www.newspublictrust.com Q & A with Monrovia’s youngest Mayor
By William Selmah
When the Liberian civil war erupted on the eve of Christmas in 1989, Jefferson Koijee was barely 4 years old.
At age 32 in 2018, Koijee (in photo above with white baseball cap and red T-shirt) is set to go down in Liberia’s history books as the youngest Mayor, when confirmed by the Senate.
Among current mayors of the continent, he will also be Africa’s youngest. Information on this for Africa is not conclusive, but it is our understanding that before Koijee’s appointment, the youngest City Mayor on the African continent is 42/46 years old.
But globally, Michael Tubbs, 26 of Stockton, California is recorded as the youngest city Mayor in the United States in 2017.
Q and A with Koijee
www.newspublictrust.com When confirmed, your name will go down in history as the youngest Mayor of the City of Monrovia. Have you been feeling any pressure since your nomination?
Koijee: Quite frankly, since the President appointed me, I may not want to use the word pressure, but excitement [especially] in the midst of young people. Even though we’ve been very well acquainted with them, there have been these groups of young people pouring over unto us. That’s what we’ve been witnessing since our nomination. Whether that constitutes pressure, I don’t want to use it that way, but I think the young people are excited and other people think this is a huge responsibility. They are eager to see the dynamism we bring to this office.
www.newspublictrust.com What about you, do you see this as a huge task?
Koijee: Well, I consider this a herculean task. But with our style of leadership, we will try our best to ensure that it is different from those of our predecessors so that when we disembark at the end of the day, our legacy will be something that people will continue to refer to.
www.newspublictrust.com On account of your youthfulness and relative work experience, some greeted your preferment with apprehension and asked, ‘how much does the man Jeff Koijee know about this task?
Koijee: That has been the perception of people. To back track, most recently I was given the responsibility to preside over our primary which I conducted. Following that exercise, people are now saying it’s the first time that we conducted a blood free primary over a period of time. It was often said that CDC primaries are characterized by violence where people get wounded. Not only that people have been getting injured, there had been no debates as well. But as God could have it, we organized debates during those primaries that were witnessed by international community where contestants debated the issues. We invited the U.S. Embassy, the European Ambassador and the NDI. It was the first of its kind. After that process, concession speeches were made. Defeated candidates walked to the podium, picked up the micro phone and conceded defeat. We even made visual recording of that primary and distributed copies at the end of the day. But again, when they appointed us to preside over the primaries, our appointment was greeted with mixed reactions, with some saying I was too young to lead such a process that had to do with our legislators. They had thought that a far more experienced person was needed for the task, considering the complexity and cross pollination of interests tied to the work.
So I would like to tell those who are greeting our preferment with apprehension that they have the right to their opinion. But at the same time, I also say to them that this is a responsibility that we will treat with utmost dedication, and that we are not going to sleep on it. This task is not only about me. We are a representation of an entire generation of young people. Whatever we do will speak for the younger generation, so that it serves as reference even for my children yet unborn. This is the mindset we are taking to this office. So you can be sure that we are not going to sleep. It is a task we are going to treat with utmost integrity, dedication and sincerity.
www.newspublictrust.com What does your office intend to tackle first?
Koijee: We firstly like to understand what’s happening at the MCC. We will commission a firsthand audit of the corporation in order to know its financial record to ensure they are okay. Our coming over should send no signal of a witch hunt against those currently running the corporation. No! Instead, we intend to intersperse and create a more robust appetite within them. We are coming as team [players]. But before anything, we want to what we are taking over –understanding our financial record in order to have a system put in place. The second aspect is getting the communities involved. We have always advocated for our younger brothers in the streets; the many young people. Some people call them names, such as ‘zogos’, but I won’t refer to them that way because the condition in which they find themselves was imposed on them. So with this office, we will consider putting into place programs to help change their condition around and make them productive, and give the city a facelift. How do we go about doing that is to engage them and tell them that we have an opportunity [for them]. We will engage the international community with project proposals for their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
www.newspublictrust.com Will your administration implement city ordinances and regulations such as clearing motor roads of peddlers and demolishing structures in the alleyways considering that most of the people who occupy them are grass rooters, with your party, the CDC being grass root oriented? Would carry out such enforcements with firmness and without any fear of losing grass root support?
