Women can be very fastidious in defence of what they consider feminine trespass. Here is a classic instance. Former Liberian First Lady, Nancy Doe, has expressed her dissatisfaction over the fact that part of what used to be a market building has been allocated as office space to Ecobank.
According to Madam Doe, in whose honor the Nancy Doe Market, located in Jorkpeh Town, 8th Street, along the Tubman Boulevard in Sinkor was named, the space the bank occupies in the building has compelled many of the ordinary market women to sell outside in the hot sun and the rains.
The former First Lady has asked the incoming Vice President, Senator Jewel Howard-Taylor, who will be inaugurated next week to intervene in the situation by asking the bank to relocate from the market building. “The Nancy Doe Market building is for market women, but President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf allowed Ecobank to take half of the building. This has forced many of the market women to stay outside, trading under the sun and rain. I am not happy,” she stressed.
Madam Doe accused the outgoing Liberian leader of not have any feeling for the poor women. I am totally against the idea of the bank occupying any space in the market building”, she said. The two ladies have certainly not been on friendly terms.
As it turned out, it was during the administration of Master Sgt Samuel Doe in the 1980s, that Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf was incarcerated at the famous Post Stockade.
The lady, who later became President, is on record as saying that she was raped during her imprisonment at the prison facility, which used to be within the military barracks — Barclay Training Center (BTC) located along United Nations Drive in Monrovia.
Former First Lady Doe reiterated her call to Vice President-elect Howard-Taylor to remove the bank from the market, so that the women can have the space to sell; arguing: “not everyone is educated to work in the office.”
