PHOTO: Wedabo Superintendent Ylatun speaking at the Wedabo Meeting (Sunday, Sept. 27)
By Samuel G. Dweh, Freelance Development Journalist
Contacts —+231 (0)886618906/776583266/samuelosophy@yahoo.com/samuelosophy1@gmail.com
THE AUTHOR’S PREMISE TO A “NEWS STORY”
Here is the Ethnic Group’s Natural Resource (non-human) Fact Sheet:
- Rich forest (huge quantities of Timber, gold, diamond, animal species, etc.), highly fertile mangrove swamp (for farming activities), and large quantities of Creeks with surplus fish species.
The “richness” of the soil has attracted Golden Veroleum, a palm plantation Company, of Indonesia—helping to develop the quarter, in spite of occasional business-disruption restiveness by members of some Wedabo Towns.
Here is the Ethnic Group’s Human Resource Fact Sheet:
- Over 80% of teachers (in the classroom)—for Elementary to Senior High education—have only High School education (can’t find money for university education);
- Over 75% of students (in Elementary-12th Grade) can’t read or write, and many students in English-based grade schools (1st-9th grade) understand lesson only in vernacular/dialect (Wedabo) spoken by each Teacher during much of the teaching session);
- Majority of senior students (11th-12th grade), in rural places, can’t understandably express themselves (via writing or speaking); and
- Over 60% drop out of school on economic factor (the pull of goldmine) or on parenthood;
- Over 80% of those who graduate from High School (12th grade) can’t find a way into university (due to financial handicap);
- The number of Wedabo students at any Liberian University is always far below the number of students of other Ethnic Groups;
- Less than 20% of Wedabo students in higher educational institution (university or college) are lucky to graduate in academic calendar time (caused by financial impediment);
- The number of Wedabo students in Technical Vocational Education, in any Technical Education Institute in Liberia, is below the number of members of other Ethnic Groups; and
- Females form less than 40% of the number of students in any class, less than 10% of each school’s total student population, and the number of female Wedabo students in higher institution (outside of Grand Kru County) is always below 4% below the total number of Wedabo students. Note: Grand Kru County didn’t have an Higher Institution of learning (University or Technical Knowledge Education) when this report-article was being processed (28-29 September, 2020) for publication.
Here is the Ethnic Group’s Infrastructure Fact Sheet:
- Over 95% of the buildings in any of the Wedabo Towns are of clay, sticks (as “iron bars”), palm thatch (roof), and no modern ground-floor cover (tile or cement);
- Light in over 99.7% percent of residential buildings or business centers comes from torchlight or mobile phone for occupants indoor during nighttime. NOTE: Mobile phone entered the Wedabo quarter in 2005. Occupants of these no-electricity buildings depend on the electric-power generating machine of Telecommunication Company (Lonestar Cell/MTN or Orange) to charge phones;
- No pipe-borne water, over 90% percent of residents drink water from Creeks (some regularly contaminated by animals’ feces);
- All health facilities (only Clinics)—some of the Wedabo Towns have no “modern treatment center”—have a challenge of chronic drug scarcity, substandard drugs, medically inexperienced medical attendants;
- Most of the Wedabo Towns are connected by only foot paths (many covered by grass); except Gbanken and Zoloken, where the presence of Indonesian palm plantation Company (Golden Veroleum) has created some roads (for the free movement of its vehicles to and from the Plantations); and in Juduken, where the Government and People of Sweden—through the Swedish International Development Association (SIDA)—created a road (in year 2020) connecting Juduken with part of Gbanken and Barclayville (Capital of Grand Kru County) The Juduken Road is President George Manneh Weah’s “infrastructural legacy” in the Wedabo quarter—always abandoned by each of his predecessors.
NOTES:
- These “deprivations” are mostly based on “little attention” from the leadership of the County’s Legislative Caucus—often headed by a member of another Ethnic group in a seemingly “eternal political battle” against the Wedabo Ethnic group. This “political ostracization” keeps away “life-improvement International Organizations” found in non-Wedabo quarters.
