By Washington Tumay Watson
Liberia-As head of the African Development Bank in Uganda, Augustine Ngafuan had a smooth ride performing his duties, not encountering threats of protest.
But in his new role as Finance and Development Planning Minister of Liberia, he has fallen inside a big hole of tension, facing tone of challenges evidenced by a massive protest staged in front of the Finance Ministry by Temporary Employment for Community Youth (TECY) in demand of 13th-month arrears.
They are group of Liberians, young and old people, recruited by the new administration to clean the city of Monrovia and its environs of clumsy dirt in the infant stage before and after the inauguration.
Early Monday morning, the placards-carrying protesters beseeched part of Broad Street, outside the Finance Ministry, impeding movements of pedestrians and vehicles, leaving the Police to redirect vehicles to Gibson Street and other passable areas in order to ease traffic congestions.
The protesters insisted they would not move until the government, through the Ministry of Finance, addresses their concerns and demands, and Minister Ngafuan had no other choice but to come down from his 10th floor office to find solution to the problem he did not create.
They informed the Finance Minister during a meeting that the government contracted them to clean the streets in February 2022.
Based on the information available to him, Minister Ngafuan disclosed that they have constituted a three-party working committee comprising the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Finance Development Planning, and the Temporary Employment for Community Youth tasked with the responsibility to formulate the payment plan.
“The government will pay those arrears alongside the regular payment until such arrears are completed,” he assured the protesters, adding that “the government’s budget is less than the debts owed its contractors and other vendors.
The minister attempted to meander into the blame politics, telling the angry protesters dominated by women that the Unity Party-led government inherited huge arrears in 2006 during the administration of ex-president Ellen Johnson Sir leaf, adding that the government was able to pay to relieve the stress.
He said the same thing is with this new administration when it comes to debt inheritance, but assured them that the issue will be addressed per the National budget.
Minister Ngarfuan appealed to the protestors to trust their leaders who were designated to work with the committee in addressing the situation and suspend their protest by going back to their homes as the government worked out modalities to pay their arrears.
It is not the first time the government is dealing with protests since assuming leadership in January of this year.
