Our budget must reflect our priorities

Youth and Sports Minister,Lenn Eugene Nagbe, has warned officials of Government here responsible for drafting the country’s national budget to make sure the budget reflects major priorities otherwise it would just become a miss schedule.

Delivering a keynote address recently in the auditorium of a newly constructed high school yet to be named in Weala,Margibi County, he said: “Our budget must reflect our priorities otherwise it is just a miss schedule. We just talk and talk; we’re having this conference; we discuss, we finding the solution; we analyze then what next? We have to spend the money to change it. Where is the money for your modern science laboratory here; it is just talk. Where is the money to open a school in the village that will have full electricity, it is just talk.

The Minister indicated that unless national priorities are reflected in the way money is spent, the “situation will always remain the same.” He spoke at an occasion organized by the Stanford Bridge Intellectual Forum in collaboration with the National Youth Movement of Liberia or NAYMOTE, to discuss the Constitution of Liberia.

Among officials of Government in attendance were MargibiSenator, Oscar A. Cooper, MinisterNagbe, local authorities, a team from NAYMOTE headed by Country Director, Eddie Jarwolo, and the Head of the National Elections Commission or NEC Civic Voters Education, among others.

The Minster further wonders how much is embedded within the budget for schools in rural Liberia and vocational training. “We access; we analyze, but it’s all because of the paralysis of analysis”. According to him, if Liberians don’t spend their money where they put their mouth; they will never be helping to solve any situation in the country.

By Ramsey N. Singbeh, Jr. in Margibi – Edited by Jonathan Browne