MONROVIA: The issue of imbalance in opportunities between regions in Liberia was once again highlighted over the weekend when Representative Marie J. Johnson of District # 2, Grand Gedeh County stated that the conditions women and girls are subjected to in the southeastern part of the country are appalling and call for urgent attention on the government to reverse the trend, else their situation could worsen in the near future.
Representative Johnson made the assertion over the weekend when she addressed newsmen at her office upon the resumption of the national legislature from its short break. She said unlike other regions, apparently closer to Monrovia, the seat of power, the Southeast is almost like a neglected region where social amenities are nearly absent, plunging the people especially women and girls into untold human suffering and misery.
“People may contribute this imbalance to the war but we need to also ask why the other regions have been able to recover faster than we in the Southeast? This seems to be a deliberate thing because I cannot find why all the efforts to recover and rehabilitate the country seem to be against other initiatives in the Southeast.
“Compare women who own businesses in other regions with women in the Southeast? How many women own businesses as little as shops in the Southeast today when you look at other regions? How many girls are in schools today in the Southeast as compared to girls in other regions? The worst scenario is to compare the ratio of those who reach high school level and are able to graduate between the Southeast and other region”, Representative Johnson said.
Madam Johnson who is the only female lawmaker from the entire Southeast lamented that besides the “almost no concern shown by successive governments against the women and girls in the Southeast”, the low level of location of projects by development partners and negligence being exhibited by NGO community are worrisome and wondered what has been attracting them to other regions that the Southeast does not have.
“How often do you see them going to the Southeast to help our people? How often do you see our girls are being encouraged with scholarships and incentives to stay in schools and graduate? How many times have you seen our women receiving soft loans or some empowerment initiatives to start up a business? You and I can attest to the fact that women and girls in the other regions normally have these opportunities at their fingertips and we get none.
“Maybe one could call it donor’s choice but for how long will their choice be against our people? The conditions in the Southeast are the worst that should be able to attract people who want to serve humanity but we are seeing none or less of this”, the tough talking lawmaker said.
Representative Johnson who braved the storm against male domination of politics in Grand Gedeh County and by extension the entire Southeast to emerge victorious in the 2023 general election, said she will definitely take up the issue for the women and girls of the Southeast with her colleagues at the national legislature very soon to compel the relevant institutions of government to take the corrective steps to reverse the downward trend against the region so that the women and girls will have equal and similar opportunities with their counterparts in other regions.
“Definitely we are going to speak on the issues and we will make our points known that the trend must be reversed. You cannot take other parts of the country important and leave the other behind; this is against the constitution that guarantees equal opportunities for everyone and as a government we must take the corrective measures to bring everybody at par”, Representative Johnson said.
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