On November 7, Martin KN Kollie, Chairman on Research and Rapid Response for the Rescue Mission, claimed through a Facebook post that during the administration of the Unity Party in which the presidential candidate of the Unity Party, Amb. Joseph N. Boakai, served as Vice President, medical students of the A.M Dogloitti School of Medicine and Pharmacy received their stipends on time.
Kollie made the social media post (garnering 542 reactions, 266 comments, and 108 shares at the time of publication of this fact check report) after a protest staged by medical students at the home of President George M. Weah in Rehab Community, Paynesville.
The Claim
His exact words were: “Hundreds of Medical School Students (School of Medicine and School of Pharmacy – U.L.) are protesting at President George Weah’s Rehab Residence in demand of their stipends for 6 months. This rogue regime has no value for education. Under JNB, medical school students received their stipends on time”.
To put in context, Mr. Kollie claimed that during the Unity Party’s regime (2006 — 2017) medical students’ stipends were never delayed.
Rating Justification
To fact check this, we relied on historical facts and credible sources by reviewing several news reports about disbursement or delays of stipends to medical students between 2006 and 2017.
We found a 2014 FrontPage Africa article published by All Africa titled: Liberia: ‘Catching Hell’ – Medical Students Without Stipends for Eight Months. The newspaper reports that medical students at the country’s only Medical College were complaining that they had not received their stipend for eight months. The story quotes Gassimu Kaba, a third-year medical student president, who claimed that “students are currently facing serious difficulties due to the failure of the Government to pay their stipends”.
Another news story published in 2016 by FrontPage Africa titled “A. M. Dogloitti Decries Filthiness – Planned Strike for Unpaid Stipends”. The story disclosed that students were “planning to do a sit in action and strike at the Foreign Ministry to seek President Sirleaf’s attention” due to the delays in payment of their stipends.
We also found, a 2017 report from Front Page Article titled ‘Unfulfilled Promise’ Incenses A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine Students. This news article states that “Some students of the A.M Dogliotti College of Medicine have expressed dissatisfaction over promises made by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to revamp the dormitory, pay their monthly stipends amongst many things”.
We also reviewed a 2015-2017 survey report on Liberia health sector published online in March 2023 by the National Library of Medicines, an official website of the National Institute of Health of the United States Government. This survey reports that medical students widely reported in 2016 that stipends were not paid on time sometimes with multiple-month delays.
Conclusion
Based on facts gathered through reviews of news reports and survey by credible institutions, we therefore conclude that the claim by Martin KN Kollie that “Under Former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s regime of the Unity Party, medical students received their stipends on time” is incorrect.
The evidence shows that during the administration of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Joseph Nyumah Boika, there were incidents were medical students’ stipends were delayed.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content