A Nimba County legislative aspirant and veteran journalist Jonathan Paye-Layleh has distributed 100 megaphones (loudspeakers) to all towns in the 6 chiefdoms in Meinpea-Mah, Leewehpea and Wee-Gbehyi Administrative Districts of the county to help create massive awareness for the upcoming voter registration exercise.
Nimba and 8 other counties are in the April 21-May11 second phase of the voter registration if the schedule released by the National Elections Commission stands.
Mr. Paye-Layleh intends to run in what is currently District 8, the part of Nimba bordering Bong County to the northeast.
The megaphone distribution kicked off in Bahnla Town in Zahn Chiefdom where hundreds of citizens had gathered for a fundraiser in support of a bridge construction project initiated by citizens of the region.
Mr. Paye-Layleh told reporters as he spearheaded a campaign to create awareness for the just-ended controversial National Housing and Population Census across Nimba, he felt an obligation to launch the voter registration campaign “so that the population of Nimba County cannot continue to be under estimated.”
All 97 towns in Gbannah, Gbehyi, Lao, Leesonon, Wee and Zahn Chiefdoms were each given one loudspeaker. Two pieces were donated to Radio Saclepea as a token of the donor’s appreciation for the good work the station is doing to inform people across the region.
Mr. Paye-Layleh is asking town announcers to use the megaphones to “go from village to village, to encourage their people to come out to get registered to vote.”
“We have to prove our number,” he said, expressing disappointment at the figure LIGIS has recently released to represent the population of Nimba, the second most populous county after Montserrado.
Mr. Paye-Layleh ended the megaphone distribution in the administrative town of Gbanquoi, headquarter of Wee-Gbehyi District where the Commissioner and her office staff and citizens joined him in showcasing some of the loudspeakers.
The entire Wee Chiefdom is outside of Electoral District 8, but Mr. Paye-Layleh says he has always included the chiefdom in his gestures “because, for me, it is about Nimba and its interest.”
