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| Monrovia City Mayor, Jeffereson Koigee |
When
the news broke that Jefferson Koigee has been tapped to serve as
Monrovia City Mayor, a colleague compared him to JJ Rawlings of Ghana
who led his country through The Blitz of the late 70s, when he set out
to tackle Ghana's problems with a single-mindedness that bordered on
radical change.
Written by Kwame Weeks.
Similarly, to transform the city of Monrovia into one of hope - inevitably for a mayor so determined to fundamentally change the way city politics operated - Koigee will have to earn nearly as many enemies as admirers. Like Rawlings, he will have to ignore his detractors.
A UN funded study found that: "An increase in migration from rural to urban areas can exacerbate poverty and inequality as people pour into the cities in search of jobs and opportunities, straining available services such as water, transportation and garbage collection."
"Population shifts from rural to urban areas lead to a number of challenges such as overcrowding, pollution and crime, among others;" which is the case with Monrovia.
Like
Mary Both, Koigee must ignore his critics because he will be abhorred
for many unpopular moves but in the end it will definitely pay off.
I can't say clear-cut that I know the man to the core but here's what I can predict. In his first two years, Koigee's policies will help reduce serious crimes in Monrovia by two-thirds and cut the city's unemployment rate in half.
To be successful in these first 2 years in office, he will have to be very crafty like New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani who introduced the "welfare-to-work" initiative that helped more than 600,000 New Yorkers land employment and achieve self-sufficiency.
Campaigns against street vendors, underage selling and other forms of controversial sales will definitely provoke public ire but Koigee must not blink. How he intends to tackle these outliers is any man's guess.
I can't say clear-cut that I know the man to the core but here's what I can predict. In his first two years, Koigee's policies will help reduce serious crimes in Monrovia by two-thirds and cut the city's unemployment rate in half.
To be successful in these first 2 years in office, he will have to be very crafty like New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani who introduced the "welfare-to-work" initiative that helped more than 600,000 New Yorkers land employment and achieve self-sufficiency.
Campaigns against street vendors, underage selling and other forms of controversial sales will definitely provoke public ire but Koigee must not blink. How he intends to tackle these outliers is any man's guess.
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