Koijee: [Laughs] I just told you about decisiveness. There were certain lawmakers from the party who felt that by virtue of their status, they proposed to be treated as sacred cows, meaning they did not need to go through the primary. Because of the intensity of that situation, the political leader left the country. We had to be strong, decisive and look in the faces of sitting lawmakers. Take for example, Julius Berrian. They participated in the process as incumbents, but were defeated. Hon. Acarous Gray, one of the admired, respected and loved persons also chose not to participate in the process. But I disagreed with him and said to him that we were opting to take over the country and that we needed to put in place a system that no man can be above – a system that we can be subjected to so that when we have the opportunity to take over state power, we do just that.
I therefore differ with those who categorize Liberians, especially ordinary citizens as people who oppose the enforcement of city ordinances. They are cooperative especially when you deal with them impartially. What they hate, I believe, is the selective enforcement of ordinances. For instance, you can’t say the opening of an alleyway in a given area affects only structure belonging to ordinary people. The process must be holistic; not taking into consideration whether or not it affects people connected or related to the President or Mayor. So the real issue here is not whether or not the people are law abiding, but treating them unfairly simple because of their condition. That’s the real issue.
So we want to say here that when the opportunity avails itself, we will reach out to our people, sit and talk with them, and let them know that we need their support I making this city a better place. You can’t just sit there and admire the beauty of other cities around the world without taking the necessary steps to bring your city on par with them. We must be willing to make the sacrifice. These are some educational activities we will be undertaking. I’m just from visiting the town ship of West Point. One time I told former Mayor Broh that if she wanted to talk to people [there], she needed to do so through someone that the people can listen to. If for example Jefferson Koijee came and talked to them, they would listen to him because they believe in him. They think Koijee would not mislead them because he is of their kind and that he has always championed their cause. That’s the way to go. But you don’t come unexpectedly one morning and begin to carry out enforcements against the people. We need to have a clear understanding of the relations between government and the people. The government is by the people.
When I went to West Point, this morning, the people were so excited. I told them I love them and also told them of the task on hand which can not be done by me alone and that I needed their support. I also told them that this government is a pro poor government that they need to protect. So we will continue with these kinds of discussions. Hopefully we will be officially introduced to the office tomorrow. The outgoing mayor will be turning over.
www.newspublictrust.com What plans does your administration have for sister-city-relations? Strengthen existing ones or expand the network?
Koijee: Basically as I said earlier, when I take over, I will firstly get into understanding a lot of these things and the best way to about is to first understand what’s on the table, whether we can improve on that or revisit. I’m going with the mindset to succeed, so I will embrace anything that supports this goal so that together, we can make the city of Monrovia second to none in Africa.
www.newspublictrust.com At the end of your administration, what kind of city do you envisage?
Koijee: [Laughs] let me not make any promise. But Selmah, you will be around, and you will get to know. You will not need to ask that question [then]. It’s easy to make big promises. It’s very easy. But I don’t want to promise so much to the Liberian people. Al I ask of them is to give me the chance as a young man. My doors will be open to you journalists, university professors, civil society organizations and many others. This task is a collective one that requires the input of all. So I’m not going to sit here and say I’m going to create a twin city, a Washington DC or a New York. But I can assure you that Monrovia will be one of the cities considered safe and beautiful.
www.newspublictrust.com Is there anything you like to say I have not touched in this interview?
Koijee: Thanks for taking up time to come and talk to us. We count the media, religious community, civil society, the international community and all in this endeavor. To the international community, we say we will be engaging you for grants for quick impact projects. Hopefully, such grants will enable us recruit technicians to run the projects under the MCC as a way of also creating job opportunities. We don’t want our administration to be seen as coming to take people out of their jobs. We will therefore be looking up to the UNDP for support. As we go up there, all of our people are so expectant that jobs are awaiting them. So this is a very delicate situation for me because I can’t be seen as putting people out of job. But equally so, [I won’t retain] people there that are not prepared to tie in with the dreams and aspirations I’m carrying. Thanks ever so much for talking to us.