Ramsey N Singbeh Jr
director@news.throngtalk.com
+231772641146 / 880147358
Two Members of the Margibi County Legislative Caucus including the county’s electoral district number two representative, Ivar Kokulo Jones and Senator Nathaniel Falo McGill have with immediate effect rejected in their responses a clarion call made by the Margibi County Coordinator of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, Friday Edwin Cruiser that two of the county’s electoral seats be exclusively set aside for women’s contestation only during the elections.
Friday Made the recommendation at the Kakaka Philadelphia Church on Saturday April 26, 2025 when he made remark on behalf of the council during the induction ceremony of Margibi Women Alliance for Peace and Development or MARWAPD.
The program which was also attended by Senators James Emmanuel Nuquay and Nathaniel Falo McGill of Margibi, The Margibi County Legislative Caucus Chair, Ivar Kokulo Jones and his wife, Special assistance( Amara F. Mammy) to the county’s electoral district 5 lawmaker, Clarence G Gahr, former Senator David Mentongar, the Margibi County Superintendent, Victoria Wolobah Duncan, other politicians, business people and a lot of different people saw the women being inducted by the wife McGill, Mrs. Vivian McGill who also attended the program.
In the presence of the lawmakers, Mr. Cruiser said: “We get five districts, senators, honorable, can we give two to our women and say each time we having elections? We get two districts given to them and they can go there, whatever happens that’s it so when we start, that gender parity bill ever since that died, people can learn from Margibi County.”
He mentioned that he was also encouraged by the two senators at the program who spoke and emphasized the need for support and partnership with the women in the county. Henceforth, Senator Nuquay, earlier before Friday’s comment, in his keynote address at the program, he championed the cost for women’s leadership.
By the remarks from the senators, the Civil Society man thinks Margibi should set an example for other counties to follow.
According to him, he went to observe the election in Sierra Leone and saw that the country has risen from 14.5 percent women representation in parliament to 30.4 in their last election in 2023.
That, he added was possible when the parliament resolved to give specific districts for only women’s representations and the others were contested for by both men and women.
This recommendation seems not to have landed well in the ears of Representative Jones and Senator McGill so they gave opposing responses.
Nathaniel Falo McGill, a for minister of state for presidential affairs under Ex-president George Manneh Weah stated that Liberia’s Constitution does not say so, therefore; everyone has to fight for himself or herself.
He was answering an inquiry about what his thought is regarding the recommendation and he explained: “That is difficult because Liberia Constitution does not provide for that, everybody got to fight for themselves.”
He further noted that what he can assure anyone of is that they are having conversation about increasing the seats of counties from the census report so it is possible that Margibi could get additional two seats which will give opportunity for more citizens of the county to compete for the seats.
He emphasized that there are guidelines set within the constitution of the Republic of Liberia guiding everyone’s participation into political contestations for various positions such as representative, senator or president.
The lawmaker continued that the constitution clearly gave the age range that must be attained by an individual before vying for the positions of representative, senator or president including 25 year or above, 30 years or above and 35 years or above and must be a Liberian.
In addition, Jones explained that to the best of his knowledge, the Margibi Women Alliance for Peace and Development (MARWAPD) is a non-political organization that is meant to united the women of the county to foster peace and development in Margibi and Liberia at large, and must not be politicized by anyone.
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