- These records are based on this article Author’s observations during his “familiarization tours” within the Wedabo quarter in 2016 and 2017, and based on complaints at different General Wedabo Meetings (in Grand Kru County and Monrovia) attended by the Author.
THE “NEWS STORY”
“We are not getting much of the bread in the bread basket of our County, Grand Kru,” Superintendent of Grand Kru County, Doris Nyanplane Ylatun, declared, in parable, in an emotion-laden tone to a gathering of her tribal members on Sunday, September 27, 2020. The total number of attendants was 30, with only three females, as reflected on attendance sheet.
The meeting was held at a business center in Vaitown.
Superintendent Ylatun’s assertions were parts of her “Briefing” on educational, economic, and political situations about the entire County—located in the South-Eastern part of Liberia.
Her “Briefing” focused on three areas: Operations of Indonesian palm oil plantation and processing Company, Golden Veroleum (GVL), including Company’s mandatory Social Corporate Responsibilities; educational issues confronting Wedabo people; and political divisiveness within the Wedabo ethnic group, which some say has engendered political domination of a “numerically superior Wedabo section” by other parts of the County.
The “Briefing” was an item on the Agenda of a meeting organized by a still-being-restructured Wedabo Youth Development Association, host of Madam Ylatun—the first female Wedabo Superintendent of Grand Kru County.
This Sunday was Superintendent Ylatun’s first face-to-face interaction with a representative body of the Monrovia-based Wedabo people, since her appointment by President George Manneh Weah in 2018, replacing Madam Elizabeth Dempster.
The Wedabo ethnic group is composed of six Towns—Beloken, Gbanken, Juduken, Ylatuen, Wedabo Beach, and Zoloken.
Superintendent Ylatun is of Ylatuen.
“You all are aware, our part of Grand Kru County has educated people, it has abundant natural resources, but it is backward in terms of educational opportunities, better roads, and health care services—compared to other parts of the County,” added Superintendent Ylatun, born on February 1, 1966, the second child from the union of Mr. Daniel Ylatun and Mrs. Esther B. Ylatun, and one of handful of Wedabo women who had meritously crossed High School and earned a College Degree. She earned an Associate Degree in Management from the Lincoln Commercial Institute, in Monrovia.
Superintendent Ylatun commented on other issues, based on a question or comment from a member of the meeting.
“Madam Superintendent, are you aware of allegations against the Management of Golden Veroleum-Liberia, in Grand Kru County, importing employees of its unit in Sinoe County, and placing them in top managerial positions in the GVL’s operations units in our quarter?” inquired Mr. Furcas S.B. Wilson, of Juduken, a member of the Staff of Office of Grand Kru County’s Senator, and Liberia’s Senate Pro-Tempore, Hon. Albert Tugbe Chie.
“This allegation was a part of a body of complaints brought to my Office by a group of GVL’s employees on the Company’s farms,” Superintendent Ylatun responded, and added: “But the Company is saying, according to some in-side sources, our people, Wedabos, do not have the University Degrees needed to occupy these positions.”
Superintendent Ylatun said her leadership of the County’s Local Authority had convened a meeting to mend the rift between GVL’s Management and its agitating Grand Kru employees.
“But the meeting was later cancelled and postponed, because the Company’s Human Resource Manager and Sustainability Manager were not present,” Madam Ylatun reported to the gathering in Monrovia.
On the issue with Wedabo employees not being academically qualified for GVL’s Technical and Managerial jobs, or ‘Office Work’, Mr. Furcas S.B. Wilson requested explanation from Superintendent Ylatun on the role of the County’s Local Authority for ‘educationally equipping’ the workers for college education, through the County Development Fund (CDF) to which GVL contributes as part of the Company’s Corporate Social Responsibilities to communities with GVL’s plantations.
Responding to Mr. Wilson’s question, Superintendent Ylatun said the issue of educational scholarship relating to GVL is a policy that can be settled only through a Scholarship policy, which states that a citizen of Grand Kru County wishing to benefit from a GVL-supported scholarship should be in University.
“Most of our people complaining have fallen short of this policy,” Superintendent Ylatun replied.
