Amidst blame-shifting among government officials spearheading the bicentennial celebrations, media executives have renewed their call to the Chairman of the Bicentennial, Ledgerhood Rennie, to pay what is duly owed them for publishing activities of the 200th year celebration in their daily newspapers.
On Monday, February 14, 2022, the National Steering Committee of the Liberia 2022 Bicentennial, headed by the Minister of Information, Ledgerhood Rennie, held the grand national launch of the bicentennial celebration at the Providence Island, under the theme, “Liberia: The Land of the Return”. However, the grand launch was preceded by several programs, including the dedication of the Duala Market, thanksgiving services at the mosque and church and the Spiritual Dedication of the Executive Mansion.
During the dedication of the Executive Mansion on Sunday, February 13, 2022—a day before the Bicentennial grand launch—publishers of newspapers were invited by the then Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel McGill, the then Solicitor General, Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus, and the Bicentennial Chairman, Ledgerhood Rennie, to discuss matters relating to covering the entire bicentennial events and concluding on the financial terms.
Six publishers attended the meeting: Philipbert Browne, Hot Pepper; Stanley Seakor, The Analyst; Othello Garblah, New Dawn; Mohammed Kanneh, Heritage; Sam O. Dean, Independent; and Alphonso Toweh, New Republic.
At the meeting, the Steering Committee of the Bicentennial Celebration requested that the publishers cover all the programs, publish a front-page banner story and pictorials for each of the events. In return, the media executives requested that the committee pays them US$150,000 (one hundred fifty thousand United States dollars) to settle their printing cost and their newsrooms. However, Chairman Rennie disclosed that his committee did not have such an amount in coffers.
They later agreed that the papers would publish the bicentennial activities on the front pages for one week (Monday—Friday) with colored pictorials on their center-spread. For this the committee agreed to pay each paper US$11,000 (eleven thousand United States dollars) at the end of the one-week production, totaling US$66,000 (sixty-six thousand United States dollars) for the six papers.
The publishers pre-financed the publications, and afterward submitted their bills to Chairman Rennie, who then submitted them to the Minister of Finance, Samuel Tweah. However, since February the government is yet to pay the papers their entitlement.
The media executives pursued the payment of their bills, but to a dead end. Each time Minister Tweah is contacted, he promises to handle the payments but fails to live up to his words. The publishers then contacted McGill, who informed them that the Bicentennial account has been frozen because there were observations that the account was being mismanaged by the Steering Committee, headed by Minister Rennie.
When Chairman Rennie was contacted, he argued that he was not the one who instructed the media to do the publications, referring the publishers to Minister McGill. He claimed that when the media made the request, he emphatically told them that his committee did not have money in its account for such activity, and advised them against Cephas/McGill’s personal arrangement.
From the look of things, it appears like the government is either vehemently refusing to live up to its commitment with the press or the Bicentennial Steering Committee has chopped the funds, as was recently disclosed by former Deputy Information Minister, Eugene Fahngon, on one of his live podcasts.
Fahngon has insinuated that the press was fooled into doing huge public relations for the government during the bicentennial program only for the Chairman of the Steering Committee and his team to siphon the funds allocated to pay them.
But the publishers have reiterated that they will exercise calm and pursue their entitlement.