By Jefferson Tamba Koijee (National Secretary General Congress for Democratic Change)
During the Ebola crisis, while I was in the opposition and had no government position, I took the initiative to recruit over 1,000 young Liberians to assist the government in tackling the deadly epidemic. I did not wait for appointment. I did not wait for recognition. I acted. Because true leadership is not about title it is about sacrifice and service when it matters most.
Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic. I stood up again. I employed over 6,000 young people as contact tracers to help save lives, empower communities, and strengthen the national response. That initiative was not for applause, it was for Liberia.
Yet, Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, a man who parades himself as a public health expert, sat on social media throwing stones. He criticized the very youth-based model that brought hope to thousands.
He called it chaotic. He labeled it corrupt. He dismissed the same young people I empowered, young people who could have easily been lost to crime or hopelessness.
And today, as Liberia faces the Mpox outbreak, where is Dr. Nyan?
This same Dr. Nyan now sits comfortably as the head of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, NPHIL, a position he claimed would help him change the system. But instead of leading outbreak response, he is merry-making at D’Calabash in the company of minors, drinking, smoking, and engaging in disgraceful behavior unbecoming of a man his age and his position.
He is in his seventies, yet behaves like a nightclub bouncer trapped in a midlife crisis. Instead of rolling out health education and crisis response teams, he is rolling whiskey glasses and cigars.
This is the man who once claimed to be the voice of science and reason. Today, he is the face of recklessness and contradiction.
Dr. Nyan’s hypocrisy is monumental. He attacked me for empowering youth, yet has done absolutely nothing for them since assuming office. No jobs. No training programs. No grassroots engagement. Just selfies, cocktails, and empty speeches.
Liberians must stop being dazzled by men with foreign degrees but no moral compass. Titles do not make leaders. Actions do.
While I was building during national chaos, Dr. Nyan was tweeting from comfort. While I was mobilizing young people to serve, he was busy tearing down efforts without offering one workable alternative. And now, as the head of the country’s lead public health agency, he is asleep at the wheel and drunk at the bar.
This is not just negligence. It is betrayal. Let the people judge who has truly stood in the gap for them. Let history remember who served, and who only pretended. Again to conclude, let me ask, where Senator Darius Dillon is in all this.
