The City Mayor of Monrovia, Jefferson Tamba Koijee says plans are in the woods to provide twenty-five thousand (25,000) part time jobs for Liberians this Christmas as the City Government’s way of relieving citizens of some of the economic stressors that came along with the Covid-19 outbreak.
Speaking in an interview with M-News Africa, Mayor Koijee indicated that he has reached out to President George Weah to intervene into the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) desire to provide jobs for unemployed citizens who are bearing the brunt of the hit of Covid-19 on the economic despite the effort the government has made in keeping civil servants salaries constant throughout the course of the outbreak.
“We are working with the office of the President and our international partners to ensure that 25,000 young people are employed on a part-time basis to help give the City of Monrovia a facelift given the fact there would an increase in garbage during the festive season. The President did it before during the avalanche of Covid-19 when he provided US$1.2Million to pay eight thousand (8,000) young Liberians who were helping to trace cases and contacts –a move that helped the country to put the deadly disease under control in record time,” the Youthful Mayor told newsmen.
According to him, President Weah is on record for taking keen interest in interventions that would help put bread on the table of a Liberia. And so, Mayor Koijee is making this appeal to at least provide funding for this initiative since Covid-19 affected many families’ sources of income.
“So, we’re going to have at least 25,000 young people in the streets during the festive season to help keep the City clean beginning December 1, 2020. Once the President approves this proposal, these young will be in the streets cleaning Monrovia,” he intimated.
Mayor Koijee recounted the extent to which Covid-19 affected the revenue generating capacity of the City Government so much that the Monrovia City Corporation’s waste transfer stations are full due to lack of revenue to underwrite the cost of removing the garbage. The transfer stations, according to him, are temporary holding places for waste that are ready to be taken to the final disposal site. “We are talking to our international partners to see the need to come to our rescue in order for the MCC to solve these existing problems,” the Monrovia City Mayor emphasized.
In addition to the part time job, Mayor Jefferson T. Koijee disclosed that steps are being taken to establish a mobile health facility that would enable the MCC to respond to medical emergency at night especially for pregnant women who would be in labour and need help.
Commenting on the wave of mysterious deaths in the City, Major Koijee said he regrets the unfortunate situation but it should not be seen a reflection of the security lapses in Monrovia adding “the city is safe and security is intact despite the isolated incidences that have taken place in the City recently.
