MONROVIA: The Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel Falo McGill, has debunked claims making the rounds that he constructed a multi-million resort as birthday gift for his wife, Mrs. Vivian Innis McGill, who recently celebrated her 36th birth anniversary.
Minister McGill said the structure which is located near the Farmington River in Marshall, Margibi County, is a palava hut which was actually constructed by Mrs. McGill herself through debts owed vendors and augmented through her personal finances.
He clarified that the building attached to the photo of the palava hut is his current house which he and his family have been living in for some time now on the RIA Highway.
Minister McGill who is also the Chief of Office Staff to the President asserted that he didn’t want to dignify the story, as the property being referred to is a simple palava hut built on his wife’s undeveloped land, which cost is little over US$20,000, with some of efforts being through debts owed vendors.
He said as someone who has been working with the UN System, the palava hut should not be a constraint to her as it relates to her own comfort on a special day of her life.
The reports which he said were anchored on the insinuation that despite the challenges the country was going through where “hospitals reporting of no vaccines in the country for new born babies, when public hospitals are shutting down in the country due to lack of allotment, Mr. McGill was insensitive to the condition and has gone to the extent to” surprise his wife with a gift of a state of the art deck built in the middle of Farmington River in Marshall with a multi-million dollar estate named and styled “VIM ISLAND” at her 36th Birthday bash, claiming VIM to be an acronym for Vivian Innis McGill of building a private resort running into millions of dollars.
But in a bid to do an independent investigation, this paper first cross checked from multiple sources on the work history of Mrs. McGill to ascertain her capacity to undertake the project and findings showed that she is not in the employ of the government and has over the years been involved in working with the UN System on a couple of projects after obtaining higher level education and qualifications from institutions both at home and abroad.
She holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Management from the United Methodist University, a Master’s of Art degree with Honors in Sustainable International Development from the Brandeis University Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is presently a second year student at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, University of Liberia.
As a development practitioner, her works and activities have impacted the country, where she has been serving and designing methodologies to address issues centered around lives of women, children, disadvantaged youth and the extremely poor.
Her career path began at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection as the Supervisor of the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR-1325) Secretariat at the Ministry. Upon completion of her graduate studies in 2016, she was seconded by the Ministry of Gender to serve as the Project Manager for the Girls Ebola Recovery Livelihood Support Project (GERLS) sponsored by the World Bank.
Mrs. McGill who despite the very important position of her husband in the government, prefers to work with the International Non-governmental Organization, currently works as the Gender Justice Specialist for the Rule of Law Program and Gender Focal Person for UNDP Liberia Country Office.
Mrs. McGill, with several professional certifications in various disciplines has worked both in the private and public sectors in Liberia and abroad and has a passion for social entrepreneurship and hopes to blend her work with a sustainable fashion initiative.
This paper went further to delve into the story and independently confirmed that the palava hut is near the Farmington river on a piece of underdeveloped land in a fence and neighboring dwelling places of some locales who also confirmed that indeed the land in question has been there for some time.
The paper further investigated and found out that the building attached to the photo of the palava hut trending on social media is actually the current house of Minister McGill on the RIA Highway and no other building is found on the piece of land to indicate that there is an existing estate built by Mr. McGill for his wife as a birthday gift.
According to informed sources, the rumor which has been making rounds on social media was also spewed out by Representative Yekeh Kolubah of electoral District #10 in Montserrado County.
Representative Kolubah is among few other hardcore critics of the government who, sources say, without evidence, claimed to have cogent information, that Minister McGill constructed a multi-million resort as birthday gift for his wife.
