Kabbah Talks On His 5 Yrs Food Security Pledge

Ibrahim Seibure & Olusegun Ogundeji On the 5th anniversary of his pledge to pursue a policy for the achievement of food security which was first declared on the floor of Parliament in 2002, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Saturday at the Bo Town Hall said 'food security' is being achieved in the country.

"Food security is achievable and I am convinced that we are already achieving food security in Sierra Leone," he said.

But contrary to that assertion, Secretary-General of the All Peoples Congress (APC), Victor Bockarie Foh in very strong words, told Concord Times that the President's statement on achieving food security is very illusive.

He said the president has failed and what he says is untrue.

"President Kabbah has gone back to the words he told Sierra Leoneans in 2002. When making that statement, he was very assertive and confident that by 2007, no Sierra Leonean would go to bed hungry," Foh stated.

"We will remember him for being an evasive and flip-flop president. We are not going to accept it and it is going to affect his son Berewa," he said.

In similar vein, the Secretary-General of the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), Ansu Lansana stated that there is no food sufficiency in the country.

"We can only achieve food security in Sierra Leone if the government empowers the farmers to change from subsistence farming to large-scale farming.

"President Kabbah cannot say food security is already achievable when in actual sense the tractors they bought for the country were shared among SLPP supporters," Lansana said.

He noted that the truth of the food security saga rests with the people of Sierra Leone to prove for themselves.

Back to his words, Pa Kabbah supported his stance by saying that his government has been increasing subventions to the agriculture and food security sector from 2.6% of the GDP in 2002 to 5.8% in 2007 and that agricultural production has increased considerably from 2002 to date.

He charged Sierra Leoneans to be proud of the record.

Link to allAfrica.com: Sierra Leone: Kabbah Talks On His 5 Yrs Food Security Pledge (Page 1 of 1)