Nimba County’s district #8 Representative, Larry Younquoi, has expressed disappointment in the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government for always allowing international community to tell them about their responsibility in the governance of the country. Representative Younquoi said Liberia, as a sovereign country, should not be brought low to the international community.
Representative Younquoi said he welcomed the statement issued by the international partners that Liberia stands to lose millions of United States dollars if the census is not conducted this year. According to the Nimba lawmaker, he wrote several communications to the Speaker for the Finance Minister to appear before the full plenary to inform legislators about the census process, in order to avoid such embarrassing statement coming from the international partners, but he claimed that all his communications were denied by the Speaker.
“Now the President is about to call the Legislature back to discuss a date for the conduct of the census simply because of the statement issued by the international community yesterday about the risk involved if the census is not conducted,” he disclosed. He emphasized that, if the government had attached importance to the conduct of the census and conducted it on time, the international community would not have raised an alarm over the risk involved if the census is not conducted this year. He considered the statement by the international partners as “teaching the government its own responsibility”.
As a demographer and a statistician, Representative Younquoi emphasized the importance of a census in the country. According to him, he is one person who is on record for always being on the back of the Executive for the conduct of the census. He pointed out that when they return from their legislative break, they will do everything possible to set a date for the conduct of the census before the end of this year, so that the country cannot fall in trouble with the international partners.
Commenting on the July 26 riot, the Nimba County tough-talking legislator said he condemned the incident and demand that the perpetrators be brought to book. He also expressed disappointment about the President waiting for international partners to pressure him before he issued a statement condemning the act and denouncing CDC-COP from the CDC. Representative Younquoi intoned that it took the President too long before he issued the statement on the riot, in which people were brutalized. He said it is unimaginable for young people to carry out such brutality in front of the US Embassy, which monitors the country’s activities as far as the Buutuo border.
The Alternative National Congress (ANC) lawmaker called on the President to do the right thing in governing the country. According to him, “It is always embarrassing for international partners to be telling us how to govern our country, even though we are a sovereign country.” He claimed that the President listens more to the international community, instead of the citizens of the country.