May 17, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
The newly appointed Minister of Western Region Nabeela Tunis has disclosed to A-z News that there has been a leadership vacuum in the Western Region and the President in his wisdom appointed her in response to filing the identified long standing lacuma.
Madam Tunis further asserted that the Western Area has two districts but people cannot get the impact on what government has been doing in terms of proper coordination of the region between other ministries, departments and agencies. She added that authorities in charge of the Western Area are sometimes constrained to channel and articulate the burning issues of Western Area as best as possible.
She noted that the president himself wants to get closer to the people and understands what are the dire need which explains why she has been appointed in the position of cabinet ranking.
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She responded to questions people have been asking about the essence of the ministry saying: in any development trajectory government can make adjustment based on what the government wants for the people.
She dilated on the core motive of creating the Ministry of Western Region for the president to have an in-depth understanding of the western area when it comes to decision making at cabinet level. She said if for example the government wants to do some development within the Western area or government wants to move people from Western Urban to the Rural, there should be somebody who will put the two districts together for proper coordination.
She furthered recalled that government had an issue the last time at No. 2 Guma Damn among three ministries wherein, the ministry of water resources wanted for an extension of the damn, the ministry of environment had its own contrary view on it regarding to the safety of people, and the ministry of lands was very plain justifying its mandate of given lands to people. She added that those three ministries have no malicious personal vendetta against one another, but each of the ministries is just too focus on pushing its own agenda. She disclosed that there was nobody at cabinet level who can look at what is good for the region and also put these ministries together in terms of critical and controversial decision making for Western Region.
Madam Nabeela Tunis assured that she is better placed to play a coordinating role between ministries so that government as a whole can start looking at things from the people’s perspectives in terms of development and that issues of Western Region will be discussed at cabinet level.
“We also have NGOs who deliver on government priorities but it is really not targeted at implementing it within the framework of the government’s priority. Thus, in terms of real governance system, my ministry will now help advocate to financial institutions such as the banks to fulfil their corporate social responsibility within the region if for example we need a construction of fifty houses for people, we can share the proposal to those banks then they will share the responsibility among themselves”, she assured.