PHOTO: Madam Elizabeth S. Kokulo
By Moses M. Tokpah, mosesmtokpah@gmail.com
KAKATA, Liberia- The new Superintendent of the Liberia Marketing Association (LMA) Margibi Branch, Elizabeth S. Kokulo is calling on marketers selling in the streets to make use of the “modern market structures” built some time ago by President. George Manneh Weah.
Madam Kokulo urged the marketers to move into the new structure in a special statement following her induction into office at the Kakata City Hall over the weekend.
She told the marketers that the President is constructing modern market buildings with warehouses and good bathrooms among others, yet still some marketers are refusing to make use of those facilities.
She intimated that if the marketers abandon the streets and make use of the market buildings, it will further encourage the President to build more market structures for them.
“I am begging all of you, those of you that are selling in the street; you can’t sell bitter ball, pepper, onion and salt on the roadside, go in the market building please” she called on her marketers.
At the same time, the Margibi Marketing Association Superintendent wants township commissioners and chiefs to desist from claiming market places.
Madam Kokulo informed those commissioners and chiefs involved that having the markets in their townships does not give them rights and ownership over those markets adding that they (market places) are rather for the marketers.
“Then coming back to our government officials, and some of the commissioners and town chiefs, the markets are not for you people; the market is for the marketers. Please leave our marketers, don’t come there and say the market is in my township so the market is for me no! You are the commissioner but you are not the owner of the market,” she lamented.
The local LMA official admonished commissioners and town chiefs not to get involve into selling tickets to marketers.
Additionally, Madam Kokulo is calling on government officials to fast-track the issue of the one million dollars the Liberian leader announced during his nationwide tour.
She disclosed that during President Weah’s nationwide tour he informed them that two million dollars was allocated in the national budget for rural women and the marketers.
The LMA Margibi Branch Superintendent said they want their share of the money which is one million dollars in order to start working with it.
Meanwhile, Madam Elizabeth Kokulo used the occasion to appeal to land owners and land commissioners to let LMA have access to land noting that the Association is about to graduate from selling tickets to owing farm land.
According to her, the Association through its national leadership wants to grow Cocoa or coffee or rubber. Madam Kokulo then encouraged her marketeers to be united on grounds that in union success is sure.
“Not because I was across the river the other day so today I can’t be in the boat, let all of us get in the one canoe so we can cross; we should not overlook ourselves,” she stressed.
The Margibi marketers were reminded that during the Liberian civil crisis, all other ministries and agencies were closed and only the Liberia Marketing Association was opened, and as such they should not overlook themselves.
For his part, the Representative of Margibi second electoral district, Ivar K. Jones is craving the revitalization of the Liberia Marketing Association.
Rep. Jones
Guest speaking at program marking the installation of the new leadership of Margibi Branch of the Association in Kakata over the weekend, Rep. Jones said it is about time that the association put its broken pieces together and get set for the journey ahead.
The Margibi Lawmaker stated that the storm which caused the LMA to be in the press almost every day and even brought about lawsuit is over, as such members of the Association do not need to continue to retrospect on where they came from.
Rep. Jones narrated that they heard and followed the long-standing crisis in LMA something which national leaders could not hold back from making intervention.
“The Liberia Marketing Association was in the press almost every day, when it is not in the press today it means that tomorrow they are in the court; and if the Vice President name was not mentioned today someone else’s name will be mentioned tomorrow.
But the storm is now over, when the storm is over we do not continue to retrospect on where we came from but it is about time that you put your broken pieces together and get set for the journey ahead” he said.
The Margibi District #2 Representative told the Association that the journey ahead is tougher than the one it has achieved indicating that every member of the LMA must get involve.
Lawmaker Jones acknowledged that LMA plays a major role in revitalizing the Liberian economy and that it is the backbone of the Liberian economy stating that people will bring millions and millions of goods at the Freeport of Monrovia and have them parked at the warehouses but if the small business women in the various market places do not go to purchase those goods from the store they will not be distributed to the citizens.
He told the Association that in the midst of confusion it will not achieve its goal. He mentioned that the only way marketers and every county leadership of the Association can achieve their goal is to unite for a single cause.
Rep. Jones averred that marketers must reconcile their differences and see the LMA as their common denominator adding that in order to move the Association forward, they have to unite under one umbrella call the Liberia Marketing Association.
“As a leader you do not have Monopoly over knowledge and in order to lead you must serve and in order to serve you must tolerate people view, you must accept people input,” the Margibi County District #2 Rep. admonished the LMA leadership.
Rep. Jones however, pledged the amount of five hundred thousand Liberian dollars (L$500,000) to the leadership of the Liberia Marketing Association Margibi chapter.