Bong County – The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Varney Sirleaf, has urged Bong County Superintendent Esther Walker to reinstate chiefs that she dismissed recently.
Madam Walker, it can be recalled, dismissed five chiefs, who were said to be members of the former ruling Unity Party, in Bong County and immediately replaced them with partisans of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
Madam Walker didn’t disclose why those chiefs were dismissed but her action barely a month after Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, a native of Bong County, informed chiefs to join the CDC or risks being fired.
A letter in the possession of FrontPageAfrica from Minister Sirleaf dated June 15, 2018 called on Madam Walker to reverse the decision and return to status quo.
According to the letter, it is the standing policy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that no chief be dismissed by superintendent or any other county official without the minister’s expressed acknowledgment.
The Minister, according to the letter, took the decision after a consultation with President George Manneh Weah.
Minister Sirleaf reminded Madam Walker of concerns expressed by chiefs at a national conference on Chiefs and Elders from June 4 to 6 in Ganta, Nimba County of their perceived dismissals by local officials.
Minister Sirleaf said arbitrary dismissal of chiefs without probable cause is inconsistent with President George Weah’s pro-poor agenda for prosperity and development.
The dismissal of the five chiefs, in Bong by Madam Walker, has been condemned by citizens of the county and their Legislative Caucus.
The caucus chair, Senator Henry Yallah, described the action by Madam Walker as a “political witch hunt” and said people should not be prosecuted for their role they played in the 2017 elections. “Elections are over and I don’t think people should be witch hunted on the basis of their decisions in elections,” he said.
Yallah said that during the 12-year rule of the Unity Party, officials of the National Patriotic Party of which Madam Walker is a member and served in leadership within the county, were never targeted by the power at the time. “No chief from the NPP under the Unity Party-led government was dismissed because of their political affiliation. The Superintendent needs to understand that power will come and power will go.”
Representative Papa Kolleh of District Seven, whose Paramount Chief Moses Kaine was dismissed by Madam Walker, hailed the reinstatement of his chief as a new dawn to his district and citizens.
Kolleh said it was against the spirit of reconciliation that Madam Walker opted to dismiss Paramount Chief Kaine despite his 23-year service to the district.
Kolleh identified reconciliation as the hall mark for development and as such if Liberians want to embrace reconciliation, they should do away with acts that have the propensity to derail such process.
Kolleh said Superintendent Walker and the CDC-led government should graduate from the act of witch hunt if the CDC wants to succeed in Bong. He said the caucus, which comprises one CDC lawmaker, could strangulate the government if the party continues to strangulate nonpartisans. “You can’t be having one CDC lawmaker and begin to witch hunt our chiefs and expect us, I mean members of the caucus to dance to your tone in the legislature,” he stressed.
Kaine lauded members of the caucus for ensuring that they are reinstated. He promised to continue working for the government despite the fact that he is a member of the former ruling Unity Party.
He stated personally no amount of pressure will force him to join the ruling CDC.
“I will never join the CDC. I believe in my party. I will pray that God will speak to our superintendent that she will see reason to work with us and not to take us as enemies because of our affiliation with the former ruling Unity Party,” he said.
Solomon Giddings, a citizen of Sanoyea district, lauded President Weah for the decision and said it was in the interest of peace. “This is one of the best decisions that President Weah has made for the people of Bong County,” he said.
Giddings further said it was time citizens of Bong embrace each other irrespective of their political affiliations for the growth and development of Liberia.