By William Selma, wselmah@gmail.com
The faith-based group, Association of Evangelicals of Liberia (AEL) is calling on the George Weah Government to be more proactive and stay constantly engaged with its people, if the level of protests in the country must be minimized.
Government’s failure to do this, he said has resulted in the series of protests witnessed in recent times.
The AEL is the largest network of Churches and para-Church organizations of Evangelical persuasion in Liberia and is among several local and regional and international organizations that appealed to the Council of Patriots to call off Monday’s December 30, 2019 protest meant to again bring government’s attention to the ever growing economic problems and corruption in the country.
Though it recognized the constitutional rights of protestors to peaceful assembly, AEL said its advice was predicated on the fact that so many people were angry in the wake of numerous unanswered questions relating to the 16 billion Liberia banknotes and some US$25 million meant to be used for a so called mop-up scheme, after the country was hit by one of its worst inflations early this year.
The AEL therefore appealed to COP to “abandon its planned peaceful protest and “let us continue to dialogue with the GOL with the mediation of religious and civil organizations, the Mano River Union, the ECOWAS, AU and our international partners.”
In a statement issued under the signature of its Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer Rev. James T. Cooper, the AEL also decried what it sees as preferential treatment the Weah Government continues to give partisans of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) in the awarding of jobs, saying it was unfair to the rest of qualified citizens in the country.
The statement said while Government’s intervention to address salary disparity and inequality with the aim of narrowing the unemployment gap was a laudable move, the AEL is disappointed that the resulting job opportunities has benefitted only CDC partisans.
“It is worth noting that though this is a CDC led government, it is not a CDC government. This is the Government of the Republic of Liberia and as such, must reach out to other Liberians who are qualified, honest and willing to contribute to the up liftmen of our country,” the Association stressed.
It further reminded the Weah administration that CDC alone does not have all of the expertise required to revive Liberia and get it back on track.
“Some of the brains and competent people are in the opposition, civil society and the public space”, the AEL pointed out.
It says it is disappointed as well over the scale of disenchantment among employees in the public sector resulting from the Government’s salary harmonization exercise.
“Some highly skilled and competent people seem to receive almost similar salary as people of low qualification which we think defeats the intent to address salary disparity and inequality”.
The AEL has consequently warned that if care is not taken to address this, it could lead to an exodus of qualified and competent people from the public sector in search of better job opportunities in the private sector or abroad.
“We have also observed that the GOL is having difficulties clearly explaining, dissimulating and applying the salary harmonization program. There are many mistakes in some of the calculations leaving staff to question the fairness of the process”, the AEL pointed out.
In a related development, the AEL has questioned why commercial banks were still experiencing liquidity problems if the request to print and infuse 4billion Liberian Dollars in the economy was approved by the House of Senate, and the money was printed.
Its concern is against the backdrop that though there has been no communication that additional four billion has been printed or infused, new banks notes are already in circulation.
“It further added that the next concern is that we printed 16 billion Liberian bank notes barely three years ago in addition to the ones that were already in circulation. What has happen to them?”
It is worried that this could lead to a fall in the value of the local currency against the American dollar.