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Minister quits after 24 hours
30/01/2008 20:10 - (SA)
Bangui - Central African Republic's education minister has resigned 24 hours after being appointed, saying he objected to being switched from his old job as health minister and calling the president "ungrateful".
In a letter sent to President Francois Bozize late on Tuesday, Bernard Lala said that after two years as health minister he did not deserve being moved to head the education ministry in a new government named by Bozize on Monday.
"I wasn't consulted ... I don't deserve being treated so ungratefully, so off-handedly, so scornfully.
You will understand I cannot accept the new mission that you give me," Lala said in the letter, which was made public on Wednesday.
Facing a public-sector strike by unions which has dragged on since January 2, Bozize appointed a largely unchanged cabinet on Monday in which he kept the defence ministry post and brought his son, Francis, into the government as his defence deputy.
Lala said that in his two years as health minister he had overseen notable progress in reducing the incidence of diseases like tuberculosis, river blindness and Aids and restored confidence to the health sector in the former French colony.
Humanitarian emergency
He said in his letter: "So, what is the reason for this nomination to another department without consultation? This is ingratitude on the part of President Bozize."
There was no immediate reaction from Bozize or Prime Minister Faustin Archange Touadera, a university maths professor whom the president named earlier this month to be the new head of government, replacing the previous premier who resigned.
The Central African Republic, which has had a spate of coups, mutinies and unrest in the past decade, is facing a humanitarian emergency in its northwest and northeast.
Raids by armed groups and counter-attacks by government soldiers have driven nearly 300 000 people from their homes since 2006.
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