By Alpha Daramy Sesay
Civil Society Organisations in the country who converged to discuss the ‘Agenda For Prosperity’, yesterday in Freetown have called on the governing party to stop using the mantra as their political manifesto in the 17 November elections.
In response to a question from the media, the CSOs present bat the ceremony argued that the Agenda for Prosperity was a national document that should not be seen as a political manifesto.
Executive Director of Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law, Ibrahim Tommy, expressed dismay at the media’s reporting of President Ernest Bai Koroma’s agenda to mean the ‘agenda for prosperity’.
He, however, admonished political parties to use the national agenda for prosperity instead.
He said the more all political parties make commitments to implementing what the agenda for prosperity requires the better it would be for the nation.
Tommy noted that for anyone to say “President Koroma’s Agenda for Prosperity” would definitely be missing the point. He implored political parties to do what he referred to as “national agenda” and warned the media and politicians to refrain from misleading the people about the document.
“It is best to refer to it as a national document which means that the next administration, regardless of whom the leader is, will be committed to this process,” he said.
Regional programme director Network Movement for Justice and Development, Aminata Kelly Lamin, said they as SCOs had agreed on Friday that because the document had been dubbed ‘Agenda for Prosperity,’ they would refer to it as Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper III.
She maintained that from the CSO angle, they wouldn’t want the document to be used as a tool for political propaganda: “We want it to be utilised and accepted by all so that no matter which party comes into power this document will be a national one, and it is PRSP III.”
Mrs Lamin rejected the idea of using the name ‘Agenda for Prosperity’ saying that “We will not accept it as agenda for prosperity even if it will take us to prosperity. We are going to accept it as PRSP III, a document of the nation.”
Senior Lecturer and head of department Economics and Commerce at the Fourah Bay College also reaffirmed that the PRSP III was not a political document but one that should be seen as a blueprint for development set by the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations for 2015.
When contacted secretary general of APC, Victor Bockarie Foh, said they civil society groups should go ahead to say whatever they wanted, adding that “we are on the right path.”
