GBANWIN, Nimba – The relatively quiet town of Gbanwin in Gbor Administrative District, Nimba was host to celebrations earlier this week when grounds were broken for a six-classroom school by Rep. Gunpue Kargon of Nimba’s fourth electoral district.

The building, when completed, will serve to educate the hundreds of school children in the area.

At the ceremony, Rev. Arthur Gboe-Weh of the Trumpet Baptist Church in Ganta commended Kargon for being the very first lawmaker to reach his hometown with such development.

“On behalf of the people of this town, we want to say a very big thank you for coming today to build the first elementary school here,” he said. “This is where I started my education in the 60s; most of those who we went to school together are no more, but I am grateful to be a part of this process today, to see that a modern school is coming to this town. We want to thank you for this.”

Gboe-Weh further asked both the Nimba County Administration and Kargon to help in rehabilitating the road and bridge that leads to the town. He noted that the last time the road was rehabilitated was in the 1970s by the citizens.

“We built the road and bridge by ourselves back in the 70s, but as you can see, the road is very terrible, and the bridge has damaged,” he added.

Kargon said in building the facility, he was fulfilling a promise made to the people of Gbawin during the campaign period.

“At the time of campaigning, when we were saying to you people that we will come back to you people, other people were saying, that guy that businessman, whenever he get that power, he will be going Dubai, he will not come back to speak to y’all,” Kargon said in colloquial Liberian English. “But let me tell you that I have come – other towns and villages that have been left out – to make them be recognized by the bigger towns. I am doing [this] because I need God’s blessings. Anything that God has destined, it is very hard to be left out.”

Kargon said he took an oath to represent and serve his people and it is his duties to do so to the fullest, adding that, “as an honorable person, you cannot lie under oath.”

The groundbreaking ceremony was part of a weeklong series of reconciliation programs staged by Kargon to unite district residents after a heated electoral season.

Present at the program was Liberia’s Deputy Speaker Prince K. Moye, who promised to assist with the school construction by providing 100 bags of cement, 12 bundles of metal roofing sheets, and L$200,000.

Featured photo by Arrington Ballah