neneh Macdouall-Gaye, of their cabinet appointments.

In replacement he has appointed Dr. Omar Touray as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; Ms. Fatim Badjie as Secretary of State for Communications and Information Technology and Ms. Nancy Njie, Deputy Mayoress of Banjul, as Secretary of State for Tourism and Culture.

Mr. Crispin Grey-Johnson, until then the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has been reassigned as Secretary of State for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, a portfolio he had served in initially as its first Secretary of State.

Meanwhile Abdoulie Sallah has been appointed as Secretary to the Cabinet, Ms. Angela Colley as Ambassador to the federal republic of Nigeria, Mrs. Neneh Macdouall-Gaye as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of The Gambia to the United Nations. In a related development Mrs. Susan Waffa-Ogoo has been in the same breath appointed as Ambassador to India. 

Mrs. Tenengmba Jaiteh has also been appointed Secretary-General and Head of the Civil Service whiles Mr. Ousman Jammeh, till then the Secretary-General and Head of Civil Service and Secretary of state for Petroleum and Energy, retains his cabinet appointment.

In a related development, Mr. Alieu Mboge, who was the Interim Chairman of Banjul City Council, has been appointed as Director General Gambia Tourism Authority (GTA), replacing Mr. Kaliba Senghore who is now Permanent Secretary at the Department of State for Tourism and Culture.

Dr. Amadou Sowe, Permanent Secretary at the Department of State for Agriculture, has been removed and replaced by Mr. Bakary Trawally, who was Head of Pest Management Unit at Yundum.

Ms. Fatim Badjie, 24, is Gambia’s youngest cabinet minister. She was the Senior Communications Officer at Comium GSM Company. Daughter to Dembo Badjie, Gambia’s High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, she studied Mass Communication at Nashville, Tennessee, USA, graduating with a Bachelors degree.

Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, 43, a native of Farafenni, holds both a Masters and PhD degrees in International Relations. He was first recruited into the civil service as Senior Assistant Secretary at the then Ministry of External Affairs in 1995.

Author of several books, including The Gambia and the World (2000) Dr. Touray served at the Gambian Mission to Belgium and the European Union during the period between 1995 and 2002. He had also served as Ambassador of The Gambia to Ethiopia and as Permanent Representative of The Gambia to the African Union and High Commissioner to South Africa and Kenya.

In September 2007, he was nominated Ambassador and Permanent Representative of The Gambia to United Nations in New York. Married to a fellow diplomat with three children, Dr. Touray is fluent in English, Arabic and French.  

Mrs. Nancy Njie, 42, completed her studies at the Gambia High School before joining the then Gambia Airways between 1984 to 1991, setting up her own business afterwards.