Zekepa, Nimba County: Jefferson Koijee, the Secretary General of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) has decried over the manner and form that narratives about his party were not mentioned in the official gazette (life-sketch) of their partisan, the late former Representative Johnson Gwaikolo who held the position of the Vice Chairman for International Affairs before he demised on February 19, 2024.
Gwaikolo, former Nimba County Representative, died at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital in Monrovia. He was renowned as both a seasoned politician and an educator. He served as the Representative of Nimba District #9 for six years in the 54th Legislature, during which he chaired the Committee on Education and later assumed the role of Chair on the House Committee on Rules Order and Administration. He also served as Deputy Minister of Public Works during the administration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The late Gwaikolo furthers served as President of the United Methodist University (UMU) and later became an executive member of the CDC as it Vice Chairman for International Affairs.
After his pass-off, former President George Weah and several other senior members of CDC visited his home in Paynesville, Montserrado County to console the family over his loss.
A State Funeral was held in his honor at the Capitol Building in the presence of current President Joseph Boakai and scores of government officials both past and present.
At the family burial in his hometown of Zekepa, Nimba County, the political party (CDC) he last served before his demise was not caption in the program sheet nor mentioned in the more than 30 minutes reading of the official Gazette from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorized to publish public or legal notices. It is somewhat like the life-sketching of dead senior government officials.
Despite not being mentioned in the program sheet to give a tribute as a political party where the late Gwaikolo was an executive member, the CDC Secretary General however requested to make a remark and reluctantly he was allowed.
Koijee firstly consoles the family adding that the life that the late Professor Gwaikolo lived speaks for him, "It speaks eloquently, and as such, it needs no interpretation," he said.
According to Koijee, when people are alive, all of what they have passed through should be mentioned when they are no more on the earth, something he says did not happen during the reading of the life-sketch by a Foreign Ministry's staff and the planning of the program.
"What we want to register is that we need to be earnest that when people are alive is the best time, they choose to leave a legacy that must be followed by them. There was a whole life-sketch read about Dr. Gwaikolo but sadly, and hypocritically nothing was mentioned about the CDC. He was the Vice Chairperson for International Affairs, a respectable person. Again, people will say don't politicize it, that is being hypocritical. It is not about politics; it is about reality. When he was alive, the same way he made the choices that you are celebrating here today, you must be earnest enough to celebrate his decision and he unashamedly associated with a particular political party, the CDC, and that is the decision he made. For him to be disrespected while he lies here is totally unfair," Koijee said.
He added: "When we came here, we mistaken this place to be a place of political rally, people who disrespected him when he was alive, disrespected him for the choices he made today are here to attend his funeral, politicizing the place. They bring their party paraphernalia in search of votes and when the movement he associated with comes, you take it out of context, but this is the country we are in."
"Partisan Gwaikolo did something very important in his last days. And that is why the party stood with him unashamedly, ensuring that he has a befitting burial. Even though we have not been recognized, we appreciate his wife and her children who have opened her arms to us. We know how CDC has been treated but we are convinced in our actions. We know that God has permitted and blessed us to love this country because this is where we come from. We will do nothing wrong to compromise the peace and sanity of this country," Koijee said.
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The CDC Secretary General added: "He often says to us that what you cannot help, don't hurt. That is the man who is lying down here. And if he had a word to say here today, he would be ashamed of his hypocrites. He knows that those who have disrespected him have come today and are pretending because they are in search of votes. God in heaven knows that he cannot speak but the God he served will speak for him."
Despite a warning for people not to turn the burial into politics, Koijee says the real politics is that when people come and bring their t-shirt and play their political songs that is the politics, not the battlecry chanted by CDC partisans because he (Gwaikolo) choos the CDC.
"You disrespected him when he was alive, do not come here to ask for votes and misconstrued earnest people (CDC partisans) who have come here. This party identified with him, we provided 10,000 us$ to ensure a befitting burial, we drove here for hours to come, and you think we are troublemakers. Stop treating us like that, we are not aliens of this country, we are Liberians, Cdcians are Liberians, and we have roles to play."
