Barely a day after the Fula community, through their governor, condemned Mary T. Broh for questioning their allegiance to Liberia and demanded that she retracts her statement and apologizes, the Director of the General Service Agency (GSA) and Co-Chair on the Anti-Power Theft Taskforce has registered her unreserved apology to the Fula community, underscoring that “it was not intended to cast aspersions on our Fula Community or to question their patriotism”.
In her statement of apology, Broh said, “I have been made aware of the public reaction that has ensued in the aftermath of an interaction I had earlier this week with a member of the Fula community in Monrovia. As co-chair of a newly formed anti-power theft taskforce, which was established by the Liberian Electricity Corporation, I have visited dozens of neighborhoods, as my team and I implement a mandate of disconnecting illegal connections. We also ensure offenders are penalized.
“While undertaking this exercise on Thursday, we came across a third party connection involving a young lady. In the heat of the verbal exchange that followed, I made comments that in hindsight should not have been said. For this, I offer my unreserved apology.”
According to Broh, “It was not intended to cast aspersions on our Fula Community or to question their patriotism. We all love Liberia and are striving to develop our country for the common good.
“Finally, I want to make it emphatically clear, however, that I habor no prejudice against anybody or group of people. My ties cut across various sectors of the Liberian society. So anybody attempting to create that impression would be misjudging me.”
Broh registered her apology on Sunday, November 13, 2022—a day after the Fula community termed her statement counter-productive to the unification of the citizenry.
In their statement of condemnation, read by Fatumata J. Barry, the Fula community said, “We, the Fula Community in Liberia, through the Office of our National Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Bailo Sow, condemn the recent tribal and discriminatory statement emanating from the Director of the General Services Agency (GSA), now Chairperson of the Presidential Taskforce on Power Theft, Mary T. Broh, insinuating that the Fulanis do not owe allegiance to Liberia.
“Broh also claimed that we are not contributing anything to the Republic of Liberia, but instead taking our money to Guinea, Mauritania and Mali to invest.”
The Fula community said, “We see these statements as not only false and counter-productive to the unification of the citizenry, but also an affront to our entire community, for which we demand an immediate retraction and apology from her.
“It is an open secret that we are contributing immensely to the infrastructure development of our country, Liberia, arguably more than any other single tribe in the country. It is unfortunate that a stateswoman, like Mary Broh, would choose to question our allegiance to Mama Liberia—a country that our forefathers migrated to even before 1847. Per the statistics of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), Fulanis are the highest contributors in the small tax division, which is performing much more than the medium and large tax divisions.”
The Fulani’s statement underscored, “Let it be made categorically and emphatically clear that Broh is no citizen more than any one of us—we were born here, schooled here and contributing our quota to the Motherland to the best of our ability. With this, we even wonder whether Broh has any biological child residing in Liberia or any physical investment to show, or is she only awaiting our tax monies to be paid.
“In as much as we recognize her effort in the fight against power theft, it should in no way be a conduit to launch a discriminatory attack on our tribe. Therefore, we demand that Mary Broh unconditionally retract her irresponsible statement and register her unreserved apology, or risk the necessary actions.”