Tiawan Saye Gongloe
The Liberian People’s Party (LPP) is staging an anti-corruption rally today tagged “Broom Parade against Corruption” in Monrovia.
It said Liberians must begin this new attitude by coming out en masse on Wednesday to join the broom parade against corruption, beginning at 10:00AM on Broad Street and ending on Ashmun Street at 12 noon.
The party said government is a place to serve, not to steal, and with no corruption, a better Liberia is possible; the time for stealing is over, therefore, Liberians want a new breed of leaders who will put Liberia first.
LPP Standard Bearer, Tiawan Saye Gongloe, told the media yesterday in Monrovia that the parade is meant to show to the world that the Liberian people are against corruption, because corruption has made life so unbearable in Liberia for the majority of its citizens.
He said, among many things, that because of the high level of corruption in government, most Liberian parents find it very difficult to feed their families, most parents do not have money to send their children to school, no government clinic or hospital has medicine and health workers do not have essential diagnostic equipment and supplies in order to save the lives of the Liberian people, and people cannot move freely throughout the country, due to the deplorable state of the roads.
“The most affected part of the country when it comes to bad roads are Southeastern Liberia and Lofa County, because the government has failed to put in place a mechanism for road maintenance, due to corruption,” Gongloe noted.
He believes that because of corruption, the exchange rate between the United States Dollar and Liberian Dollar is going up and consequently, prices of essential commodities are going up, thereby increasing hardship all over Liberia.
“Corruption scares local and foreign investors away, undermining the creation of jobs. Nobody wants to put money in any economy that is controlled by a corrupt government,” he pointed out.
Gongloe is therefore calling upon the Liberian people to turnout on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, to take part in a major anti-corruption campaign to be led by the Liberian People’s Party and its auxiliary groups, under the name Anti-corruption Campaigners (ACC).
He opined that corruption hinders law enforcement, law interpretation, and generally, undermines the rule of law.
“Corruption also makes it difficult for any government to implement any socioeconomic development policy, no matter how good the policy may be and thereby endangers individual and collective security in any society, as well as increases poverty. Corruption is a crime that is conceived, planned and executed by corrupt politicians,” the LPP torch-bearer said.
Gongloe indicated that corrupt politicians cannot be trusted with the people’s money, just as monkeys cannot be trusted with ripe bananas, adding “Corrupt politicians are appropriately described by Liberians as “money eaters.”
The former President of the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA) said Liberians must show to the world that they are opposed to any money eater holding public office anymore in Liberia.
“Government offices are not for money eaters, both the old money eaters and the new money eaters. Therefore, we call upon all Liberians to reject both money eaters of yesterday and money eaters of today,” he lamented.
In a related development, the party says it is deeply disheartened and utterly outraged by the fact that at this stage in the march towards the October 10 elections, with barely 84 days to go, this lame-duck Administration of President George Weah is yet to pay the outstanding balance of US$6.2 Million to the National Elections Commission (NEC) to effectively conduct free and fair presidential and legislative elections in Liberia.
It says that it vehemently rejects the notion that public resources are insufficient to fund the most critical project affecting the lives of all Liberians, when it should be crystal clear to any incoming administration that presidential and legislative elections are due every six years, in keeping with our constitutional provision.
According to a statement issued under the signature of LPP’s Chairman, J. Yanqui Zaza, it is outright preposterous that the Weah Administration can choose to deceptively cry crocodile tears with the “no money” syndrome when we have all witnessed the utterly lavish, frivolous spending on a 49-day safari globetrotting Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and the recent so-called “Holy Trip” to Israel.
It went further that the delay in providing the US$6.2 Million to NEC is deliberate and tantamount to a glaring lack of patriotism, with a clear intent to undermine free, fair, and transparent elections on October 10, 2023.
“This Weah Administration that Liberians are determined to vote out of office, must not be allowed to get away with this last kick of a dying horse,” the statement noted.
LPP pointed out that all opposition political parties, civil society organizations, the Liberia Council of Churches, the Muslim Council of Liberia, all ordinary Liberian citizens, and the international community, including ECOWAS, African Union, United Nations, European Union, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom, must prevail on this Weah Administration to immediately release the long overdue US$6.2 million to NEC without any further delay.
Meanwhile, the LPP takes serious exception to the establishment of an Elections Steering Committee (including NEC, our International Development Partners, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, and some purported civil society organizations) without the knowledge and representation of key stakeholders in the electoral process – the opposition political parties.
The LPP is particularly taken aback by the stance of our International Development Partners who have given support to such an exclusive scheme, deciding the fate of our beloved homeland without the participation of opposition political parties, the key stakeholders, and principal actors/players in the electoral process.
The LPP is, therefore, calling for the immediate scrapping of the said existing Steering Committee and demands its reconstitution, forthwith, to include the involvement of opposition political parties.
The party says that Liberian history has shown that sustained peace, progress, and prosperity in Liberia, largely depend upon the trust and confidence of Liberian political actors in the integrity of the electoral process.
