By Kemo Cham
Ahead of next month’s election for the next Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Gambian diplomat Dr Mamadou Tangara, who is vying for the position, is facing a petition to disqualify him.
Dr Tangara is one of the three people seeking to replace British diplomat, Patricia Scotland as the 7th Secretary General of the 56-member Association. The two other candidates are Ghanaian Shirley Ayorkor Botchwe and a former minister of Lesotho, Joshua Phoho Setipa.
The election is slated for the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa from October 21 to 25.
A group of people calling itself Concerned Gambians and citizens of the Commonwealth issued the petition calling on the leadership of the organization to disqualify Tangara due to his ties to former Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh.
Tangara served in various capacities under the exiled former president’s regime, including as Foreign Minister. And he has been Foreign Minister in the administration of President Adama Barrow since 2018.
Jammeh, who has been in exile since 2017, is accused of human rights violations during his two-decade rule. Several of his associates have been indicted and some are facing trial abroad.
While Tangara wasn’t named in any specific crime, critics say he enabled the crimes of the Jammeh-regime by misleading the international community on human rights abuses in the country while he served as the country’s UN permanent representative and later as Foreign Minister.
“The group believes that opposing Mr. Tangara’s candidacy is not just to ensure that he does not get the position but that it is crucial to make the point that there will always be a price for the self-serving actions that public officials take, that there will always be a day of reckoning, and that as citizens, we will never forget – that power ultimately belongs to the people,” the petitioners noted in a statement.
Neither Tangara, nor the government has publicly responded to the petition. But the government appears to be aware of what is at stake, given the formidability of his opponents in the race. So, they have launched a campaign designed to clean his image.
But the composition of the candidates indicates a battle between two regional blocs: the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
But with two candidates coming from West Africa, observers say it increases the chance of the Lesotho candidate.
Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey is a trained lawyer and she is currently Ghana’s Foreign Minister.
Senator Septiba, on the other hand, has a unique advantage in that he is an insider in the Commonwealth, as a serving Senior Director of Strategy, Portfolio Partnership, and Digital Division in the Secretariat. Perhaps his strongest advantage is that his candidacy is unanimously backed by SADC, whereas none of his opponents have got the exclusive backing of ECOWAS.
In July, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo flew into Banjul for an official visit that turned out to be a mission to prevail on his Gambian counterpart to support Botchwey, according to reports. Barrow reportedly declined request.
Tangara was the first to announce his candidacy, in September 2023, while Botchwey announced hers in March 2024.
The Commonwealth, officially known as the Commonwealth of Nations, was initially meant to be a membership for Britain and its former territories. But it has since opened up to other countries, with the stated mission of collaborating for development and peace. Former French colonies like Rwanda, Gabon and Togo have all recently joined thanks to this reform.
Africans make up more than a third of the organizations 2.7 billion citizens.
Critics, however, say that it is a neocolonial entity that only seeks to continue Britain’s colonial mission. This was the reason Tangara’s government under Jammeh gave when it quitted the organization in 2013.
The Secretary General heads the secretariat, which is responsible for implementing its policies. The position, which is four-year per term and re-electable for one more term, is rotated among the five regions of the world.
This is Africa’s turn, coming 24 years since veteran Nigerian diplomat Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who became the first African to hold the position from 1990 to 2000.
The outgoing Secretary General, Scotland is originally from Dominican. She moved to the UK at a young age, where she was raised and became a career lawyer and politician. She assumed the position in 2016. The summit for her re-election was to be held in 2020, but it was postponed due to COVID-19. Her term was extended for two years, up to 2022, when the election was finally held at the summit in Rwanda. When she was re-elected, it was just for two years, for her to complete her second four-year term.
Under Scotland’s tenue, the organization was engulfed in scandals, including allegations of poor leadership and a lavish spending to refurbish her official lodging in London. She also allegedly award of a lucrative contract to a friend of hers. She however denied all.
The next Secretary General has the task of cleaning that stain. And for some Gambians, that can’t be a man like Tangara who himself has a lot to answer for his past.
