MONROVIA – The opposition has found a target in the public schools crisis. Jefferson Tamba Koijee, Secretary General of the Congress for Democratic Change, blames Senator Abraham Darius Dillon personally. He alleges nepotism, kickbacks and the ouster of a deputy minister at the Ministry of Education. He claims Education Minister Dr. Jarso Maley Jallah is Dillon’s sister-in-law. Koijee offers no documents to support these serious charges. His statement carries no response from either official. The attack goes straight at Dillon’s anti-corruption brand. It also turns the MCSS teachers’ go-slow into partisan ammunition. Koijee’s closing dare is sharply pointed: audit the Ministry. As THE ANALYST reports, the burden of proof and reply now rests on both men.
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Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) Secretary General Jefferson Tamba Koijee has accused Senator Abraham Darius Dillon of orchestrating “a calculated, cold-blooded conspiracy against the Liberian child,” linking the senator to the crisis in public schools that has sent hundreds of government school students into the streets of Monrovia.
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In a statement titled “THE MASK IS OFF! THE DILLON DECEPTION: How One Senator’s Greed Pillaged Liberia’s Schools and Mocked Its People,” Koijee, a former Mayor of the City of Monrovia, declared that while the students demand teachers who have not shown up for more than three weeks, “one man’s fingerprints are all over the wreckage: Abraham Darius Dillon.”
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“Let the record be clear. This is not a teacher shortage. This is not a budget problem,” Koijee stated, alleging that the crisis was “orchestrated by a man who has mastered the art of screaming ‘corruption’ while stuffing his own pockets.”
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The Sister-in-Law Allegation
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The CDC Secretary General alleged that the current Minister of Education, Dr. Jarso Maley Jallah, is “Dillon’s most cherished sister-in-law.”
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According to Koijee, Dillon recommended her to President Joseph Boakai “to reverse the modicum gains within our Education Sector under his strategic objective of seeing it perished,” fast-tracked her confirmation, and made sure she got the job.
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Questioning her qualifications, Koijee claimed that the Minister had been out of the country for many years and had “zero experience,” “zero connections with the people on the ground,” and “no practical experience of the Liberian education system.” “But Dillon didn’t care. Because this was never about education. This was about access. This was about kickbacks. This was about control,” he stated.
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Koijee further asserted that Dillon confirmed her through the Liberian Senate on February 6, 2024, and then, “in a move that reeked of negotiated kickbacks,” increased the Ministry of Education’s budget to US$136.3 million (L$24.86 billion).
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Asking what that money has produced, the former Monrovia Mayor answered: “Absolutely zero impact on the system. No teachers. No learning. No results. Just a bigger budget for a minister who had no business being there and a rogue senator waiting for his cut.”
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Ouster of Dr. Samuel Toe
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Koijee alleged that, “to make this corrupt act succeed,” Dillon had to remove the one man who could have stood in the way: Dr. Samuel G. Toe, appointed on April 3, 2024, as Deputy Minister for Planning, Research, and Development at the Ministry of Education.
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He described Toe as “a stumbling block,” a man “with real experience, real connections, and real knowledge of the Liberian education system.”
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“His sister-in-law saw him as a threat. Dillon saw him as an obstacle. So they chased him out,” Koijee charged. “A qualified man. A competent man. A man who could have helped Liberia’s children. Gone because he stood in the way of a family business,” he added.
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Business Class Versus Street Protests
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The CDC Secretary General also accused the senator of “lavishly flying business class while poor students are on the streets of Monrovia demanding just pay for their teachers.” Koijee further claimed that struggling market women, whom he described as “the backbone of Liberia’s informal economy,” are being insulted by Dillon as “lazy Liberian people.”
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According to Koijee, the plight of health workers, “the same health workers whose protests the Civil Service Agency claimed had ‘significantly declined,’” no longer seems to matter to “a man who has become so arrogant and intoxicated with power that he can no longer see the people he claims to serve.” “The economy is no longer in the toilet — for Dillon,” he stated.
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Koijee contrasted this with the students of D. Tweh Memorial High School on Bushrod Island, W. V. S. Tubman High School, G. W. Gibson Senior High School, and E. Johnathan Goodridge in Barnesville, “where Dillon currently resides,” as well as other Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS) schools.
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He also cited students of Bassa High in Grand Bassa County, Sinoe High in Sinoe County, Harbel Multilateral in Margibi County, Gboveh High School in Bong County, and C. H. Dewey High School in Bomi County, declaring that for them, “the toilet is exactly where their education has been flushed.”
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Allegation of Nimba Hostility
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Koijee accused Dillon of “constant, express hatred for the resilience of Nimba County.” He claimed that a few months ago, the senator demonstrated it against the current Minister of Labor, “trying to turn the people against a son of Nimba.”
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The CDC Secretary General further alleged that Dillon did it again to the late Senator Prince Y. Johnson, “publicly launching a stinging attack, describing the fallen hero of Nimba County as a mass murderer and calling for the establishment of a war crimes court against him.” According to Koijee, since Johnson’s “untimely death,” Dillon has gone completely silent on the matter.
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Koijee described it as “a deliberate attempt to discredit one of the greatest and finest sons of Nimba County,” which “was successfully executed while Dillon walks in a mammoth celebration today.” “Let peace be to his blessed memory,” he stated.
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“But Dillon’s hatred is contagious. And today, the Ministry of Education has collapsed under overwhelming corruption — and Dillon is yet to call out his sister-in-law,” Koijee charged. “This is a broad-day conspiracy. This is a total hatred against the people of Nimba. This is a betrayal of every Liberian child,” he added.
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Koijee’s Verdict and Audit Challenge
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Concluding, Koijee asserted that Dillon “has become the very thing he claimed to fight.” He described the senator as a sophist who “screams ‘corruption’ while manufacturing kickbacks,” “cries ‘accountability’ while protecting his family,” “preaches ‘justice’ while destroying the innocent,” and “claims to love the people while insulting market women, abandoning students, and waging war on Nimba.”
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The CDC Secretary General blamed the student protests in Monrovia on what he called Senator Dillon’s gross insensitivity to their plight, and attributed the teachers’ go-slow in “the poor people’s children’s schools” to the senator’s “conspicuous silence.” Koijee further claimed that Dr. Samuel G. Toe “is out of a job because of Senator Dillon” and that “the Ministry of Education is a shell of corruption because of Dillon.”
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According to Koijee, the people of Nimba, “a county that has given so much to Liberia,” are being “systematically discredited and disrespected by a man who has never built anything, never taught anyone, and never served anyone but himself.” In view of these claims, he challenged “the sophist in Senator Dillon” to call for an independent audit of the Ministry of Education under “his most cherished sister-in-law,” Minister Jallah.
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Koijee charged that Dillon, “in his wanton pretenses to deceive the impoverished Liberian masses,” and whom he described as “the purported light,” has never even called for a hearing by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives or the Liberian Senate, or a joint hearing, on the Ministry of Education, as he has been pretending to do in the cases of other Ministries, Agencies and Commissions (MACs) of government.
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“I defy Dillon, the sophist, to ever do,” the CDC Secretary General declared.
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