Monrovia – When Liberia turns 171-years-old in a few days time, you are unlikely to see Satta Sheriff, 17, or Abraham Keita, 19, on the platform seated alongside President George Manneh Weah delivering this year’s national oration.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee announced during a discussion on OK FM afternoon Conversation Thursday that the vetting and selection committee had settled on Finance and Economic Planning Minister Mr. Samuel D. Tweah as this year’s orator.
Ironically, Ms. Sheriff and Mr. Keita are just the type of voices the government through the Monrovia City Corporation and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection announced last week, it was eyeing to fit the speaking bill. “We are accepting applications from high school to masters’ level and the application process beings June 22 to July 15 2018,” Madam Meminah Carr, Assistant Gender Minister told reporters at a June 21 news conference. The minister added: “Five (5) persons will be the finalists from the judges vetting and voting thereafter will be open to the public for three (3) days, anyone can vote for one of the five candidates in the process including market women among others”.
The idea, according to the minister was to offer a “transparent and crystal clear” process, to the general public for young people between the ages of 15 to 35 years to bring some fresh voice to the national discourse as she encouraged young people from high school to masters’ level of the required age can apply to be the national orator.
In order to ensure the process was clean of biases, the minister said a panel of judges would be set up to review applications and further vet applicants, noting that finalists will be presented to the public for final vetting.
Adding his voice, Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee said that the process would be open up to all young people irrespective of your political affiliations.
Sheriff and Keita are among a growing field of young fresh voices that have been in the news of late for all the right reasons, highlighting the burning issues of rape and abuse of young boys and girls.
Keita’s advocacy has caught the eye of the world.
Trailblazing Keita: From Slum to Advocacy
The trailblazing young advocate was recently accepted to study at Yale University in the United States and is the 2015 International Children’s Peace Prize Winner, recognized for playing a key role in the fight to end violence against children in Liberia through the Liberian Children’s Parliament where he has advocated for the establishment of the 2011 Children Law, a national legislation on the rights of children.
Keita’s advocacy was instrumental in pushing former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf into signing the Children’s Law in 2012. The legislation was designed to protect Liberia’s children and to give them voice in the decisions that directly affect their lives and seen as a major step for Liberia and it is one of the most comprehensive pieces of children’s rights legislation on the African continent.
Keita’s advocacy has included demonstrations and successful lobbying for laws against violence towards children.
Keita was born in 1998 in Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world, where 80% of the population lives below the poverty line.
He grew up in West Point, the largest slum in the nation’s capital of Monrovia, regarded as one of the strongholds of the current ruling party, the Coalition for Democratic Change.
Keita did not allow the lack of a poverty to stand in the way of his ambition and worked tirelessly to advocate for the rights of young children. “I am a victim of the bloody civil war in Liberia,” he told infinitefire.org recently. “Growing up, I saw children raped, abused, harassed and intimidated, but we are human beings and our rights should be respected too.”
Keita channeled the horrors of war into an advocacy that have inspired other young people to do the same.
When controversy surrounding the rape of a 13-year-old came to light in 20017, Keita was one of the fiery voices that helped to raise awareness. He would later say: “I did not know her, but I felt she could have been one of my sisters. It could have been me. It made me realize I need to speak up for children, especially girls, whose rights should be promoted and respected so nobody can take advantage of them.”
Keita’s voice was also heard during the height of the deadly Ebola virus outbreak when government troops shot and killed a 15-year-old boy, who was participating a peaceful protest. The shooting sparked outrage throughout the community, and Keita decided to channel that outrage into effective action. He organized and led another peaceful demonstration of young people, demanding that the government take responsibility for the death.
Satta Sheriff: Strong Voice Against Child Abuse
Besides Keita, young Satta Sheriff has been equally influential in recent years, drawing attention to the plight of young girls being rape and holding government’s feet to the fire.
When the legal system dragged its feet in the rape case of Representative Morais Waylee last year, it was Satta who took the bull by the horn. The Executive Director of Youth in Action for Peace and Empowerment (YAPE), expressed her disappointment in the manner and form the Waylee case was being handled by the Liberian National Police and the Judiciary system of Liberia. “Today 13-year-old Reggie is yet to be found. What a shame, when we as a nation should be protecting Children, we are busy endangering their lives by being selective in the fights against Rape,” Sheriff said. “I am intensely saddened by the recent report that the court and prosecution about to dismiss Waylee case from the City Court.”
Sheriff described the alleged rape of the 13-year old as not only degrading, shameful and unacceptable but a clear betrayal of the Legislature’s commitment to protect the children of Liberia.“We condemn in the strongest terms the alleged rape of our little 13 year- old girl and we remain unbending and uncompromising in our quest to seek justice for every Liberian child that is prey of physical, domestic, psychological or any form of violence that intrudes on the existence of Liberian children rights to a peaceful and happy life. Representative MoriasWaylee is not above the law,” she stated.
She also recalled that in 2016, an alleged sodomizing case was reported in Margibi County against Mawolo Kpadeh, Administrator of the Liberian Youth Network (LIYONET) for sexually violating a 16-year old boy.
Last year, Satta emerged as the Youngest Speaker at Liberia first ever TEDx speaking session.
The youthful Child Rights Advocate who is also the first female Speaker of the Liberian Children’s Parliament and Executive Director of Youth in Action for Peace and Empowerment. Satta has been working to improve the living conditions of Children rights in Liberia since age 9.
She was recently awarded the most influential teenager in Liberia for her tough advocacies and stands on Children rights issues and her work has inspire girls in Liberia and Africa at large. Widely regarded as the face of youth advocacy in Liberia, Satta has organized rallies and spearheaded petitions to the national legislature on issues regarding youths.
Satta begun an active campaigner for Children rights during the Ebola crisis in West Africa to save many lives, through schools and her popular radio talk show called ‘’Kids and U’’ She created her first project title ‘’ Your support, Our Future” to support thousands of Children orphan by Ebola and vulnerable Children start and complete post Ebola education in Liberia.
Wanto, Kwabo Making Waves
Today, a new generation of young Liberians are making their voices heard. Wanto Teah Wanto, drew attention recently when he won The Friendship Ambassador Foundation’s first merit-based scholarship award based on his academic and professional achievement, his involvement in advocacy, and commitment to humanitarian and environmental initiatives by mobilizing youth and empowering his community.
Wanto, a student at Stella Maris Polytechnic studying social working, was selected from a field of 800 applications submitted from around the world as FAF’s first merit-based scholarship.
He also served as the Secretary General of the National Children and Youth Advisory Board, and a member of the Global Youth Committee. In 2015, Wantoe attended the World Humanitarian Summit Global Youth Consultation at the Hama Bin Khalifa University – Qatar Foundation (HBKU QF) Student Centre in Doha, Qatar. In 2016, he traveled to Istanbul, Turkey to attend and deliver a preliminary statement at the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit.
Another youth advocate, James Papy Kwabo, recently traveled to Colombia to represent Liberia at a two-week bilateral youth Exchange program between Liberia and Colombia. Kwabo is a Youth development worker, founder and Executive Director of Youth Talk-Liberia (YOTAL), Inc. a national youth accredited organization that works in Zorzor, Lofa County. The two-week exchange program, which is entitled “Youth Exchange program for the strengthening of Youth Organizations through South-South Cooperation,” is an initiative by Government of Colombia to strengthen bilateral relations with countries of the West African Sub-region through its embassy in Ghana.