“IF PRESIDENT WEAH CANNOT APPOINT ANY OF OUR SONS OR DAUGHTERS IN MINISTERIAL POSITION WE WILL NOT VOTE FOR CDC IN 2023 ELECTIONS”

By Patrick Stephen Tokpah

Kokoyah District-Amidst political bickering and widespread speculation over who become the next President of Liberia in the 2023 General and Presidential Elections, Bong County Electoral District#1 citizens have vowed not to vote for President George M. Weah if he can not appoint a son or daughter in a Ministerial position in his government.

The Kokoyah residents speaking through their former Statutory Superintendent Joseph Weleteh said it’s frustrating to see qualified sons and daughters of Bong County who have not been given a ministerial position in a government that they voted for.

As of the 2008 Census, Bong had a population of 328,919, making it the third most populous county in Liberia.

The county proved crucial to President Weah’s ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in the 2017 presidential elections, winning the county in both the first and second rounds.

Mr. Weleteh said the most frustrating thing is that former Senator Henry Yallah who contested on the CDC ticket during the 2020 special Senatorial election and lost is yet to be appointed by the government in the County.

The citizens said they will not support President George Weah’s re-election bid if he fails to appoint a native of the county as a cabinet minister ahead of the 2023 general and presidential elections.

The Bong County citizens who hugely supported the CDC in the 2017 elections believe it is “unthinkingly wrong” for a county with a huge population to be ignored by the Weah government.

The Kokoyah Statutory District former Superintendent alleged that the Weah-led government is being dominated by people from the South-east, a geographically irrelevant region of the Country’s population.

“The last native of Bong to have served in President Weah’s government was former Agriculture Minister Dr. Mogana Flomo, who was appointed in 2018 and got dismissed in 2019,” former Superintendent Joseph Weleteh noted.

“We will campaign against Weah and Taylor because they have ill-treated us as citizens and County who supported their election as President and Vice President of Liberia, but they have paid us with bad treatment,” Weleteh added.

The former Kokoyah Statutory District Superintendent further described the alleged act of the CDC-led government as a mockery to the citizens of Bong County.

Like Kokoyah citizens,  many Bongese especially prominent sons and daughters of the County have shared similar views about the “marginalization ” of the county in the current government despite having a vice president and a native of Bong County in Jewel Howard -Taylor.

The Kokoyah Statutory District former Superintendent made the statement in an interview with this paper on January  15, 2023, via mobile phone from the District after an en mass meeting with residents on their plan action ahead of the 2023 elections.