MONROVIA, Feb. 6 (LINA) – At the middle of his six-year term President George Weah’s government seems not to be messing around with respect to delivering key social deliverable promised the citizenry, evidenced by the switching on of street lights Friday night on Broad and other streets in Monrovia.
This is the first major such step in 30 years, officials say, as the President reassures that under the Special Presidential Streetlight Project provincial capitals will also see lights.
Otherwise known as the Monrovia Consolidated Streetlight Project, the government puts the cost of the electrification program at US$2.3 million. It was awarded to a Liberian contractor, supervised by the Ministry of Public Works with technical backing from the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC).
President Weah told a jubilant crowd and other audiences during the ‘switch on’ ceremony that he was grateful to God for having placed him into the position to “chase away” darkness the public has experienced for many years.
Such achievement may seem an insignificant effort in the government’s onward march to bring development to the country; “but it is a giant step in terms of the importance it will have on improving the quality of our lives,” he says.
“The street light will not only bring illumination to residents of Monrovia, but will always enhance their safety and security at night,” he continues.
In the face of all this, what stunned many Liberians, irrespective of politics, was the apparent theft or deliberate criminal act to remove the bolts that anchor the light poles to pedestals by some unscrupulous individuals who for some unclear reasons, have tried to dampen the impressive effort of the Weah-led Administration to achieve a deliverable so vital to the population – especially when Liberia, Africa’s oldest constitutional republic, should have long been power-sufficient and focus on other bigger subjects.
Hence, the President, in his brief remark at the dedication, evoked the Scriptural reference: “Believe in the light while you have the light so that you may have children of the light,” which he drew from John 12:36.
That was followed by a passionate plea to his people: “Fellow citizens, I am appealing to those that are constantly going around the City unscrewing the knots from the light poles to stop because this will affect us all; it will affect the ‘no-position’, it will affect the opposition, and it will affect the Government.
“Let’s secure our street lights and be thankful to God for the great things he has done. This will be extended to the counties. And so let there be light!” The President then symbolically turned on the switch to the power line amid supportive chants from Liberians who had gone to witness the event.
The light program for Monrovia is phased into three lots: the first stretches from ELWA Junction to Vamoma House in Sinkor; the second from Vamoma House to Broad Street-Ducor; and, then, the third would run from Johnson Street to St. Paul Bridge, Public Works officials explained.
The first time President Weah declared ‘let there be light’ was on his birthday (October 1) last year, when he inaugurated Phase One: the ELWA street lights which since ushered an exceptional night-time beauty of a spot deemed the ‘face’ of the nation’s capital owing to its strategic location from the country’s sole international airport.
“When I took over as President, I told you I’d speak more through my actions; today is another example. As we provide streetlights, let me inform all Liberians that I am working hard with LEC to provide transformers,” he said at that program.
