By Anthony Q. Jiffan, Jr.
Montserrado County Senator, Abraham Darius Dillon has called on the Liberian government to leave politics out of the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic. Senator’s called was in reference to the recruitment of unskilled expertise to do contact tracing for the government.
The Montserrado County lawmaker questioned the recent recruitment of about 6,000 volunteers carried out by the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) to conduct contact tracing during the fight against the coronavirus disease in Liberia.
Appearing on the Sky FM’s 50-50 Radio Talkshow in Monrovia on Monday, April 13, 2020, Senator Dillon said there were about 2,000 health workers trained with state resources to do similar job during the Ebola Virus epidemic by government, and expressed belief that those very people would have done better when given the opportunity based on their experience from Ebola.
Senator Dillon wondered, “Where are the 2,000 health workers that were trained during the Ebola crisis for this very contact tracing; why is MCC recruiting new people – is it because of partisanship?”
The Senator asserted that the health workers used during the Ebola crisis are Liberians, who deserve to be given the opportunity to render their services to the country, regardless of political affiliations; and that they don’t have to be praise-singers to President George Weah or the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) before they are given the job for which they were trained by using state resources.
The Liberty Party Stewart believed that those Liberians were left out of the process simply because they are not members of the George Weah Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), or are not dancing to the tune of the President.
“Whether the people like it or not, we have about 2,000 health workers trained during the Ebola outbreak; you cannot ignore or put aside their expertise because of partisanship.”
Dillon said the notion that one must be a partisan of the CDC before getting a job, even during crisis, this must stop,” He averred, adding that the action of national government to have left out those trained health practitioners understand the issues of health and how to do contact tracing when there is an outbreak of such, is political and does not mean well for the people of Liberia.
The Montserrado County Senator furthered that in times of national emergency such as this major health crisis where the Coronavirus pandemic is taking over the World, its fight must be void of politics and personal interest, but should engender professional or trained expertise as the best ways possible to help everyone.
The Senator Dillon however said he will not allow those he described as Jefferson Koijee political contact tracers in his Barnesville resident and at the same time called on his followers to do likewise, noting that the MCC recruits lack the knowledge and expertise to do such job without breaking the health protocols.
Dillon is therefore calling on the Liberian leader and his government to consider trained health practitioners in executing such task, and do away with politics as it is not helpful in these critical times of the country’s history when it is faced with the challenge to contain the spread of the COVID-19.