An opinion by Moncio Robert Kpadeh
Liberia is a post-conflict country that witnessed one of the most horrifying wars recorded in history books with hundreds of thousands of deaths and indescribable destruction endured by the tiny West African nation. Liberia returned to peace in 2005 with the ushering in of an Interim government that emerged out of the Accra, Ghana Comprehensive Peace Talk. Since then, the country has witnessed two successive democratic transitions from Interim President Gyude Bryant to President Ellen Johnson and from Ellen to President George Weah.
However, the excesses that plunged Liberia into the tragic civil conflict are still commonplace and have gotten pervasive under the rule of Liberia’s footballing President Weah, who was once hailed as a man of peace when he served as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador of Peace and later appointed as Peace Ambassador by his predecessor Ellen Sirleaf.
Lawlessness and gangsterism have been the hallmark of the George Weah-led government. Terrorizing opposition figures, students with dissent, and ordinary citizens have been the reckless pattern of the lawless, ruthless, daft, roguish, and incorrigible regime. Under the rulership of Weah and his henchmen, Liberia has been immersed in a dire state of dystopia–where horror looms amid summary killings, mysterious deaths, and menacing threats faced by the opposition and student communities. in short, for the last fast years and counting, Liberia under the CDC-led regime has been notorious for despicable and abominable maneuverings. Citizens live in a torture chamber and have to painfully grapple with a hunting circumstance of revolving trauma.
What happened at the Christ Chapel of Faith Ministry of Evangilist-Senator Prince Johnson was an act of terrorism perpetrated at the behest of the regime or you may call it state-sponsored terrorism meant to decimate a powerful political rival. The thugs that were unleashed on Senator Johnson and his congregation yesterday went purposely to commit mayhem.
Their eyes were soaked with blood, they were well armed with deadly weapons, donned in militant regalia, and battle-ready with a dreadful fury to spill blood. Evangelist-Senator Johnson and his congregation survived by the ‘skin of the teeth’. All praises to Community dwellers who quickly swarmed the Church, to the rescue of PYJ and his congregation, and subsequently foiled their wicked plot, as PYJ and his congregation hurriedly fled what became a chaotic scene.
I thank the young people of the Lovers’ Street Community for their swift gallantry that saved hundreds of lives yesterday and assuaged a potential civil conflict. Had those drug-plagued terrorists, acting in the name of the NPP and CDC, murdered PYJ yesterday, Liberia would have ultimately relapsed into a bloody civil conflict, as the people of Nimba, as well as supporters of PYJ and vestiges of his defunct INPFL forces, would have waged war on Weah and his officials in revenge which could have spiraled into a spelling doom.
It is astounding and sheer absurdity that rather than fostering peace and tranquility, the Weah government is constantly engaging in acts inimical to peace. The government and its surrogates are often fond of instigating violence and undermining the peace lingering more questions than answers. How irresponsible and disdainful can a government be, to the extent it becomes a curse to itself?
To what end does it keep provoking the opposition and ordinary citizens? Unlike other governments that would do all to maintain a peaceful and cohesive society and ambiance to attract investors and mobilize needed foreign direct investment and other opportunities to put their countries on a burgeoning economic path, the Weah government, since its inception, continues to terrorize, harass, intimidate, molest, and engage in other counterproductive conducts to potentially undermine the hard-earned peace.
The stupid and unwarranted attack on PYJ yesterday didn’t come as a surprise as the regime has a notorious reputation for launching gruesome attacks on members of the opposition and student communities. It has been a pattern of state-sponsored aggression against the opposition and student communities with a plethora of dreadful attacks recorded.
Let me chronicle some of the vicious and unwarranted attacks carried out by state thugs against the opposition and student communities:
1.) Durning the last Senatorial midterm election, ANC Leader Alexander B. Cummings and Representative Yekeh Kolubah were brutally attacked by CDC thugs in Zewdru City, Grand Gedeh County under the instructions of Superintendent Kai Farley, a former ruthless Rebel General who gruesomely murdered innocent people, led the bravado that fateful day. The Armed Forces of Liberia or AFL had to swiftly intervene to save the lives of Cummings and Kolubah. Two weeks after the attack on Cummings and Yekeh, President Weah invited Farley to Monrovia and gifted him a brand new double-cabin Toyota Pickup Truck and some cash instead of appropriately reprimanding him.
2.) Telia Urey and her campaign team were brutally attacked in the Logan Town Community and her vehicle was burnt to aches, and many persons got injured. This happened during the campaign of the representative byelection between Telia and CDC Abu Kamara, to fill the vacant seat created by the tragic demise of Representative Adolph Lawrence.
3.) Cornelius Kruah’s campaign rally in Barnesville Estate was dreadfully attacked by CDicians who were seen publicly banishing machetes and firearms that day. The entire community was terrorized and hundreds of Kruah’s supporters were severely wounded and hospitalized. One person reportedly died and the government said nothing.
