Kokoyah District — Some residents, including stakeholders, of Bong County are planning to petition Nathaniel McGill to contest the Senate race ahead in 2023, FrontPageAfrica has gathered.
Consultations are underway for the petitioning, which could take place soon, sources informed our reporter.
The pending petitioning program for the suspended minister of state for presidential affairs is coming weeks after District Three lawmaker Marvin Cole and a confidant to McGill gave a hint to FrontPageAfrica that efforts were underway to encourage McGill to contest the Senate race in the county 2023.
"The suspended minister has been under pressure from stakeholders of the county to contest the Senate race. Don't rule anything out," Rep. Cole.
Prior to his suspension by President George Weah last month, McGill took years to establish several "political cells" in Bong County with the aim of supporting the re-election of President Weah in 2023.
In collaboration with Rep. Cole, McGill, while serving as minister of state, paid over LD $20 million in tuition aid to both private and public schools across Bong County.
'We want to reward McGill'
To some of the petitioners, the suspended minister of state deserves a lot more for the work he has done for the people of the county, and deserves to be rewarded. "What he has done for the people of Bong County are so enormous that our politicians of the county hadn't done over the years," Amos Too, a resident of Kokoyah Statutory District.
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Jerry Fofana, a 26-year-old motorcyclist, told FrontPageAfrica Friday, he would campaign in the nooks and crannies of Bong County to ensure McGill is elected senator of Bong. His words. "Through the minister's loan empowerment scheme, my mother benefited, and now she has a large business establishment. As for me, I had dropped out of school until our motorcyclist union benefited from a tuition aid from the minister. I'm proud to tell you I'm a second year student of the Bong County Technical College."
With 13 months to the 2023 presidential and legislative elections, McGill's major headache would be convincing former Bong County senator Henry Yallah, a member of the Coalition for Democratic Change, to backoff from the race.
It's not clear whether Yallah would cave in, but insiders told FrontPageAfrica that the former Bong County senator is reportedly willing to cave in.
If McGill accepts the citizens' petition, it will make it 10 the number of aspirants who have declared their ambitions to contest, following declarations by former Bong County superintendent Ranney Jackson, District Five lawmaker Edward Karfiah, former agriculture minister Dr. Mogana Flomo, among others.
