Mary Broh, The New Sheriff In Town

The Liberian people are a clean people. Up country, our people get up early in the morning and sweep their living quarters. There is no hala hala whatsoever. In Monrovia, Liberia's Capital City, the place of more than a million people, Liberian people from all 15 counties, it is a tug of war keeping the city clean. People seem not to understand why cleanliness is such a big deal.

Recently, a few zinc shacks were torched to make way for a cleaner environment where the food the people eat is purchased. Many are outraged about this. "Our poor people should not be treated this way," is the argument. Mary Broh, the lady clothed to bring cleanliness next to Godliness, is being pommeled for taking actions to keep the city of Monrovia clean. With information scarce, I did not take too long to find favor with the broom used to begin the process:

Sometime ago when I heard that Mary Broh was doing extremely well at the Passport Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I suggested in one of my letters to FrontPageAfrica that it would be nice if she were sent to the Free Port of Monrovia where dee dee-ba and "hustling" were rampant. It wasn't long after my suggestion that I heard that Ms Broh was given a huge broom to go across the bridge and do some sweeping at the National Port Authority. I got a few calls telling me that my wish had come true. There was no gloating on my part, for what happened way in Monrovia was just a coincidence.

I went online and goggled www.monroviacityhall.com. The result took me to the City of Monrovia in California. I felt terrible because I wanted to read about what previous warnings had been put out there by our Monrovia City Hall concerning the building of zinc shacks as market stalls by people doing business down Waterside. If such information is not out there, Monrovia City Hall, Liberia, needs to establish a web site where Liberians everywhere can go and get news about their city. I went to other web sites like MICAT and others. I wasn't impressed. Maybe I've lived in America too long and cannot live without clicking and getting real results. The government needs to start putting some serious money into technology. I want to be able to get online, click on the Ministry of Agriculture and read some serious stuff about Agriculture and its impact on the nation's population. Googling further, I tried Monrovia City Corporation. I was taken to the Daily observer Online where Ophelia Hoff-Saytumah was being pummeled for doing nothing to keep Monrovia clean.

I had no idea that Mary Broh had been snatched from the Free Port of Monrovia and appointed to head the Monrovia City Corporation. The outcry on the Internet from the incident at Waterside is amazing. Nevertheless, workers at GSA are begging for Mary to visit their work site.

I remember some time ago when marketers were selling their wares on every street corner in Monrovia. Getting these sellers from those sites was a tug of war. Now I hear that the streets of Monrovia are passable and cars and sellers no longer compete for space.

Malaria tablets are my worst enemies. They are too bitter for me; but if I want to get well from the bites of mosquitoes, I have to take those bitter pills. If our environment is to meet the minimum of standards, cleaning and getting rid of zinc shacks, especially in areas where our food is sold, is a dire necessity. Making tough decisions is a way of life. Those who don't understand this must continuously be told why certain decisions have to be taken, even if these decisions seem a bit out of the norm.

Details are scarce, but if the project at Waterside was a duty-before-complain exercise, I hope those affected will be relocated to new sites where making ends meet will be done without the uncomfortable intervention by City Hall.

Why is Mary Broh alone so good at making things happen? The reactions from some here in America about the actions taken by Mary Broh are scared. Some want her to be charged with arson. "She is burning Monrovia down," some are saying. "Mary Broh should not be confirmed by the Senate, for she has become an enemy of the State." Those are the tongue lashings I am reading. These are criticisms from people who could be paying $1000 just for dropping a piece of paper on the street in Philadelphia or the street in Silver Spring, if the police saw them committing such a horrendous crime! These are people who are helping to build Liberia from far off.

If things begin to change for the better at MCC, Madam Elen Johnson-Sirleaf, please send Mary Broh to GSA and then later, bring her right near you, in your office. Let her take care of the one computer your family members seem so obsessed with. Let Mary Broh be responsible for looking over all those contracts that boy Willie had so much access to and that are now being handled by people who really care less about why 250,000 Liberians died.

Mary Broh needs to have a serious meeting with those close to the President whose names keep popping up because of corruption and other bad behavior and misdeeds. Mary Broh has become the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf serious Liberians longed to see in action. Mary Broh is the most serious sheriff in town.

I like that.