‘Anti-Economic’

-Rep. Kiazolu Terms Speaker Chambers’ Suggestion

By Jackson C. Clay, Jr.

Montserrado County district 17 Representative, Hanson Kaizolu has termed as ‘anti-economic’ suggestion made by House Speaker Bhofal Chambers concerning the country’s economy.   

Recently, Speaker Bhofal Chambers suggested that Liberia should now do away with the Liberian dollars and use exclusively the United States dollars as it legal tender, something he thinks would help rescue the current state of the Liberian economy.

Speaking to a team of journalists Tuesday, July 10, 2018 at his Capitol Building office in Monrovia, Representative Kiazolu said it would be a very wrong thing to do as a country, thus, there should not be a Central Bank in the country.

“It is anti-economic for the Speaker to suggest that we should get rid of the Liberian dollars and only use the United States dollars in our country when we as a country has a central bank of our own and one of the characteristics of the central bank is to print our legal tender. You cannot print the United States dollars here in Liberia but in the United States of America,” Representative Kiazolu said.

The former Comptroller General of the country during the regime of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf asserted that doing so would shows that the government does not trust the ability of its own Central Bank in the country, adding that the law has to be revisited so as to dissolve the central bank in the country.

At the same time, Representative Kiazolu has cautioned House Speaker, Bhofal Chambers to avoid attacking personality when it comes to critical national issues and be issues focus.

“I want to caution the Speaker to treat the issues as it is and do away with personality,” Kiazolu noted.

He indicated that it was wrong on the part of the speaker to attribute the current state of affairs of the country’s economy to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, noting that he Speaker Chambers was also a member of the government at the time.

The Montserrado County district 17 lawmaker further noted that when it comes to the country’s economy, it is not a particular group of people that suffer the consequences but rather the entire country and as such, people should not treat it as a party issue.

Meanwhile, Representative Kiazolu said he would support the printing of new bank notes in the country because according to him, it would help address some of the economy crisis the country now faces.