Exercise your right responsibly honourable minister

(The courtroom is full as Judge Mbadwa is hearing a case in which Minister of Finance Gado Gandall wants the citizen to respect his freedom of expression)

Judge Mbadwa: Honourable Minister of Finance Gado Gandall, what an honour for this court to open its doors in 2016 not only with your presence but also your complaint. Tradition has it that the citizen is always at the receiving end of an injustice perpetrated by the State, its representatives or organs. But having the whole minister seeking court’s intervention because he feels the citizens are violating his rights will be a first. Since this court serves everybody, you will be heard honourable minister.

Can you explain your case honourable Gandall.

Gandall: My Lord, I would like to put matters into perspective that I am a human being first who is supposed to enjoy full rights endowed to man by both the Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. My Lord, I have been minister of finance in two administrations and have worked in organisations of repute internationally on issues economy and finance. This demonstrates that I am a man of integrity.

But my Lord, I think the citizens have gone overboard in questioning some of my pronouncements. When last year I assured the citizens, amid an economic turmoil precipitated by the donor aid withdrawal, that the economy would rebound by December 2015, the citizens rightfully waited but it did not come to pass because donors continued to stay away from us.

Now that I have said that the economic situation is set to improve by April, the citizens are calling me names that I am a pathalogical liar. My Lord, the fact that I am a minister does not entail I cannot express my opinion freely. Why should the citizens deny me my right to be believed on the basis of one wrong prediction? I know the Constitution guarantees me the right to freedom of opinion, “including the right opinions without interference to hold, receive and impart opinions.”

I am not the keeper of donors; hence, I would not have guessed then that the donors would keep their purses closed because the December 2015 prediction was made on the assumption of opening of donor aid taps after putting on track the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. I rest my case my Lord.

Mbadwa: I have heard you honourable minister that as Gandall you entitled to freedom of expression and you have a right to hold an opinion without being taken to task about it. In what capacity were you or are you making predictions about an economic rebound then?

Gandall: As Minister of Finance my Lord.

Mbadwa: If you were making the predictions as Minister of Finance, it means that you lose the immunity you would have enjoyed as an ordinary citizen. In other words your rights are abrogated because as a minister, you are responsible to the President. It was not you making the statement, it was the president through you. So, if you were lying , it was the president lying through you. So be careful what you tell the citizens because they have every right to question every ministerial pronouncement. You cannot force them to believe you though. The citizens haven’t been infringing on your rights. You are accountable to them after all; so give them nothing but the truth about how the economy is faring. n