SENATOR PRINCE Y. JOHNSON(MDR, NIMBA) is once more up to his old tricks with his latest suggestion that his kinsmen and women who are complaining of lack of job under the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration should simply just join his Movement for Development and Reconstruction (MDR) political party, if they want to be employed in government.
THE SENATOR’S utterance comes barely 24 hours after the Board of Governors and the Management of the Central Bank of Liberia(CBL) decided, with immediate effect, to rescind several letters of employment with start dates of July 1, 2019.
IN ITS COMMUNICATION TO the rescinded staffers, the CBL Board wrote: “These constraints have compelled the Management of the CBL to place austerity measures on its operations as recommended by the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the harmonization exercise currently being implemented by the Government of Liberia(GOL). Therefore, the management has placed a freeze on employment beginning May 28, 2019. We thank you for your interest in the Central Bank of Liberia and will keep you and the public informed when the bank resumes its hiring process in the future.”
THE NIMBA COUNTY lawmaker’s comments also comes as the Weah-led government is under immense pressure from international stakeholders including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund(IMF) to slash its wage bill, mostly brought on in the aftermath of its rise to power last January.
SINCE LAST JULY when he took over as governor of the CBL, Governor Nathaniel Patray alone brought on more than 200 employees, mostly partisans from the ruling party, to further strain the payroll and expenditures of the bank which is the nerve center of the country’s economy.
THE IMF HAS BEEN CLEAR in admonishing the Weah administration to reduce its wage bill as it embarks on a process of adopting a credible and executable budget for Fiscal Year 2019/2020 and beyond,
ALL THIS IS INTENDED to ensure that the government undertakes significant fiscal adjustment and reshapes its focus toward mobilizing domestic revenue and rationalizing spending, especially the wage bill, while securing needed space for social and capital spending.
THE IMF Directors encouraged the authorities to formulate realistic budgets and to implement a sound borrowing plan that ensures debt sustainability, while advocating caution in engaging in non-concessional borrowing. They also called for further progress in public financial management reforms to improve the quality of spending in a resource-constrained environment.”
IN THE MIDST of all this tightening of monetary policy with the objective of reducing inflation to single digits by 2021, the Nimba County lawmaker, while pledging support to the CDC candidates, Ms. Paulita Wie, running for Montserrado County Senator and Mr. Abu Kamara, a candidate for the House of Representatives in District #15 in the upcoming by-election, is giving the impression that he has a magic wand to create jobs.
IT IS CLEAR that the Nimba County lawmaker is not on the same page with the government and the international community. It appears that his wacky views are out of sync with the unfolding economic realities in Liberia today.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, Senator Johnson continues to use his popularity among his kinsfolks from Nimba County to play god.
THE SENATOR IS OBSESSESSED with positioning himself as the sole breadwinner and only source to which Nimbaian can get a job: No resume, no qualification and no role for the Civil Service Agency.
SAID THE SENATOR: “There is a rumor going around that this government does not intent to include Nimbaians who worked in the Ellen’s government for the past 12 years. This is not true because when they go to the President, he tells them to go to the senior senator of Nimba because he’s the one we are collaborating with. I invite all former GOL officials from Nimba to come and join ranks with us in the MDR and definitely we will consider recommending you for a job. You cannot come with UP vest and want to get a job. Go join CDC or come to us. People carrying wrong propaganda in Nimba are on the wrong side of history. There are no quick fixes to the problems we have. We all need to put all hands-on deck. So, if you are from a different party and come to us, you firstly have to join us before we can seek your interest.”
ALL SENATOR Johnson is doing is muddying the waters and resurrecting the very issues the international community is pressing the government to address.
PANDERING TO THE FEARS, desperations and vulnerabilities of those languishing at the bottom of the economic ladder for political gains is the cheapest tactic any politician could come up with in such a difficult time for Liberia.
SADLY, LIBERIA HAS apparently given Senator Johnson, one of most notorious warlords of the civil war a free pass to say and do whatever he wants without any respect for those who lost their lives during the height of the civil war, when Mr. Johnson led the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia(INPFL).
THE PEOPLE of Nimba are in love with Mr. Johnson. They voted him twice as their senior Senator and has given him the monopoly on majority of the votes in the country.
AS A RESULT, those looking to get votes from the vote-rich county often come knocking on his door in hopes of securing victory. The ruling CDC, in 2017 did just that, relying heavily on Johnson’s support to win the county, the second largest population in terms of registered voters, according to the National Election Commission.
THIS IS NOT ONLY UNFAIR but dangerous. One man amassing so much power after killing so many people to the detriment of an entire nation. Senator Johnson belongs behind the walls of a prison cell, just as former President Charles Ghankay Taylor is right now.
WHERE HE DOES NOT belong, is at the center of the political universe of a post-war nation on the rebound, struggling to restore its economic sanity while entrapped under the spell of mad former warlord with loose lips and a loud mouth from hell, saying whatever he wants, doing whatever he wants – and getting away with it, in a recurring cycle of impunity.