Gbarnga, Bong County- Citizens of Bong County have for months been in a visible uproar with members of the Liberia Chinese construction company over the slow pace of the construction at the Gboveh Technical College.

The youths’ displeasure came just two months after the county leadership confirmed dishing out USD 800,000 to the company as part of the USD 7.9 million earmarked for the construction.

Now the focus of their frustration has switched to members of the Bong Legislative caucus.

In the hours since news broke of an additional USD 500,000 allotment for the College—which will be extracted from the county social development fund—citizens of Bong, mainly youths, clamored at the Gbarnga Administration building, scene of the Saturday’s county development sitting, to reveal the scale of their discontentment.

Armed with placards bearing several inscriptions, the youths spoke of their dismay at which funds of the county had being mismanaged by previous leaders as shown by the GAC and yet no efforts has been exerted to right the wrong despite the emergence of a new breed of lawmakers comprising their peers.

David Fehkpolleh, a student of Cuttington University, laments: “Our lawmakers are using funds from our resources to benefit themselves. Since 2009 Bong County has received a little over 7 million. There is a less impact being made than hoped.”

The ensuing belief among aggrieved citizens is that the caucus has not done enough in pressurizing the company despite infusing thousands of dollars in a project  they have long craved for its completions—a claim that has since been refuted by Rep. George Mulbah, chairman of the Bong Legislative Caucus.

Rep. Mulbah said: “If anyone says that the caucus has not done well in making sure that the college is constructed in the stipulated time then that person will be doing a disservice to our efforts.”

Also, the common theme among youths as expressed by Jessie Cole, the Regional Coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commissioner (JPC), is that a few lawmakers have reduced the county to the status of their own where pivotal decisions in the interest of the vast majority of are being single-handedly decided.

“If Bong County want to progress, it is about time now we put our personal egos aside and advance mechanisms in the interest of everyone rather than one person unilaterally making decisions in the interest of the masses.”

Cole sounded the caveat that gone are those years when youths sat as backbenchers only to allow politicians selfishly cash in on funds intended for the greater population.

“We have sat for long with the hope that our leaders would have done well with our funds but to our dismay it has resulted to be contrary,” he added.

‘Youthful’ lawmakers criticized by peers

A strange feeling must have greeted Rep. Edward Karfiah (District # 5 Bong County) and Senator Henry Yallah when both were jeered by those they once formed partnership as civil society actors while making their entries into the Gbarnga Administrative building for the second phase of the county sitting on Saturday.

The pair rose to prominence in the aftermath of their historic protest against former Bong County police commander Isaac Railey over the shooting death of a student at the St. Peter’s Episcopal High School a few years ago.

When it was revealed that Karfiah, Yallah and Moye had emerged as Representatives and senator, the impressions that accompanied the results were that Bong had come to the point of breaking the development odds that had dogged the county for years.

But Saturday’s alarmingly comprehensive sit-in action against an act Yallah, Karfiah and Moye may have endorsed somewhat proves to be the end of a dynasty previously built by their integrity.

It also seemed to produce an evidence of a false dawn rather than what the people of Bong had envisioned.

The youths’ actions were indicative of how their youthful counterparts (lawmakers) performed during the first sitting. Of all the humanitarian messages preached during their days as civil society campaigners, some youths in Gbarnga said it was saddened to note their colleagues have failed to conform to the tenets of good governance which seeks the welfare of the citizenry.

The youths cited the endorsements by Yallah, Karfiah and Moye for the allotment of USD 7,500 as county assessment package as an unhealthy start for people who condemned such a practice before.

Fehkpolleh told a cheerful gathering of protesters: “It is saddened to notice that our peers in the national legislature from Bong County have gone on the contrary to what they once preached were ills of the society.”