Golden Veroleum had contributed thirty five thousand United States Dollars (USD35,000) into Grand Kru’s CDF for each of the Communities hosting its plantation, Superintendent Ylatun said.
Mr. Wilson also raised most Grand Kruans’ common concern relating to GVL’s Overseas Training program, which, according some persons, hasn’t covered any Wedabo employee of GVL since the Indonesian Company entered into the Wedabo section of Grand Kru County.
Responding to this concern, Superintendent said such complaint had reached her Office, and the County’s Local Authority is engaging the hierarchy of Golden Veroleum-Liberia to extend this gesture to the Company’s College-Degree holding employees.
“I’m aware of Ben Sieh, a university graduate, who is now in GVL’s Finance Office in Sinoe County, ” Superintendent Ylatun provided proof about another native of Grand Kru whose academic status qualifies him for GVL’s ‘advance learning’ opportunity in a foreign Land.
However, the power of who is selected for the GVL educational scholarship is in the hand of the County’s representatives in the Central Government, Madam Superintendent revealed.
“The County’s Legislative Cause has that power,” the Grand Kru County’s Local Authority boss said.
On the Superintendent’s disclosure, a male participant explained: “The scholarship documents are in the Office of the Senate Pro-Tempore, Honorable Albert Tugbe Chie. To qualify for the GVL’s educational scholarship program, an applicant should have at least three GPA, Grade Points Average from a University.”
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibilities, GVL also and constructed Elementary-Junior High Schools in Wedabo Towns, with furniture for each of the schools, for children of the workers and non-GVL employees.
On its local workers’ economic wellbeing, the Company has introduced “free monthly food (rice) donation” program for each of its workers, giving a 25-kilogram to each worker at the end of the month;
However, GVL has come under stinging criticisms from most members of the Wedabo ethnic group, in spite of the Company’s numerous educational and other developmental projects in this part contributions of Grand Kru County.
“The workers complain about no pay for half-day work, especially during rainy season, and the Company’s mass redundancy of its local workforce,” Superintendent Ylatun gave the reason for the criticisms.
For the Company, she quoted GVL’s Management basing its workforce reduction on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. On the half-day issue, she said the Company gives a six-hectare space to each field worker to clear or cultivate, and any worker who didn’t complete his or her assignment in the time allotted forfeits the amount of money for the work.
“The GVL-Wedabo Towns relationship is like a marriage between a man and a woman. When the husband is failing on his matrimonial responsibilities, the wife should push him to act, but the pushing should be respectfully done,” Superintendent Ylatun advised the entire Wedabo Community.
The Indonesian palm oil Company has plantations in Zoloken and Gbanken—two of the six Towns of the Wedabo ethnic group.
The Company entered Grand Kru County through the County’s Legislative Caucus of Liberia’s 53rd National Legislature, which started in 2011 during the Presidency of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. At that time, members of the County’s Legislative Caucus were: Peter S. Coleman (Senator), Albert Tugbe Chie (Senator), George Wesseh Blamoh—a Wedabo Man (Representative, Electoral District #1), Numene Bartekwa (Representative, Electoral District #2)
On Central Government’s support to the County development, through the National Budget, Madam Doris N. Ylatun said the County’s Authority has received far below the amount mentioned in the National Budget for County Development.
defended the Central Government: “The Government is financially constrained, due to the global economic meltdown caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, which most of the attendants at this meeting are aware of.”
For educational empowerment of Wedabo ethnic group members, Superintendent Ylatun suggested for focus to be on those in the youth-bracket.
“We, the old people, are passing away; the Wedabo youths are the people to take over the leadership mantle,” she advised.
The Monrovia-based subset of the Wedabo ethnic has a major role of educating the youths based in the County, Grand Kru, said Mr. Jefferson N. Jeh.
“We, based in Monrovia, and willing to educate our people in our Towns, but we don’t have money to travel to there. The deplorable road conditions are other preventing factors,” Jefferson said.
On “disunity” in the Wedabo ethnic group, each contributor spoke emotionally.
“The major cause of the disunity in the Wedabo body is the Quarter-superiority mentality, a feeling in most members of a Town that their Quarter, Town, is superior over another Town, due to political connection in the leadership of the County’s Legislative Caucus,” said Samuel G. Dweh of Quarter Gbanken.
