The adage that says “Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools and accepted by idiots” manifested itself over the weekend when individuals, believed to be haters of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah, Sr., took to social media and claimed that President George Manneh Weah has asked the Foreign Minister to resign.
Speaking to a highly placed source in the corridor of power, the Hot Pepper was informed that President Weah at no time asked Minister Kemayah to resign from his position as Foreign Minister, instead, included him, along with other top government officials, on his delegation and departed the country on Sunday, May 30, 2021 to attend an emergency ECOWAS Summit in Accra, Ghana.
The ECOWAS Summit in Accra is intended for member states to discuss a way forward for Mali amidst a takeover by the military. According to the source, Minister Kemayah’s travel with President Weah reaffirms that he still enjoys the full confidence of the President, and that the President has no intention of replacing him, lest to talk about sacking him.
“I don’t know why these rumor haulers hope to achieve… one thing I know hate has no cure; people who hate Minister Kemayah are doing more harm to their own health, if care is not taken they’re heading to self-destruction in the not-too-distance future,” the source intoned.
According to the source, “All these hates started when Minister Kemayah begun his reform agenda at the ministry, beginning with the Passport Department and placed a CCTV in the passport department to monitor the movement of all employees, thereby curtailing the scandals at that section of the ministry.
The source further explained that, in an effort to boost government’s revenue generation, the Minister in March 2021 announced the resumption of vital services which enables applicants to obtain Apostille or Letter of Authentication, Laissez Passer and Article of Incorporation. During a briefing with Foreign Ministry officials and the media in the C. Cecil Dennis Auditorium, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Kemayah declared that, effective Friday, March 26, 2021, the services in relation to obtaining Article of incorporation, Apostille and Laissez Passer would resume.
Minister Kemayah disclosed that the services were resuming after a Joint Administrative Regulation was developed and signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP).
Minister Kemayah indicated that the regulation stipulates that, for an Apostille or Letter of Authentication, applicants are to pay US$25 and Laissez Passer applicants US$10. The new Joint Administrative Regulation also attached US$5 as fees for a Corporate Blue Jacket, to be paid at any Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) booth.
In the past, the cabal at the ministry charged exorbitant fees for these services, which were paid at the ministry but not to the ministry. Minister Kemayah has put a stop to these and many other clandestine activities at the ministry, causing the cabal and their outside collaborators to spew lies in the public to malign the minister’s character.
“Minister Kemayah has closed the illegal sidewalk market at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; so we expect to see many falsehoods against him. However, what is going on can be equated to the temporary movement of a beheaded snake,” an apologist of Minister Kemayah’s reform at the ministry said.