By Sanna Camara in Dakar
A final communique that came out of the strategic meeting of the West Africa Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) over the weekend in Dakar has called for “immediate actions to be carried out” in Togo and Gambia as a way of advancing the term limit agenda.
The coalition of civil society groups has asked its Thematic Working Group on the issue of Democratic Governance to carry on the outcomes of their meeting “by conducting more impactful activities in the target countries, Togo and Gambia, and stimulate debates on the issue.”
“An advocacy to mention tenure limit in the Togolese Constitution must be carefully conducted with key actors of the Togolese political life and the Special Representative of the President of the ECOWAS Commission in the country,” stated the Communiqué, signed by Mr. Auwal Ibrahim MUSA (Rafsanjani), Acting General Secretary of WACSO.
“More specifically, WACSOF national platform in Senegal is invited, in connection with the media and relevant actors in The Gambia and with the support from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), to develop strategies for the Gambian civil society to raise the debate on term limit in the country,” it added.
The session, held ahead of the Summit of ECOWAS Heads of States in the Senegalese capital Dakar, have not only acknowledged “the relevance of tenure limit” but also “criticized unconstitutional amendments designed to elongate presidential tenure: in member states of ECOWAS.
It was attended by representatives of member organizations of WACSOF national platforms, and ended with the adoption of a set of recommendations; key among them is the amendment of the ECOWAS supplementary protocol to include provisions on term limits.
WACSOF is also seeking a “More effective implementation of the policy of good governance as indicated in the supplementary Protocol; advocacy with Heads of States to strengthen the achievements recorded and advance the number of countries that adhere to term limit.”
Towards Political Parties, the civil society groups also seek implementation of rules of good governance; embedding of term-limit clauses within political party manifestos and charters.
Towards civil society, it also wants intensification of advocacy for term limit and democratic change. “The civil society should develop appropriate programs to engage the issues at their national levels; Civil society should endeavor to build and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders in the political process as they engage the issue,: it outlined.
WACSOF also is insisting that strategies and action plans developed at the meeting “must be finalized and concretized into a regional civil society strategy to be freely consulted and utilized by civil society actors to engage the issue at the regional level”
Accordingly, they agreed WACSOF and OSIWA should move further to popularize the [term limit] debate by publication of a monograph on the issues, involving leading democratic governance activists from different countries across the region in analyzing the issue more concretely so as to properly explain the dangers and challenges involved.
“WACSOF should draft and forward an advocacy letter to the ECOWAS President and Chairman, respectively on the need to continue the debate on the adoption of term limit as well as an amendment of the supplementary protocol to take in to account the debate on term limit, which is a norm in West Africa.” It stated.