The Bureau of Public Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Monrovia, Liberia

DAILY NEWS SUMMARY FOR TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018

News of the additional appointments made by President George Manneh Weah and the official launch of the 2018 National High School Debate in Kakata, Margibi County are stories dominating today’s edition of our summary of the local dailies.

DOMINANT STORIES

Kemayah Named DMA At Foreign Affairs

According to the Daily Observer, President George Manneh Weah Monday made additional appointments in government, to include those named at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) respectively, an Executive Mansion release said. The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Senate where applicable. According to the release, President Weah appointed Nathaniel Blama as Executive Director, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Henry O. Williams, Executive Director, National Disaster Management Agency, Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA), Ivan Brown, Commissioner for Engineering and Technology (E &T), and Israel Akinsanya Commissioner for Government and Consumer Affairs, among others.

Related Captions: Weah Makes Additional Appointments In Government (The New Dawn), Weah Makes More Appointments (Heritage)

ORANGE Sponsors National High School Debate

The 2018 National High School Debate Competition has officially been launched in Liberia.  The Competition has been organized and implemented in Liberia over the course of the last three years by a local organization called Youth For Change, Inc. For the first time in its 3-year history, the National High School debate is graduating from a Montserrado centered event to being an actual national event thanks to the sponsorship from Liberia’s premier GSM Company – Orange Liberia. At the official launching last Friday the 2nd of March held at the Kakata City Hall in Kakata City, Margibi County, the Executive Director of Youth For Change Inc., Alex F. Devine Jr. said that the event this year was the largest in the history of the debate competition and was bringing together sixty-four schools from seven counties for an exciting 12 weeks competition, according to the Daily Observer.

Related Captions: Orange-Liberia Sponsored National High School Debate Tournament Kicks Off In Kakata (Heritage), Orange Sponsored National High School Debate Commences in Kakata (FrontPage Africa)

OTHER STORIES

By-Elections in Limbo-Liberia’s Elections Commission Sweats Over Lack of Financial Allocation To Conduct Poll

The National Elections Commission (NEC), which should conduct elections in two separate by-elections for Montserrado County and Bong County within 90 days, has complained that there is no money to carry out the process. It has put the budget to around US$3.9M for the conduct of the by-elections in Montserrado and Bong counties. As it stands, it is not clear whether there will be by-election that would find replacers for the two former senators, George Weah and Jewel Howard Taylor. Both were elected to the nation’s highest offices – President and Vice President – in the December 2017 runoff election.  According to the Chairman of the NEC, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya, the Commission is yet to receive formal response from the Government regarding the final budget or a schedule of commitments and payments. The FrontPage Africa newspaper reads that at a press conference Monday, March 5, held at the headquarters of NEC, Cllr. Korkoya told newsmen that, based on the notice from the Senate, the Chairman of the Commission, acting on behalf of the Board of Commissioners, constituted a steering Committee on February 14, 2018 to plan and oversee the conduct of the two by-elections within the timeframe mandated by the constitution.

ECOWAS Observer Mission To S/Leone Urged To Be Beyond Reproach

Dr. Amos Sawyer, Head of ECOWAS’ 55-member Observation Mission to Sierra Leone, on Monday in Freetown tasked the regional observers to discharge their duty with the highest sense of responsibility and impartiality, given the critical importance of the March 7 polls to peace and democratic consolidation in the country and the region, according to a press release issued yesterday. “I wish to, therefore, admonish each and every one of us to conduct ourselves in a manner that is beyond reproach and ensure that our feedback is factual and truly reflects an impartial assessment of the 2018 General elections,” Prof. Sawyer, Liberia’s former Interim President, said at the briefing of 40 Short-Term observers, who have joined 15 Long-Term Observers already in Sierra Leone, pens the Daily Observer.

Related Caption: ECOWAS Observation Mission Urges Political Actors In S/Leone To Be Ahead Of March 7 Polls (In Profile Daily)

S/Leones Name Health, Education As Top Priorities

Ahead of Sierra Leone general elections slated for March 7, 2018, citizens of the country have placed improved healthcare delivery and education as their top priorities for the selection of their country next leaderships. Three million, one hundred and seventy-eight thousand, six hundred and sixty-three (3,178,663) registered voters of Sierra Leone will go to the polls in this year’s general elections to elect the President, members of the Parliament and local councils. Giving their views in the streets of Freetown, Sierra Leone, On Monday, March 5, on the climaxing day of campaign activities, several voters said they will cast their votes for candidates that have proffered to them well-articulated political manifestos that intend to address the country poor healthcare and educational systems, reports In Profile Daily.

Liberia Opened For Business - President Weah Tells Nigerian Counterpart

According to the FrontPage Africa newspaper, Liberian President George Manneh Weah has declared that Liberia is now opened for business to the world, especially Nigerian private sector investors, who are strong players in rapid growth of the African continent. The Liberian leader said there is a need to address the current trade volume between the two countries, which is very low and does not exceed five million dollars. President Weah made the remarks in Abuja, Nigeria during his official visit to that sisterly nation.  An Information Ministry dispatch from Abuja, Nigeria says, the Liberian leader named electricity, housing, fisheries and mining as some of the key areas Nigerians could invest. The dispatch further said, the Liberian leader called on Nigerian business leaders to come to Liberia and explore the many available opportunities.