Superintendent Ylatun said, “We are still exhibiting our crab-mentality—pulling down our ethnic group members moving up. People of other parts of the County are taking advantage of this disunity, dividing us further and climbing to political power on most Wedabo people’s votes for them in House of Representatives or Senatorial Elections.”
Madam Ylatun was a victim of this ‘crabby mentality’ during Liberia’s Elections for Presidency and House of Representatives in 2017 in which she was a House of Representatives candidate for District #1 on the ticket of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) She was vilified by majority of members of the other Wedabo Towns, especially on her gender. Her photos were pulled off walls of buildings including Town Halls in majority of the Wedabo Towns.
The “traditional leadership” of the Wedabo Ethnic group—with the highest numerical strength in Grand Kru County—became disintegrated on choosing a “single candidate” for the House of Representatives, who would represent the Ethnic group’s voice in the Liberian Parliament.
Town Wedabo Towns fielded a different candidate each—Ylatuen fielded Doris Nyanplane Ylatun; Gbanken supported Mr. John Chea; Zoloken backed Mr. Hassaf Kumeh.
During the campaign time, there were yet-to-be substantiated reports that the other three Wedabo Towns were supporting another House of Representatives candidate, Mr. Nathaniel N. Bahway, from another part of the County, who later became victorious for the Legislative position of Electoral District #1.
The first Wedabo person that entered the National Legislature is George Wesseh Blamoh—through whom Golden Veroleum came into the Wedabo quarter—between 2011 and 2017.
Making contribution at the Wedabo meeting on Sunday, September 27, Mr. John Chea, ‘Quarter Gbanken’ candidate for Liberia’s House of Representatives for District #1 of Grand Kru in the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in 2017, said the Wedabo ethnic group has the intellect and education, through each member, to overcome its problems keeping the quarter behind other parts of the Country.
Mr. Furcas S.B. Wilson suggested a Social Media platform, a Chatroom, titled “Wedabo Agenda”, exclusively for highlighting and proffering solutions to all issues impeding the unity and development of the general Wedabo Ethnic group and individual members.
“However, insult, in any form or manner, won’t bed allowed in the Wedabo Agenda’s Social Chatroom,” warned Mr. Wilson, creator of the platform.
Another Wedabo organization, named Wedabo Youth Organization, started by a group of young Wedabo students in the William V.S. Tubman University, Maryland County, is also contributing to solving problems facing the quarter.
“We were part of a united meeting of the Wedabo Communities in Harper and Pleebo, Maryland County,” the Youth Leader of the group, Parcus K. Smith, a Sophomore student, informed me. “One of the things discussed at the meeting is formation of Wedabo associations, including Wedabo Health Association; Wedabo Pastors Association; Wedabo Elders Association; Wedabo Women Association; and Wedabo Youth Associations,” he added.
At the conclusion stage of the Wedabo meeting on September 27 in Monrovia, Grand Kru County’s Superintendent (Hon.) Doris Nyanplane Ylatun contributed one hundred United States dollars (US$100) toward the “legalization status” (registration with the Government and notarization) of the Wedabo Youth Development Association with the Motto: “Gen Jlen, Ba Du Yeh”, a Wedabo sentence meaning: “Day breaks, Let’s Wake Up”.
She advised the current male-only composition of the group’s leadership to absorb more women into the leadership.
BRIEF PROFILE OF MADAM DORIS NYANPLANE YLATUN IN GRAND KRU COUNTY
- Went into the County in 1995.
- Joined the South-Eastern Women Development Association (SEWODA)—for the entire County—in 1996, serving as County Coordinator. She oversaw the construction of clinics, markets, clearing of grass and trees in foot paths that had not been used during the war years.
- She established a Guest House, named Silver Key, in Grand Kru County’s capital, whose proceeds were used to sustain her relatives and dozens of outsiders.
After-Meeting: Superintendent Doris N. Ylatun (only woman in the backrow) and Wedabo Towns’ representatives at the meeting (Sunday, September 27, 2020)