By Kaipee Luther Newray
The crisis at the Grand Bassa County Community College (GBCC) in Buchanan has made its presence felt in the Liberian capital, Monrovia some 88 miles away.
On Sunday, several angry students of the GBCC besieged the Providence Baptist Church on Ashmun Street, demanding that its Pastor, Rev Samuel Reeves relinquishes the post as Acting GBCC President and give way to the newly appointed president.
But the true identity of Sunday’s protestors is being disputed by the Baptist prelate.
Late last month, crisis has again engulfed the Grand Bassa County Community College (GBCC), after the newly appointed President of the college Dr. Nathaniel Gbessagee, who was sacked by the previous government, announced that he has taken over the college.
A similar situation like the one at the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) with the presidential appointment of former lawmaker Gabriel Nyankan, as the GBCC Board says it is the Board that has appointing powers, not the President of Liberia.
Recently, President George Weah appointed Dr. Nathaniel Gbessagee as president of the Grand Bassa Community College.
At the Baptist Church in Monrovia, the students were seen with placards chanting anti-Reeves slogans in front of the oldest church in Liberia during the morning service.
Trokon Brigfield, the spokesman of the angry students, told www.newspublictrust.com on Sunday that that the protest was intended to inform the church’s congregation that Rev. Samuel Reeves is not willing to turnover the leadership of the college to Dr. Gbessagee, who was recently appointed President of the GBCC.
They described the action by Rev. Reeves as a total disrespect to the President of the Republic of Liberia.
But the Baptist cleric has denied the angry students claims describing them as paid agents.
Rev. Reeves, who was Vice Standard Bearer of the Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE) of Dr. Mills Jones during the 2017 presidential election, alleged that majority of the protesters were not students of the college.
Dr. Gbessagee told Magic FM, a local community radio station in Buchanan, on Tueday, that he is now the President of the college based on his appointment by Liberia’s new President George Manneh Weah.
“As far as I know, the President made his appointment. I (Dr. Gbessagee) I am the President of the college and I have taken over,” the new GBCC President said.
On March 12, Dr. Nathaniel Gbessagee was part of a list of political appointees of Grand Bassa County when President Weah made additional appointments in government.
But this Monday when Dr. Gbessagee went on the GBCC campus to officially take over the college two weeks after his appointment was announced, he was resisted by the Board Chairman, Dr. Joseph Isaac and most of the faculty and staff.
They said they were resisting his take over on grounds that they do not want him to serve as president of the community college.
The staff and faculty association accused Dr. Gbessage of nepotism, discrimination, favoritism, over paying himself, instructors should use their salary to buy chalks and other instructional materials among others.