Editorial: Voinjama 2012: Another Government’s Unfinished Business?

The Government of Liberia, will on Saturday, December 22, 2012, break ground for the pavement of 2.56 kilometer stretch of streets in the City of Voinjama in Lofa County. The Vice President of Liberia, Dr. Joseph N. Boakai is expected to lead an array of senior government officials to perform the ground-breaking ceremony. Saturday’s Voinjama ceremony will add on to a list of similar events yet to get on course throughout the country.

How soon will the actual pavement of Voinjama’s Streets begin remains the puzzling issue of concern of many Liberians who continue to follow the government’s numerous “ground-breaking” ceremonies in Monrovia and its environs. While the administration may be engage with other minor infrastructural activities, It is also no secret that major construction projects, including rehabilitation or pavement of major roads ear-marked by the government during 2012 continue to either undergo delays or be at bay without any update as to causes.

Examples of such major projects are the Somalia Drive, Monrovia-Gbarnga High way, Gbarnga-Ganta Highway, ELWA-Rock Hill Stretch linking GSA Road, feasibility work for the Gbarnga Mennekormah Highway, as well as Ministerial Complex, among others. Like the huge publicity currently being received by the Voinjama Street project under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Works, the foregoing unfinished business similar motivating publicity with Minister Samuel Kofi Woods at the center of such media flamboyant campaign.

We are of the fervent belief that ‘breaking ground and engaging in such huge publicity’ entails the government’s readiness to practically implement national projects announced to the people of Liberia, and should there be progress or challenges in the process, the people must again be informed so as to discourage and disabuse their minds of  misconceptions and negative perceptions.

For the Ministry of Public Works to remain conspicuously delinquent in providing I information on the status of these projects, it is not only undermining to the administration itself, but a complete disservice to the very people for which these infrastructure developments are intended. With the year 2012 just about to diminish, it is now a conclusive fact that the Government of Liberia may be entering the New Year not even with these progressive infrastructure projects, but a complete unfinished business.

Unless we the people of Liberia are told the status of the Somalia Drive, Monrovia-Gbarnga highway, Gbarnga-Ganta Highway, Gbarnga-Mennekormah Project, as well as ELWA-Rock Hill Project linking GSA Road, Ministerial Complex, among others, we will continue to hold onto the belief that what the government did about these projects were just mere publicity spree to unnecessarily raise our hope.

Be that as it may and as the new year progressively approaches, it is our continuous prayer that the Government of Liberia, represented by the Ministry of Public Works, will rise beyond the flamboyant and huge publicity to primarily focus on the practical aspect of its dream to make our country better using all of the international opportunities available.

And with the ongoing publicity on the Voinjama Street Project concluding its 2012 media campaign, we can only hope that the project, this time, will serve as a stimulus for the Ministry of  Public Works to begin to make practical its ‘words’ on these national projects at the beginning of the year 2013. In the same token, the Government must be hailed for ongoing minor projects such as the reconstruction of the SKD Boulevard, rehabilitation of the capitol Bye-pass, as well as the Duport-AB Tolbert Road project, among others.

As we conclude the year 2012, we, at the New Dawn-Liberia, wish for the President of Liberia, the Speaker and 53rd Liberian Legislature, Acting Chief Justice and Members of the Judiciary, the people of Liberia and our own Fourth estate-the Liberian Media, Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year with the ardent belief that the Almighty God guides and inspires us all to regard Liberia the land of our nativity. May He speak to our ‘hearts’ love and unity among us against all vices as the only path to our country’s socio-economic and political development and progress.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!!