Go Ask Minister McGill! -Mobilization C’ttee Report Still In the Circle of The Elites

Liberia has become an interesting place to the extent that people who once criticized or were critical of the ugly past, are today accomplices of the very menace they stood against even in the face of countless public outcry depicting the contrary.
Like other African nations, Liberia has been consistently involved with the setting up of Mobilization Committees comprising of personalities from various background of the society, to lead efforts that would assist in raising funding for their respective national teams. That committee, as per records, is often appointed by authorities of the local football house with a specific mandate to galvanize resources intended to buttress government monetary support to the National Team especially during major qualifier matches or important international games.
The basis for appointing a large group, predominantly those from the government circle, as in the most recent case, is due to the fact that they will use their status in the society to elevate the argument that with their presence more money will come. Even though most of them on the committee are distanced sports affiliates with no track record of soliciting support for any sporting activity or event in the country, the fruition of their task was captivating owning to the huge and overwhelming involvement of states’ officials, to be identified as the elites.
It is an open secret that another primary reason for the influx of government officials on the Lonestar Mobilization Committee (LMC), is the transparent posture they are expected to bring to the task assigned, and how the committee, after it shall have completed its assigned duties, will consider producing a comprehensive financial report within a time limit; so as to avoid any form of skepticism which also borders on their reputation as statesmen.
Interestingly, the issue of producing a comprehensive financial report on how much was raised and who assisted during the Committee’s mobilization campaign has been an age old problem in Liberia, as many including football stakeholders and pundits were of this believe that the reconstituted LMC was well balanced to prove the contrary. And considering how it became a serious huddle for past committees to have presented a comprehensive financial report for public consumption, it made it increasingly difficult to envisage such overstayed report from the new setup.
Speaking recently via a telephone conversation, the Co-chair of the committee, Richmond Tobii, told the INQUIRER Newspaper that the committee has a prepared report but instructed that we should go ask Minister Nathaniel MGill if we needed any further information on the LMC’s financial report.
Mr. Tobii declined making further comments associated with the LMC’s financial report but assured that they will present the report to the Liberia Football Association (LFA), the body that appointed them to do a piece of job.
It no secret that since the idea of appointing a group of Liberians under the banner, Lonestar Mobilization Committee, the completion of its work has been marred by serious challenge which has been demonstrated in the lackadaisical attitude of producing an incomplete, balanced and comprehensive financial report within time.
In 2013, the current LFA boss, Mustapha I. Raji lambasted former LFA Boss now representative, Edwin M. Snowe for being insensitive to producing an overdue financial report of the Lone Star Mobilization Committee, while serving as Chairman of the LMC.
Raji, than LISCR FC FC boss, said he had written the than LFA boss Musa Bility, and two Vice Presidents, Musa Shannon and Adolph Lawrence to ask the Edwin M. Snowe’s Mobilization Committee to make public the financial report of the Lone Star Mobilization Committee.
Mr. Raji claimed that the Snowe’s Lone Star Mobilization Campaign’s raised almost US$1m and had vehemently refused to produce a comprehensive financial report so as to allow the public crosscheck the information as it relates to whose telling what.
It seems that the fight to ensure that a Lonestar Mobilization Committee produce its report in a timely manner has been stabbed in the back as even LFA’s reconstituted Lonestar Mobilization Committee under the Mustapha Raji’s leadership has proceeded in similar manner.
Following countless interventions in demand of a financial report, the LFA’s boss Mustapha I. Raji reconstituted the Lonestar Mobilization Committee early this year with the hope that he will not face a disappointed as was in the case of the last three leaderships of the mobilization committee.
The committee, when announced, was chaired by Presidential Affairs Minister Nathaniel McGill and co-chaired by Liberia Telecommunications Corporation managing director Richmond Tobii, while LFA President Mustapha Raji and vice president Wilmot Smith serve as ex-officio and secretary-general respectively.
What is even more confusing is that no committee member has mustered the courage to clearly disclose how much was raised by the LMC during the period under review. What is even more troubling is the repeated direction of all concerns to the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Mr. Nathaniel McGill, thus making it difficult to get any further information associated with the collection of funding by the LMC.
Prior to Liberia’s trip to DR. Congo for its final AFCON Qualifier match, Youth & Sports Minister, D. Zeogar Wilson insisted that the LMC will not make its report to the public rather it will submit the report to the Liberia Football Association. Min. Wilson also said that the committee is under obligation to produce a report after its task has been completed but maintained that it cannot produce a report in the midst of the work.
He also promised, on behalf of the Lonesatr Mobilization Committee, to immediately produce and submit a detail financial report following Liberia’s last AFCON Qualifier with DR. Congo which took place in March 2019.
It is over three months since Liberia last played a competitive match, and if the Youth and Sports Minister will be judged by his commitments, the report has long overdue.
However, the issue of producing a comprehensive financial report continues to persist even with the reconstitution and inclusion of new faces no the committee. Some football pundits are beginning to believe speculations that the longevity of the report is as a result of discrepancies, something that cannot be independently justified by the INQUIRER.