By: Johnson Watson
August 10, 2026On a humid Monday morning in Gbarnga, former Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor stood before journalists and did what few CDC stalwarts have done lately: she went on the offensive to defend her party’s legacy.The target of her rebuttal was Bong County Senator Prince Moye, who was recently quoted suggesting that Bong County “did not significantly benefit” during the six years of President George Weah’s Coalition for Democratic Change, CDC, administration.Taylor didn’t mince words.“To say Bong did not benefit under the CDC is to ask our people to forget what they see every day,” she said. “The roads, the schools, the market, the electricity. The facts will speak louder than an opinion.”A County That Had Power, And Projects To Show For ItTaylor reminded the room that between 2018 and 2023, Bong County held rare political clout at the national level. She was Vice President. Moye was Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.“That was historic leverage for Bong,” Taylor noted. “With greater cooperation, we could have done even more. But to now claim nothing was done is not just unfair, it is revisionism.”She then ran through what she called the CDC’s “development footprint” in Bong:- Infrastructure: Completion of the Gbarnga-Salayea Road, paving of streets in Gbarnga city, and the new Gbarnga Market delivered to traders.
- Education & Health: Construction of the Bong Model School, upgrades at Bong County Technical College, increased support to Phebe Hospital, including salary raises for doctors, plus new water and health facilities.
- Economy & Services: Establishment of the Central Bank of Liberia Regional Cash Hub* in Gbarnga, expansion of electricity through Jungle Energy Power, scholarships, and microcredit programs for women across districts.“These are not proposals. These are completed projects,” Taylor said. “You can drive on the road. You can sit in the market. You can learn in the school. That is what development looks like.”Poking Holes in the Senator’s ArgumentTaylor went further to question the timing and logic of Senator Moye’s criticism.“If the CDC did nothing for Bong, why was the Senator silent while he was Deputy Speaker and we controlled the Executive? Why is this argument only coming now under a new administration?” she asked.She argued that development should not be reduced to political talking points, especially when the people who are supposed to advocate for the county were in positions to deliver.“When you are Deputy Speaker and the Vice President is from your county, and you still say ‘nothing was done,’ you have to ask: what was the cooperation like? What did we table together? What did we fight for together?”Taylor suggested that rather than diminish past gains, leaders should build on them.Selective Memory vs RecordThe former VP ended with a direct appeal to Bong citizens: judge by evidence, not emotion.“We can disagree politically. That is democracy. But we must not engage in selective memory,” she said. “Erase the CDC record and you erase the market women, the students, the patients, and the workers who benefited.”“Bong deserves honest debate. Not press conference politics.”As she left the press briefing, traders at the new Gbarnga Market and students at the Model School remained the unspoken exhibits in her case — physical reminders of a government she insists did deliver, even if its critics now say otherwise.
