Africa-Press – Liberia. Ahead of October 10 elections, Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe, of the opposition Liberia People’s Party (LPP), has promised to improve the country’s literacy rate.
“For those who have not been in school and can’t read and write, in two years, when I become President, I will make a government to make everybody in Liberia know how to read and write,” Gongloe said, while in Grand Cape Mount County to encourage people in that part of the country to register to vote ahead of the October polls.
“I will give stipends to junior high students, high school students, and college students in order for them to teach people in their communities to learn how to read and write.”
Gongloe, who since announcing his presidential bid has been casting him as a man on a mission to rescue Liberia did not provide the cost for such progressive ideas, considering that Liberia is heavily aid dependent.
However, he defended his ideal saying that a world without education indicates that one is not living a proper life.
Food security
As a means to alleviate food shortage, mainly rice supply in the country, Gongloe promised that decisive actions will be taken that will ensure the country is food secured.
To the lawyer, a war on hunger needs to be launched and the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) will have to get involved in that combat to help save the country from hunger.
He said personnel of the AFL have been receiving pay since 1908 and continue to receive salaries even now but have fought no war in the interest of the country.
“We will find a war for the Army to fight. I will declare war against hunger, reliant on the Army and I will order the Chief of Staff to wage war against hunger instead of buying them guns that can kill human beings,” Gongloe declared.
The lawyer indicated that Liberia’s expense of hundreds of millions of United States Dollars to import rice is unnecessary and, as such, if elected President, his administration will purchase enough machinery for farming.
He said India, China, America, and all other countries that are food sufficient do not use cutlasses and hoes but modern machines that can bring about mass production.
“Government under my administration will buy machines — caterpillar, tractors, compound harvesters — all the machines we need to make rice farms and give them to the farmers in the fifteen counties through farmers’ cooperatives as a credit, which farmers will pay within 15 years by supplying the government with bags of rice every year. I believe that when we have machines in the 15 counties, they will be able to make big farms just like Sime Darby,” he emphasized.
Gongloe noted that Liberia has rich soil and there is a possibility of producing rice at the same spot in three or four separate periods in a year without the need for fertilizer, adding that the price of rice will drop and people from all across the country will afford it without any cause to worry.
Meanwhile, Gongloe also added that under his administration, all government clinics and hospitals will be equipped so that people will not have to take prescriptions to private pharmacies and healthcare centers for solutions to their health problems.
According to him, governance is about service to the people, not to the President and all others who are hired to serve the public.
“Government is a place to serve, not to steal. Most people are saying, but Cllr. Gongloe government hospitals and clinics have nothing and people are given prescriptions to go to drugstores and get drugs.”
“I have told them that government clinics and hospitals will be better. As president I will pay surprise visits to clinics and hospitals. I will say I came for a medical checkup. When they say Mr. President, this place is not good and we can’t check you up, I will dismiss the head of that clinic or hospital and send that person for investigation and prosecution to account for what has happened to the drugs and the equipment government put in the hospitals and clinics,” Gongloe assured.
He disclosed that when a number of leaders in the health sector are apprehended and prosecuted on account of corruption, many others across the country will be mindful and carefully manage all public resources at their disposal.
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