Margibi County – With less than two weeks to the runoff election between the ruling Unity Party and the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change, the National Youth Movement for Transparent Elections (NAYMOTE) with support from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has begun the implementation of a Peace and Reconciliation Dialogue project in Margibi and Bong Counties.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh – [email protected]
The institution officially kicked off the project with the Margibi County Reconciliation Dialogue on Saturday, October 21, in Weala, the home of Unity Party’s Vice-Presidential Candidate, Speaker James Emmanuel Nuquay.
Speaking to reporters in Margibi, the Programs Officer of NAYMOTE, Joshua Dennis Cleon averred that the dialogue is part of a series of engagements geared towards creating inclusive and participatory civil spaces for reconciliation in Liberia; noting that the model of the first dialogue held in the county will be adopted and replicated simultaneously across the two counties to complete eight planned dialogues, with four in each county.
He noted that the dialogue brought together 40 stakeholders from Weala including commissioners, chiefs, representatives from the teachers’ association, National Elections Commission, Superintendent’s Office, Technical Working Group, political institutions, National Elections Commissions, Ministry of internal Affairs, Civil Society Organizations, Community Based Organizations, school authorities and community leaders among others.
“The dialogue was great and it provided stakeholders broad knowledge about the essence of reconciliation and benefits of reconciling. Participants reflected and discussed the history and source of conflicts in their district and county, mapped conflict: current trends, sources and actors of conflicts in the district and county, consequences of the conflicts-political, social, and economic, explored local mechanisms for reconciliation, actors and On-going reconciliation efforts, as well as developed their District Action Plan for Reconciliation.
Meanwhile, several issues including corruption, greediness, bad leadership, misinformation hatred, power for greed, generational gap, broken culture, disconnect between the educated and uneducated, tribal and religious identity crisis, slavery, loyalty and tolerance were highlighted by community residents as sources of conflict that are still affecting their district.
They also stressed land conflict, delayed court trial, political interest, media institution or community radio stations favouring particular candidates and salary inequality as other factors responsible for conflict.
“Salaries are not evenly distributed and salaries structures are not encouraging especially for government employees and civil servants. I’ve been working for government for many years but on a yearly basis I sacrificed all of my time and resources working for government but just can’t realize the benefits because my salary is not even sufficient to take care of my home and send my kids to school,” intoned Anthony Kollie, a teacher and resident of Weala Distrct.
“Hatred is the key issue affecting us as residents of Margibi County, mainly Weala district. I don’t know why we envy each other so much, we don’t want to see each other progressing” added William B. S. Julue, Cinta Township Commissioner, Margibi.
Added Gbarngawoe Seyboe, Margibi Christian Community: “One of the basic things we look at absolutely was the distribution of the national cake. We realize that certain groups of people have higher salary, especially the legislators; couple with more allowances and more benefits, while the rest of the people live in poverty.
We think these are some of the issues that are creating hatred, hard feelings and envy because you have just very small number of the citizens of the country enjoying the wealth of the nation, while you have the rest of the people living in abject poverty.”
“We believe that if that money was reduced and send to teachers, nurses, especially when civil servants’ salaries are improved, it will minimize lots of people standing up and queuing at their lawmakers’ doors. It will minimize, hatred, envy and at least every household will be able to set food on their table at the end of the day,” Seyboe noted.
In their reconciliation dialogue plan adopted at the end of the event, the participants recommended that the community and religious leaders host large meetings across the district and organize sporting events (football games) to mitigate the envy and hatred among residents to unite them; conduct Town hall meetings and interactive discussion between elders and youth to educate the young people about the danger of spreading misleading information.
In addition, the residents proposed that county authorities should be accountable to citizens by providing information about their County’s Social Development Fund and others; and called for the recognition of individuals for their hard work to the community and county.