By Varney Kamara
GREENVILLE, Sinoe County – Results from a random survey conducted by Media United for Peace and Development (MUPD), a local not-for-profit organization which conducts regular assessment on the performance of Liberian legislators, revealed Representative Crayton O. Duncan as the most influential lawmaker of Sinoe County.
From a list of 1,500 people interviewed representing youths, women, students, Christian and Muslim leaders in Sinoe County, including the elderly, a majority of the survey’s respondents named Representative Duncan as the lawmaker that is most connected to the people of Sinoe, according to the result of the random performance assessment published in October this year.
During the view sampling exercise, Sinoe County citizens were asked: who is your lawmaker of Sinoe County and why? In their response, 70 percent of the interviewees named legislator Duncan as their man, with 20 percent of the respondents expressing neutrality, while another 10 percent declined to name anyone. A bulk of the respondents who spoke positively also named the southeastern legislator as Sinoe County lawmaker of the year 2022.
“Our assessment showed that Representative Duncan has touched the lives of people of Sinoe in nearly all the districts in the county,” said Mike Davies, Project Lead of the survey. “The outcome of our investigation revealed that the lawmaker gained enormous admiration from the Sinoe people based on his numerous interventions in education, health, infrastructure, women and youth empowerment programs,” Davies intimated.
From January 2018 to December 2022, Representative Duncan has carried out major investments in these areas, the survey illustrated. His development trademarks are visible in almost all parts of Sinoe County including Greenville, Butaw, Tartweh, Jacksonville, Seebeh, Compound, Morrisville, Panama, Nomopo and Kabada, among others.
“On the educational front, Representative Duncan has built schools, auditoriums, modernized school libraries, as well as providing scholarships for both grade and university students,” the assessment indicated further.
“He built the only High School in Togbaville, Diyankpo which is helping to improve learning for thousands of school-going kids in that area, in addition to the building of an auditorium for the Sinoe Multilateral High School. Moreover, the lawmaker regularly pays National Exams Fees for high school students in District#1, doing this for three consecutive years, amounting to US10,200,” the survey report indicated.
The House’s Foreign Committee chairman has also purchased three 72-seater buses for students in Greenville valued at USD25, 000 each. He has secured hundreds of scholarships for students at the Sinoe Multilateral, St. Joseph Catholic School, and the Methodist High School, in addition to providing scholarship for over 20 students at the University of Liberia (UL), African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU), and the United Methodist University (UMU).
In the health sector, in March this year, Representative Duncan dedicated a modern five-bedroom clinic in the Butaw Seaside community. As benefits of his foreign travels, he also brought drugs, equipment and medical supplies for the F.J. Grante Memorial Hospital in Greenville valued at over US10, 000.
Notwithstanding his far-reaching humanitarian outreach interventions across the county, Representative Duncan’s development contributions across communities in the county have also been recognized, evidenced by his providing young men and women empowerment opportunities in Grigsby Town, Butaw, Butaw Compound, Morrisville, Panama, Seebeh, Nomopo and Kabada, the study showed.
He built eight youth centers across these communities, provided a sugarcane mill for Ceedor Township, built six hand pumps in Greenville, constructed the Butaw Radio station in Butaw, including town halls for the Fulani and Mandingo communities in Jacksonville and Greenville. Last month, he provided LD3 million loan for Rural Women Projects, and early this year, he made available another LD2 million, with rural and market women carrying LD1 million each, the report added.
In the infrastructure segment, the town of Tarsue in District#3, has benefited from log bridges under his development program, with another two more log bridges under construction in District#2. The assessment also revealed that the lawmaker has rehabilitated Sinoe Street and constructed a solid bridge that links Congo town to other parts of Greenville City.
Additionally, a transport terminal, including modern marketplaces, have been constructed in Greenville, Congo Town, Kartequekpo, while others have been rehabilitated in Po-River, Nyenfueh Town, and the General Market in Greenville.
As head of the House’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Representative Duncan also made the most out of his foreign travels, bringing in benefits both for his county and the nation in general, says the appraisal report.
Recently, Representative Duncan brought in the Sino Forest Company, which is now building a concrete bridge over the Planto River that will link Tarweh Drapo to the rest of Sinoe County. The company is also constructing a six-kilometer road that starts from the bridge to Jedepo in District#2. The Aqua Quality Better Life, another company brought into the country through the influence of Representative Duncan, is now providing quality water for over two million residents of Monrovia. These developments have added great value and admiration for the lawmaker in Sinoe County,” the appraisal report stated.
Citizens’ reactions
As a result of the survey, the MUPD paper contacted citizens in the county for their reaction. In response to our inquiries, most citizens in the County interviewed by this paper expressed happiness about the lawmaker’s undertakings.
“Crayton Duncan is my everything,” says Emmanuel Jarbo, a farmer of Togbaville. “For me and my entire family, we are under obligation to make this man our next Senator because he has proven beyond all reasonable doubts that he is the right man for this county.
“He is our lawmaker of the year. We gave him all the high marks for his immense contributions toward the development of our beloved county,” Harris Togba, a local businessman in Butaw, says to this newspaper in an interview.
Togba, like many other Sinoe County citizens, vowed to elect the lawmaker as their next Senator of the County, come 2023 legislative and Presidential elections.
“He is part of every aspect of our lives. In education, health, infrastructure, community initiatives, youth and women empowerment, Honorable Duncan has demonstrated love for us. He deserves our political favor.”
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