MONROVIA —The teenaged, based group Girls Alliance for Future Leadership has expressed confidence in President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s ability to mainstream gender in his government.
In a statement issued to mark the International Day of Education, Girls Alliance says it is optimistic that President Boakai is taking steps to ensure that there is equal representation of women and men in public service.
Girls’ Alliance Secretary General Kadiatu Bah in the statement asserted that forty percent of President Boakai’s cabinet officials are women with seven women occupying top cabinet posts: Madam Sara Beysolow Nyanti, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Brigadier General (Retired) Geraldine Janet George Minister, Ministry of National Defense, Dr. Louise Kpoto Minister, inistry of Health and Social Welfare, Magdalene Dagoseh, Minister, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mrs. Gbeme Horace Kollie, Minister, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr. Jarso Maley Jallah, Minister, Ministry of Education and the recent nomination of a youthful Attorney Cornelia W. Kruah as Minister of Youth and Sports.
The girls’ alliance secretary general furthered that the Liberian leader has achieved the 3rd goal of the Millennium Development Goals in his cabinet nominations.
Gender mainstreaming is a global strategy for achieving gender equality by integrating a gender perspective into the design, implementing, monitoring, and evaluation of policies, laws, and programs.
Kadiatu Bah emphasized that President Boakai has inspired the Liberian girl child adding we are fully recognizing your professed commitment to girls and women empowerment.
The girls Alliance secretary general, however, challenged the president to encourage his cabinet appointees to engage the youths of Liberia, especially the girl child.
She said most public officials’ doors are shut to the youths of Liberia. She warns that the rapid development of the country runs the risk of destruction if constructive engagement of the youths of Liberia is not given serious attention.
Bah wants President Boakai to create a neutral apolitical platform for dialogue with the youths of Liberia. She said while most of the youth driven anger in the streets of Monrovia are about jobs and opportunities, the young people of Liberia will exercise tolerance with the government if they are talked with and heard by their president.
Bah noted that an unengaged youth population is a tool in the hands of mischievous politicians. The United Nations on December 8, 2018, resolution 75/25 established the International Day of Education asserting that Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility.
This year’s International Day of Education is recognizing the youth and their role as agents of change in achieving inclusive and equitable quality education and building peaceful, just, and inclusive societies.
Girls Alliance for Future Leadership is an all-female teenage organization founded by some eight graders at the William Lee Booner School in 2010.
The girls were inspired by the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s presidency.
