Monrovia – Better Future foundation (BFF), a youth and student based advocacy group, has petitioned the 53rd legislature to ensure that the government emerging from the October 2017 elections makes highest degree of education accessible and affordable in Liberia.
In a five-page petition submitted to the national legislature through its statutory committee on Claims and petition on Thursday, August 31, 2017, at the Capitol Building in Monrovia, BFF said, in the first four years of its six-year tenure, the new government should guarantee that Liberians access PhD level education at the University of Liberia (UL) or subsidize same learning opportunity at other universities of higher learning in the professional spheres of Education, Health, Agriculture and Infrastructural Development in the country.
BFF, in the petition also craves the support of the Legislature aimed at making the pending presidential and legislative issues-driven and violence free.
“The youth and students of Liberia strongly believe that the pending elections are crucial as they represent a litmus test in sustaining Liberia’s hard-won peace, democracy and development.”
“We are also interested in the conduct of these elections in an atmosphere of transparency, credibility and inclusiveness for the benefit of the entire citizenry and residents,” they told the Legislature.
According to the BFF petition, read by its president, Augustine Arkoi, ‘making the pending elections violence free and issues-based means setting a clear agenda for the incoming elected government to guarantee and promote sustainable human security of Liberians.”
The petitioner, at the same time, expressed regret that Liberia, as the first independent state on the continent of Africa after Ethiopia is yet to address the basic human security needs of its citizens in the crucial areas of education, health, agriculture, and infrastructural development even after 170 unbroken years of existence.
The youth and student group further told the legislature that the petition which is in line with its Democracy Sustainability Platform (DSP) also seeks to inspire a national consensus building aimed at accelerating human security , respect for, and adherence to the rule of law, promotion of infrastructural development as well as democratic governance in the country.
At the same time, BFF, in the petition, called for construction of community access roads in Monrovia, Liberia’s Capital, and its environs.
According to the youth and student advocacy group, the acute lack of community access roads in the city and its environs serves as a recipe for underdevelopment and city fragility, a situation which also poses severe threat .to peace and human security
Moreover, BFF, in the petition stressed that the lack of community access roads constitutes a major underlying factor for the unproductivity and underdevelopment of the city and its residents.
BFF further challenged the legislature to ensure that the new government after the October elections takes the right steps based on innovation in the promotion of human security. BFF has also advanced several recommendations to the Legislature among which were the followings:
That the government makes adequate budgetary allocations for improved planning, mapping and deliberate construction of community access roads;
That government prioritizes sooner than later the construction of alternative access roads to Monrovia, which should include:
Building of at least two major bridges to link Gardnersville to Sinkor
- Construction of express road along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, which should incorporate the prevention of coastal erosion and sea encroachment on Monrovia, Liberia’s Capital City which at the moment remains over populated and grossly lacks basic infrastructure;
- Construction of city belt express road from Fendell on the right, linking Brewerville-Grand Cape Mount highway connecting to the Atlantic express;
- Construction of city belt express road from Fendell on the left, linking Roberts International Airport (RIA) Road through Dwazon/Marshall city connecting to the Atlantic express
Receiving the petition, the Chairman of the House standing committee on Claims and Petition, Margibi County Rep. Ballah Zayzay lauded BFF for the petition which he described as key for the future development of the country.
Rep. Zayzay who also concurred with BFF that Monrovia city, Liberia’s capital, was not properly planned and layout by previous Liberian administrations, praised BFF for guiding the young people of Liberia in thinking positively and rightly as exemplified by the cardinal development issues raised in the potion that seeks to ensure free, fair, credible and violence free elections and the development of the country.
He however urged the young people to make sure that the peace and stability of the country are firmly maintained by voting for candidates who would work in the best interest of the country so as to actualize their development quest and aspirations as contained in the petition.
For his part, Lofa County Senator, George Tengeh, speaking on behalf of the Liberian Senate, congratulated BFF and its subsidiary group, Youth Beyond Barriers (YBB) for the mass turnout of young people to the Capitol, for the presentation of said petition to the national legislature.
He applauded BFF/YBB for encouraging Liberian youth and students for taking such initiative and assured the petitioners that the 53rd Legislature would accord the document the necessary legislative action for full implementation.
He used the occasion to call on all presidential and legislative candidates to embrace the BFF petition and adapt it in their development plans as they seek elected public offices.
Also making an endorsement statement at the occasion, Mr. Roosevelt Woods, a leading civil society activist who is also Co-Chairman of the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform, a consortium of 24-national Human rights organizations, thanked the young people for the petition.
He said the petition is not only clear but remains cardinal as it relates to the future development of the Liberian nation.
He pledged the support of the civil society organizations in the monitoring of the petition’s implementation so that it will not remain in committee room but reflected on the legislative agenda and acted upon during their sitting.
Describing BFF as an active member of the Liberian civil society, Mr. Woods cautioned Liberians, particularly young people, to cast their individual ballots for candidates with well-defined development platforms to enhance national growth and prosperity, saying “don’t vote for those who failed to incorporate your petition into their platforms.”
Meanwhile, BFF hopes that the government emerging from the October polls would laisse with Liberia’s development partners such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank, and European Union (EU) among others in creating the avenue to accommodate and empathize with the quest of Liberian youths as contained in the researched petition during their bilateral and multilateral engagements.