Nimba County — Despite lawmakers here defending receipt of thousands of dollars annually for constituency engagement along with other amenities, Representative Saye Sylvester Mianah of District#8, Nimba County, is asking his kinsmen to stop begging lawmakers from the county for money.

Rep. Mianah describes the people of Nimba as beggars and warns them to stop, lamenting that citizens continue to harass lawmakers for financial assistance.

According to him, citizens on a daily basis visit homes of lawmakers and district offices, harassing them for help, thereby forcing them to provide them financial help even at their (lawmakers') inconvenience.

"You stop asking us for help. You can't go to ministers, who have an 80 million United States Dollar budget, but only we lawmakers have been and continue to be financially harassed," he laments.

Rep Mianah, who started his journey for the House in 1997, eventually got elected in 2023, replacing Larry P. Younquoi.

He made the plea recently at a groundbreaking ceremony hosted by Nimba County District#2 Representative Nya Garsaye Flomo, Sr. Rep. Flomo broke grounds for several projects in Garr Zuluyee Town along Ganta - Sanniquellie highway in his district.

Despite economic hardship and grinding poverty, lawmakers of the 54th allotted in the national budget and dished among themselves US$30,000 each for so-called constituency engagement. They took the amount each to engage with their respective constituents, whatever that meant, without any accountability. Editing by Jonathan Browne