By Sainey Darboe:
Amid public consternation and concern at the raft of resignations that hit The Gambia’s OIC secretariat tasked with raising funds and preparing the country for the biggest convergence of Muslim countries in the world,GunjurOnline has been investigating the nepotism and corruption that threatens the country’s ability to host the summit with devastating national ramifications.
In a shocking move on Monday, OIC Secretariat Executive Secretary Lamin Sanneh and communications officer Nyang Njie tendered their resignations to The Gambian President, Adama Barrow.
The duo didn’t supply any public reasons for their resignation, but a source in the know who spoke to GunjurOnline on the strictest condition of anonymity said the departures are excited more by personal greed than pursuit of national interest.
“These people were getting paid over $25,000 between themselves for nothing more than hanging out at the secretariat and traveling at the expense of tax payers.When news of their excesses came out,the president was compelled to make a downward review of their compensation.
“The secretariat has been put under the ministry of foreign Affairs and pay integrated with national scale.It’s true they resigned because of interference-interference with their corruption and financial misappropriation,”said a high ranking Gambia government official.
A source embedded in the secretariat told GunjurOnline the move by the duo is a ‘gutsy gamble’, but one that’s well calculated to reap immense benefits if it works.
Said the source: ”I am here to serve my country in any capacity regardless of pay.They are less concerned about interference than loss of income at the expense of Gambians.They think Barrow will negotiate with them and let things go back to normal where they could do whatever they want with little accountability and supervision”.
Nyang Njie was contacted by GunjurOnline to shed light on his resignation, but he didn’t respond.
Profile of Gambia OIC Secretariat’s Top Echelon
Lamin Sanneh
Sanneh is a seasoned banking and finance professional with an MBA in finance from Oxford Brookes University, UK. He has huge international experience working in multiple high-profile organizations and running businesses before moving back to The Gambia to run OIC secretariat which as it stands is a spectacular failure. Given his wealth of experience and professional pedigree, it beggars belief how Sanneh and his team were not able to mobilise the necessary funds to build the requisite infrastructure in time to host the World’s second biggest summit in The Gambia. Lamin Sanneh is reported to be earning $10,000 U.S dollars a month.
Nyang Njie
He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Jacksonville State University in the U.S. He was laid off at Comium for under-performance. That was his last job. His departure from his previous job at ministry of finance under Jammeh was also unceremonious and shrouded in the murky waters of his relationship with the Jammeh-Baba Jobe, shady transactions in the area of petroleum products. Give it up to him, Nyang Njie is smart and articulate but instead of working towards the successful hosting of the summit he spends most of his time travelling across Europe, Saudi Arabia and exploring all over Gambia with a camera crew in tow taking videos and selfies. Nyang is reported to be earning $5,000 U.S dollars a month.
Essa Bokarr Sey
His academic qualifications and work experience are murky and unverifiable at best. He is the Public Relations Officer for the secretariat. For an event of this magnitude, Essa BokarrSey has no prior Public Relations experience and does a very terrible job as a P.R.O for the secretariat. Instead of branding the secretariat and creating a public relations plan for it and communicating simply and clearly, he mostly writes in military style codes: DETECTED. He recently put on dark glasses in an interview with paradise TV which is frowned upon in the world of public relations because it means the speaker is hiding something.
Responding to question posed to him on the rumour that Gambia will no longer host the 2019 OIC summit, he told Gunjur News online: “As far as the OIC secretariat is concerned we are assigned to mobilize resources, work on projects in preparation of the summit. We at the secretariat are yet to receive any information different from what we have been assigned to handle as professionals”.
Essa Bokarr Sey cannot deny nor confirm as to whether the event he and his allegedly professional team are tasked to organize is still going ahead. For now, he remains in darkness and denial as we go to press. Essa Bokarr Sey is reported to be earning $5,000 U.S dollars a month.
Omar Ann
He is a son to former vice president Fatoumatta Tambajang. Despite some digging, we are unable to know anything about his educational background. According reliable sources he was a cab driver in Raleigh North Carolina before relocating to The Gambia. Omar Ann is reported to be earning $5,000 U.S dollars monthly.
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