Foreign
By Anthony Isibor
THE founder of The Movement for One Liberia, MacDella Mackie Cooper, has alleged that Liberian politicians under the administration of President George Weah have destroyed the country’s public schools and hospitals.
Cooper told Realnews in an exclusive interview that Liberian politicians did this by converting the funds meant for these institutions to establish their own private schools and hospitals which is the reason for the poor standards of education and healthcare services in Liberia.
According to her, it is the poor and less privileged people who cannot afford the services of the private schools and hospitals in Liberia.
She also blamed the destruction of Liberian institutions on lack of leadership direction of President Weah’s administration
“When you have a leadership that doesn’t have a national agenda or doesn’t understand its problem to create an agenda, the leadership takes the resources and leaves the agencies of government strangulated for resources and cannot provide the services they are supposed to provide for the local people. So it is the foreigners, including the so-called elites who come from abroad, the Liberians who come from abroad can afford the private schools.
She explained that the current established structure is only building institutions for everybody else but Liberians.
“Any foreigner in Liberia can go to a decent hospital, every foreigner has access to a decent residence, access to decent healthcare system. Although they pay for it or the embassies pay for it, or their countries pay for it, but they have access to the most decent accommodations and Liberians are still struggling to put one meal on the table per day for their families and themselves, or either to educate their own children.
“The private school education system works, but it works for the families and the children of those families who have access to resources, capital and money.
“Liberia is a small country of 5 million people and you have 20% to 10% who are the returnee from the Diaspora, guests or workers from other countries, they can afford the best of the best healthcare, education, housing, nutrition, etc. but then you look at the arrangement of the masses, government cannot even afford to give $10 million to the education sector.
“It just depends on how much your families can afford. If your family can afford to pay for private school, the private school education is much better, but the masses go to the public schools supported by the government and that’s where we have a problem with the education sector.
“Most Liberians cannot afford education. Education is not a privilege, it is a human rights.
“And so the ministry of education cannot afford to pay teachers salary so they have to take volunteer teachers and so it becomes a ripple effect. You have a person who didn’t even get to the eighth grade volunteering in a school where they have access to teach in the 12 grades and so you have these young people, the blind leading the blind in the education sector.
The former presidential candidate of The Movement for One Liberia, MOL, in the 2017 election, a foremost philanthropist, and women rights advocate also expressed confidence that only Joseph Boakai has the sincerity and the will to unite Liberia by setting a national agenda that will drive development.
According to her, good and visionary leadership are critical in taking the country back on the right track. “If your leadership points for you as a nation, you will have access to the best, but when you do have a leadership who is just there to enrich himself and doesn’t understand weather we don’t have a national mandate or a national identity. But if a leader tries to forge one under their agenda; the leadership agenda, they will fight for the best for the nation.
“Look at what Paul Kagame is doing in Rwanda. After the war in his country, you know, you have these one group fighting against the other one for dominance in the nation and he says, let’s erase the dominance factor and let’s build a nation that works for every citizen of this country. And so he started towards the national agenda to get proper education for the citizens of Rwanda.
“He started to get representation for all people, especially inclusive of women leadership in parliament, he started on the agenda towards what he feels will be helpful in 20 to 30 years for the next generation. And so he had a vote on iron fist down to establish the trip and will help towards that agenda,” she said.
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-September. 1, 2023 @ 17:28 GMT |
Tags: Anthony Isibor MacDella Mackie Cooper President George Weah The Movement for One Liberia
