Unity Party Chair Escapes From Angry Youth

… As Partisans Demand Employment in Gov’t

By: Jeremiah Sarnor/Executive Mansion Reporter

Monrovia, Liberia: Angry partisans under the banner of the Progressive Youth of the ruling Unity Party led- government have intensified their demands for accommodation in the government while at the same time calling for the immediate resignation of several top brass of the party including the Chairman, Dr. Charles Clark and Mr. Hassan Kaizolu, National Youth Chair.

Addressing a news conference Monday, the spokesman of the group - Mr. Zenatana Sumbo, said the call for the resignation of Dr. Clark and Kaizolu and dozen other senior partisans is due to what he termed their failure to deliver to “the down trodden masses of the youth of the party.”


President Ellen Johnson explaining the Unity Party's development programmes to rural Liberians. Was she on her agenda the youth of the party?
According to him, their peaceful demonstration and demands for the resignation of the party officials is to enhance the effort in bringing about reform in the ruling party. In a pensive mood, Mr. Sumbo said the party chairman and executives of the various counties offices failed to provide basic incentives for other officials and also failed to empower their partisans through the provision of jobs for qualified and competent partisans.

He also attributed their demands to the officials’ failure to provide scholarships and to provide micro-financial loans for self-empowerment. In a related development, the senior senator of Maryland County John Ballout said he’s worried over what is obtaining in the ruling Unity Party.

Speaking to a team of journalists in Monrovia, Senator Ballout noted that the continued neglect of partisans of the UP by the executives of the party is not health for the party and expressed fear that the party might suffer defeat in the 2011 presidential election. He said lack of jobs and empowerment for its partisans will be a setback for the party if measures are not taken to correct the mistakes.

According to him, if the UP is to be successful in the 2011 elections, the party executives must set examples and immediately correct their mistakes, saying that he endorses the peaceful demonstration by the youths. He frowned on the attitude of party executives to close the headquarters of the party to it partisans who elected them.

He added that if the Unity Party does not stop the continuing demonstration, lack of respect for its partisans, they will suffer defeat in the 2011 general and presidential elections.