IF REPORTS OF HIS alleged involvements in Saturday’s riot are anything to go by, it appears Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson T. Koijee has not yet realized that he is NOT that firebrand militant that he was a year ago but rather now a statesman – Mayor of the city of Monrovia.
ACCORDING TO MULTIPLE accounts from various eyewitnesses, including our former editor, Gboko Stewart, who works on the media team of Unity Party Candidate, Cornelia Kruah-Togba, Mayor Koijee led his men into the heart of Mrs. Togba’s campaign. The aftermath of that can be seen in the many bloodied and partisans of the Unity Party.
“THEY’RE NOT HAVING their campaigns at the same place, I don’t understand why would Koijee as the Mayor of Monrovia would try to do this thing; why would he lead his men to do this kind of thing… It’s really disheartening,” said Gboko Stewart, a member of Cornelia’s campaign media team.”
THIS STATEMENT WAS further backed by Mrs. Togba. “The CDC supporters left their assembly point in Iron Factory and marched into ours at New Georgia. I, along with the Liberty Party’s Political Leader, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, had to be whisked to safety immediately following the attack.”
THOUGH IT WAS SPECULATED one person was reportedly dead, the Liberia National Police has since rebuffed those claims.
THE ACTION OF KOIJEE IS perhaps not the first. During the infancy stage of President Weah, Mayor Koijee charged at FrontPage Africa Rodney D. Sieh like a wild bull in a china shop, making a litany of unproven allegations.
HOWEVER, THE YOUTHFUL Mayor claimed he was on a mission to “rescue” his supporters who were “stranded” and were “attacked” by supporters of Madam Togba – an intel he could have passed to the Liberia National Police as it is their mission to save lives and protect properties, not to take it upon himself to do the “rescuing.”
AT A TIME WHEN the world is watching and paying keen attention to President’s Weah’s camouflaging stance on the issue of ending impunity, especially as it relates to the establishment of a war crimes court to bring perpetrators of the war to book, the actions of Koijee and other officials of the Weah government continues to reinforce calls for the ending of impunity.
THAT NEARLY A YEAR into the administration of President Weah and not a single investor has been wooed seems not to bother the officials of the present government, though there are sprouting billboards around the city labeling the country as an “investor’s paradise.”
NO NATION IS AN “investor’s paradise” when its officials are violence prone, and investors, whoever they are, are certainly not going to come flocking at your doors.
ELECTIONS HAVE consequences, it is often warned. The world is watching the administration of president George Weah keenly. The standard with which the previous government was held by is not the same standard at bay.
FOR A GOVERNMENT WHICH is “democratically elected” by an overwhelming majority of its citizens, it boggles us why have they not yet democratized. Eg, the actions of Mayor Koijee over the weekend.
PRE AND POST ELECTORAL violence have charges at the International Criminal Court. It would do Mayor Koijee well to learn from the lessons of Kenya president Kenyatta and his Vice Ruto. A hint to the wise – the world is watching!