Mayor Koijee Elected 2nd African Mayor

-Makes A Case For The City Of Monrovia At The Global   Parliament Of Mayors Conference In Bristol, United Kingdom

The Mayor of Monrovia his Lordship Jefferson T. Koijee is currently in Bristol, U.K attending the Global Parliament of Mayors Conference.

Speaking at the opening session of the parliamentary proceeding Monday, Mayor Koijee presented the position of the great city of Monrovia ranging from Health, Security, Agriculture, Youth Employment, Infrastructure, and Education.

According to Mayor Koijee, these sectors are key to the development of Monrovia and improving the livelihood of its inhabitants.

“I am delighted to be here for this unique session and wish to extend greetings on behalf of the great people of Monrovia and the President of Liberia Amb. George M. Weah. I have come to let you know that despite the many challenges faced my city, we have been doing some tremendous works for the past seven months since we took over as Mayor of our Capital.” Mayor Koijee said.

“I have the pleasure to share with you some of our challenges as a city. Currently, we are exploring avenues to mobilize financial, technical and logistical resources in tackling our solid waste management, Security and communication. The mobilize resources will help provide technical and logistical support which are some of our major challenges,” he added.

He added “as you are aware, my country was one of the countries hit with the deadly Ebola virus disease in 2014 that resulted in over 4,000 lives been lost and left our health system broken. My city as an epicenter of economic and political activities in the country, my city play host to approximately one million people which is about 35% of our total population. The City of Monrovia experienced the worst casualty of the outbreak and have left a negative impact on our health center.”

He furthered intimated “we are appealing to this august body to help in tackling some of our challenges most especially our broken health and education sectors including lack of capacity building for our youthful population through employment and enhancing our security forces.”

This according to Mayor Koijee can help put struggling Monrovia on the path with other cities around the world which his administration is optimistic about.

Mayor Koijee also said tackling waste in Africa especially Monrovia needs a holistic approach with support from International partners and wealthy cities.

Mayor Koijee further reminds his colleagues that the issue of transportation in the city is also a major challenge inhabitant of Monrovia are faced with. “In Monrovia, we have the state-run University and students leave from distances to attend the University but to get vehicles to transport students to school is difficult.  It is a serious problem and we need your intervention”.

“ We have also started the process of revamping the Monrovia City Police, making the police a unique and professional force to protect lives and property within the city limit of Monrovia. We have beefed up the strength of our police force to regulate laws through the enforcement of the city ordinance. However, must still needs to be done ”  he noted.

In a very passionate tone, Mayor Koijee appealed to his colleagues to join him in enhancing the capacity of the City Police noting that most of the difficulties found in Monrovia with respect to citizen gross disregard for the city ordinance is the issue of the capacity of the security arm of the city Government to enforce the ordinance.
“Distinguish colleagues and members of this august body , I beg your indulgence fellow mayors and our  partners attending this session to help our city in improving our police force in getting them ready to enforce our ordinances and our communication which will help to sensitize our citizens about the activities of the city ,and what requires of them to keep the city Clean, Green and Safe.” Mayor Koijee lamented

As a result of his brilliant presentation at the opening session, Mayor Koijee has been selected to Co-chair the Health Committee and will be representing the parliament at the Word Health Organization summit in Lyon, France from December 4-6, 2018.

Mayor Koijee who joined 28 African Countries at this year’s session is the only West African Mayor and the second Mayor to be elected on the Executive Committee of the Global Parliament of Mayors.

The Global Parliament of Mayors Conference Bristol 2018’s which is been held under the theme, “Empowering Cities as Drivers of Change” focuses on global governance and the urgent need for the influence, expertise and leadership of cities to be felt as international policy is shaped.
GPM Bristol 2018 will provide mayoral participants with a global network of connections and a space to develop the collective city voice necessary to drive positive change. The programme will engage participants in decision-making,
with panels, debate, and voting on priority issues including migration and inclusion, urban security and health. This is an opportunity to share stories of city challenges and successes and a unique chance to influence decisions on the most pressing issues of our time.