Several Newspapers Taken To Media Council

U.S.-based Liberian journalist James Kokulo Fasuekoi has formally complained to the Press Union of Liberia or PUL, over alleged flagrant misuse of his war photographs by some of the local dailies in Liberia, seeking thorough and swift investigation to resolve the matter outside of litigation. In his official complaint dated February 28, 2018, addressed to the Secretariat of the National Media Council of the PUL in Monrovia, Mr. Fasuekoi writes, “My treasured war-photographs that have been subject of unwarranted and excessive misuse, abuse, and exploitation, lately by Liberian media organizations include (1) a portrait of Mohammed Jabateh, wearing military uniforms, (exhibit “A”); (2) a group photograph of Jabateh posing with ULIMO rebel soldiers, (exhibit “B”); (3) a group photograph showing ULIMO-K leader, Alhaji G.V. Kromah, with his bodyguards and fighters in the faction’s erstwhile headquarters of Tubmanburg, Bomi County, during the heydays of the war (exhibit “C”). The referenced photos, of high resolution, are not backyard garden images; I captured all in hostile territories in the heat of war, all at the expense of my own life.” He alleges that several Liberian dailies, including FrontPage Africa, Daily Observer and New Democrat, Hot Pepper, Capitol Times and New Republic, among others have also run one or more of the referenced war-photos multiple times without seeking his permission or crediting him for his works, reads the New Dawn newspaper.

Expired Foodstuffs Busted Down Waterside

A team of inspectors from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI), over the weekend uncovered some unscrupulous entrepreneurs/business people alleged to be in the act of selling expired goods on the Liberian market. During a robust inspection exercise on Friday, the team busted two warehouses of expired foodstuffs, including various juices, biscuits, beefs, powders, among others, within the Waterside market. A. Nyema Wisner, Deputy Minister for Commerce and Trade Services, said the Ministry took initial action by closing the two business centers while awaiting further actions, including the disposal of the expired goods, asserts the Daily Observer.

Related Caption: Ministry of Commerce Discovers Several Expired Goods in Monrovia’s Warehouses (FrontPage Africa)

LEC Wants Special Court to Fight Power Theft

The Liberia Electricity Corporation’s chief executive officer, John Ashley, has stressed the need for the corporation to work with lawmakers of the 54th Legislature to set up a special court to handle issues relating to power theft, which now causes the entity to lose 49 percent of its power generation. The court, if set up, Ashley believes will address the huge losses at the corporation. Mr. Ashley, who spoke with reporters yesterday at the LEC’s Waterside office in Monrovia, said that the corporation losses approximately 49% of power generation to theft, which he considered as ‘alarming and worrisome.’ According to him, commercial losses occur as the result of the theft, non-payment of bills, bypassing the meters and illegal connections of people and businesses, pens Daily Observer.

Speaker Urges “Audit” of Past Government

Within just 42 days of sitting of the 54^th Legislature and, amid sentiments expressed by some law makers echoing President Weah’s declared “broken economy and broke government”, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has disclosed that the Legislature would request for an audit to probe the causes of the “broke government” after 12-years of the Ellen Johnson Sirelaf Presidency. President George M. Weah, the 54^th Legislature inherited a broke government, of which the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) has admittedly said as of January 22, 2018, it has as balance in the national coffers, US$5,637,941 and L$534,146,445 respectively. In a rather strident tone, House’s Speaker Dr. Bhofal Chambers told journalists on Friday, March 2, that the “audit” would be like taking stock or an inventory of what happened that led to the “money problem” as well as to take corrective measures, reports the Daily Observer.

“GOL Will Encourage STEM Education in Liberia,” VP Promises

Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor has disclosed advanced discussions with lawmakers on the possibility of extending Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to schools outside of Monrovia. “Firstly let me thank Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence for encouraging the kids in science and technology, because this is what those in Western countries where children are encouraged in this program as early as second and third grades, so it means we are way behind,” the former Bong County Senator said. Vice President Howard Taylor made remarks during the Second National Robotic Competition held at the Fair Ground in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, witnessed by Senators from Lofa, Grand Kru, Margibi, Grand Bassa counties, as well as as a member of the House of Representatives from River Cess County, writes the Daily Observer.

Family Nursey School System Opens 4th Branch

Dr. D. E. S. Kandakai, former Minister of Education, on Friday, March 2, joined her relatives on an occasion marking the official opening of the fourth branch of the family’s educational heritage project named Family Nursery Center and Kindergarten School System. The school is located in the residential compound of 99-year-old veteran Liberian educator, Jessie Wah King, in the Old Road community, Monrovia. The other three branches are located in Brewerville, Mamba Point, and S. K. D. Boulevard in Paynesville. Dr. Kandakai is the chairperson of the school’s Board of Directors, reports Daily Observer.

Little Ama To Travel For Fire Wound Treatment

According to the New Dawn newspaper, a little girl only known as Ama, who was reportedly burnt by her cousin in Maryland County few months ago for allegedly stealing the suspect’s food is due to travel for further treatment, a group campaigning for children in hardship says. "All her five fingers on her right hand were cut off and the left hand has remaining three fingers. After she fried her fingers, the little girl was kept in doors for three days and the fingers got rotten,” the group’s Executive Director Madam Ne-Suah Beyan Livingstone said Monday, 5 March. Speaking on a local radio in Monrovia Monday, Madam Livingstone said the cousin who allegedly burnt the victim has been jailed for the act while the little girl is undergoing treatment at the Catholic Hospital and is also due to travel for further treatment. She added that with the help of Maryland women in America and First Lady Clar Weah, Little Ama will be flown to the United States of America for further medical treatment on her hands that got burnt badly.