PHOTO: Kadiatu Bah
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
An organization advocating for the rights of girls in Liberia, the Girls Alliance for Future Leadership, has launched a campaign to encourage government to provide national identification cards free of charge for all girls who will turn 18 years between now and 2023.
The advocacy officer of the organization, Kadiatu Bah said the campaign, which is code named, “18 Plus One”, is geared towards encouraging the Liberian government to benefit all young people between the ages of 18 and 25 years old.
Liberians have to pay US$5 for national ID card, which is equivalent to close to nine hundred Liberian dollars.
Addressing a press conference held in observance of the International Day Girl Child in Monrovia recently, Miss Bah said the government should also facilitate the processes leading to taking of the national ID cards, including the issuance of birth certificates.
According to Miss Bah, the organization, which is nonpolitical, is working boost women participation in the electoral process and bring the momentum to all female electorates in 2023.
Members of the Girls advocacy group and others
The Advocacy Officer of the Girls Alliance for Future Leadership pointed out that Liberia is lagging behind all countries and as such women will no longer play lip service from politicians on issues of women and girls
The campaign will continue until the 2023 presidential and legislative elections in order for young girls to be eligible to participate in the election in Liberia.
In remarks, the Program Officer of the Girls Alliance for Future Leadership, Patricia Davies pointed out that when Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President in Liberia 2017, it was widely termed as a significant achievement, but that success in history did not trickle down to the larger society, because girls and women are still back benchers.
According to her, Liberian women are still disproportionately out matched by the male counterparts in the executive and legislative branches of government.
“There is no doubt about the downside or the impact of this continuing reality,” Miss Davies said; adding: “all legislations that are favorable to women get killed in committee rooms or defeated on the floor of both chambers. Since numbers are the centerpiece of democratic maneuvers in every democracy and as such, women have to step-up because we have the votes to make things happen,” Ms. Patricia Davies added.