Dr. Yarkpawolo Wants GoL Maintain JNB & JKK Inaugural Volunteers with Incentives  

Paynesville City: Cleanliness, in the simplest terms, is the state of being free from clutter, anything irrelevant and unnecessary, and the maintenance and sustenance of any city or community.
 
In Paynesville, the largest city in Liberia, cleanliness is a vital aspect that distinguishes a progressive, cultured, and civilized society from an underdeveloped and uncivilized one. It is not just limited to personal hygiene but also encompasses all aspects of our daily lives, including our households, workplaces, and surroundings.

Cleanliness is important, for it builds up a healthy environment that facilitates physical and mental well-being and growth. Therefore, its individual, as well as collective importance cannot be denied. In society, the state of cleanliness represents the mindset of its inhabitants, so it has been across the country-Liberia ,  an initiative that was initiated just a few weeks before the inauguration of now President Joseph N. Boakai of the Unity Party .  
 
The efforts of the JNB-JKK Clean-up Campaign team aimed to enhance the aesthetics of Monrovia, Paynesville and other major cities , representing a continuous endeavor to present an inviting facade to these cities. The team has been actively engaging in volunteer activities in major marketplaces, communities in Paynesville, Red-light, and other areas in Monrovia and its environs. But on Saturday February 3, 2024 , region #4 of the team had its closing program at the front of the Liberia Broadcasting System in Paynesville where different speeches/remarks were made to motivate the volunteers .
 
Among them was Liberian People’s Party 2023 Vice Presidential Candidate, Dr. Emmanuel Urey Yarkpawolo who congratulated the volunteers for their efforts in keeping the city of Paynesville clean.
 
He went on to call on the Unity Party led administration to take the efforts applied by those volunteers and transform them into a meaningful initiatives by creating means for them to continue cleaning the city and provide some incentives for them.  
 
Dr. Yarkpawolo noted’ “ I want to thank all of you for your effort. Cleanliness is next to godliness and it is important that we  keep Liberia and our communities  clean. I want to encourage all citizens to try to keep Liberia clean by being responsible citizens. Do not throw dirt in the streets for it is bad to do so.  These people have helped us to clean all the drainages. Do not throw plastic bags in the drainage, if you do so it will clog it and during the raining season we will have flooding occurring all over the place because we have blocked the waterways with trash,” he emphasized.
 
“The next thing I want to talk about is that the exercise is not ending today.  What we are saying to the Government of the Republic of Liberia is to seize   this opportunity.  The young people have volunteered, let them continue to work.  In fact, we can take it to another level.  Instead of just volunteering we can let them do this with some levels of incentives in order for them to be able to take care of their families”, he continued.

“How do we do this is simple.  In Liberia people are not paying taxes for their land and properties. There are vacant lands all in our communities and people are not paying taxes for those lands and some of those land are being used as major   hazard grounds  for our communities,” he warned.  
 
“So we are asking the city government and the national government as well, to leverage property taxes so we can generate money to give some incentives to our clean up volunteers.  

Emphasizing the broom as a symbol of fighting corruption, Dr. Urey Yarkpawolo said “Even as we are using the broom to clean up dirt from the city, there is another dirt that is eating up Liberia in form of corruption.  So we from the Liberian People’s Party have the broom to clean up corruption. Corruption is the one that is causing poverty, it is the one that is making few people to take the little  money we have as a country, and making our country dirty.  Therefore, we are asking the government led by H.E Joseph N. Boakai to use the broom to sweep corruption from out of Liberia,” he said.  
 
The cleanup drive was a precursor to the inauguration of now President Joseph N. Boakai and Vice President Jeremiah Koung, which was held January 22, 2024.