4.) Students of the University of Liberia have come under many attacks by thugs of the ruling CDC. A year ago, Students of the UL under the banner of the Students Unification Party or SUP went up to the U.S. Embassy to peacefully demonstrate against rampant corruption and misrule, Cedicians attacked them and it was that day young comrade Christoper Walter Sisulu was brutalized and body parts fractured. He is still in a deformed state fighting for his life.
5.) Recently, Representative of Montserrado County, District#8 Moses Acarous Gray, led a battalion of hawkish thugs on the Capitol Hill Campus of the University of Liberia and callously brutalized UL students and disrupted normal classes. The UL Campus is two minutes away from the Police Headquarters, but the police didn’t go to the aid of the defenseless students as Gray and his rebel thugs brutalized them.
6.) The same Rep. Gray three years ago met ANC Leader Alexander Cummings at an entertainment spot in Sinkor, I do not quite remember the name of the entertainment center, and verbally attacked him and bullied Cummings and those who accompanied him out of that entertainment spot.
7.) The home of Rep. Yekeh Kolubah has been attacked by Cedicians more than three times–only because he has been vocal against the misrule of the CDC regime.
8.) Activist Martin Kollie was attacked countless times and chased into exile. He would have been dead by now had he not escaped the country. Martin currently resides in the Netherlands where he is pursuing his education.
9.) A few months ago, Lewis Brown had gone to Voice F.M. for an interview, and while in the studio, Cedicians besieged the Studio in an attempt to harm him. The Police reluctantly intervened and disbursed them, but it was the community people who went to Brown’s aid.
10.) The terroristic attack on PYJ yesterday is just a continuation of the lawless and repressive pattern to intimidate political rivals and people with strong dissent against the utter misrule of the country and the rampant looting of state resources. These are all folly attempts to instill fear and put critics in silence which is impossible in today’s Liberia.
While the attack on PYJ did not come as a big surprise to many, Liberians across the divide are left tongue-wagging over the effrontery by elements of the regime to unleash their drug-ridden thugs on the Church on a Sunday of all days. Liberia is a religious country and Sunday is considered a sacred day of worship, hence, for them to have ordered an attack on a Church certainly proves that the goons in power are capable of doing anything including plunging Liberia into civil war yet again.
The regime continues to expose its intolerance to criticism and anybody who interposes an opposing view to the misgovernance of the country is branded an enemy of Weah and his adherents, and faces an imminent attack and possible elimination. Interestingly though, Weah does not publicly criticize these attacks, and the fact that he gives grandiose gifts to people who perpetrate violence against his rivals, as in the case of bloodstained Kai Farley, certainly means he is the main mastermind behind these woeful onslaughts.
Following a recent statement on the appalling state of governance in Liberia and the deplorable socioeconomic conditions Liberians in rural Liberia are facing, U.S. Ambassador Michael McCarthy came under fierce verbal attacks from corrupt Senate Pro Tempore Albert Chie and was joined by other top brass of the scandal-ridden regime who angrily took on radio stations, newspapers, and social media to spew vitriol and trolls at the Ambassador only because he criticized misrule in Liberia. This is the mark of intolerance that should have no place in our democracy.
The terroristic attack on PYJ must claim the attention of the International community as the country draws nearer to the 2023 general and presidential elections. The indications are rife that the Weah regime is not willing to conduct a free, fair, and credible electoral process. The bandit regime is set to terrorize the opposition and instill fear in voters. The International community must not wait until Liberia is embroiled in another round of civil upheaval before it places boots on the ground.
Instead, now is the time to get involved to ensure that the peace of the country is not jeopardized by this regime which had fallen out of favor with the masses of the people and knows fully well that its chances of reelection are utterly slim. Electoral fraud and irregularities are potential conflict triggers, hence, foreign partners must do all to ensure that these impending elections are free, fair, and credible, to prevent Liberia from slipping into tragedy as Liberians will not tolerate a rigged election anymore.
The constant attacks and threats against opposition forces and the student community have to stop. These were the same repressive excesses(summary execution, mysterious deaths, intolerance, raiding and killing of University students, imprisonment of opposition leaders t harassment, intimidation, instilling fear, et others) that plunged Liberia into the dreadful fifteen years civil war that claimed about 250 thousand of precious lives and caused destruction measured in billions of dollars. Liberia is still reeling from the consequences of the 1989 war and yet the current ruling kleptocracy is doing all to return the country to its dark and horrifying past.
I condemn in the highest term the terroristic attack on PYJ and his congregation yesterday and call on the Liberian Senate to take a strong position on this madness. All Liberians interested in peace must repudiate and shame those thugs and the people in whose name they acted. The world is watching!
