By Fatou Sillah
Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, has accused the United Democratic Party (UDP) of copying elements of the Citizens’ Alliance (CA) 10-point plan in the formulation of its five-point agenda.
Speaking in an interview with West Coast Radio, Dr. Ceesay claimed that the Citizens’ Alliance was the first political party in The Gambia to introduce a comprehensive 10-point development blueprint addressing key national priorities such as housing, education, digital transformation, and security.
“We were the first party in this country to come up with a summary of a 10-point plan on housing, on education, on digital transformation, on security, you name it, and UDP also stole part of our 10-point plan,” Dr. Ceesay asserted.
The minister further argued that the Citizens’ Alliance remains ideologically consistent, unlike the UDP, which he described as politically reactive.
“Ideologically, we are very stable. For parties like UDP, ideologically they fluctuate left and right depending on where the votes are, so they are more reactive than proactive,” he said.
Dr. Ceesay also defended the government’s development approach, insisting that all state policies and initiatives are anchored in the National Development Plan (NDP).
“So the UDP cannot tell me that the government plagiarized because a national development plan existed before the UDP’s 10-point plan. Our 10-point plan came before UDP’s, and they plagiarized some parts of our 10-point plan,” he maintained.