A Patriot’s Diary
With Ekena Nyankun Juagbe-Droh Wesley
The Americans (Feds) had embarked on a painstaking, tedious, meticulous, and cautious investigation into alleged ‘wire fraud’ at the behest of Stanton Witherspoon, et al. The outcome of a scrupulous investigation led to a sealed indictment culminating in a US$114 million lawsuit. Amid the foolhardiness of Stanton Witherspoon, he issued a statement verbatim cum press release although he claimed his lawyers said he shouldn’t say much. He was damn wrong! His lawyers should have done so!
When newly celebrated Counselor-at-Law, Moriah Kou-Dwede Yeakula satirically invoked what she termed a biblical motivation – Proverb: 8:13 “To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech,” whatever any specifics; her post was greeted with mixed reactions.
Surely, such is our human complexity. Another Liberian working in the private sector to make Liberia self-sufficient in food security, Stanford Peabody also wrote: “I have nothing against Spoon. But to pray and hope he will be fine will be hard for me. I am waiting for the climax so I can cry or clap for him.”
Liberians from all walks of life spoke variously as it were. Some consumed by the indiscriminate generosity of Stanton Witherspoon prayed and wished he would become a free man. Even Liberia’s wartime Robinhood (Gen. Prince Y. Johnson) inherited a bittersweet outlook though.
Liberians are noted for celebrating criminals and warlords. Now sanctioned former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel McGill has become the political darling boy in Margibi owing to impoverishment. At rallies, the disgraced former Minister is seen amassing thousands of rented supporters whose hopes hinge on likely alms following the mass political gatherings.
What has allegedly entangled Stanton Witherspoon cannot be equated to an accident, a mistake, or perhaps the likelihood of being lured or having fallen prey to blackmail. As a crime; it was conceived of, carefully planned, unscrupulously researched, various options weighed, contacts established with dubious actors and collaborators, bureaucracies breached, networks formed, alliances forged, and systematically executed. A mission was envisaged; a vision was set out and core objectives mind-framed.
t was a grand scheme of academic inventive pretexts. A tacit sense of enrolling into a pseudo-academic program that does not exist in the real world but seeks to dubiously position hundreds or perhaps thousands of beneficiaries as unmerited diploma holders in nursing under fictitious circumstances. This was a deliberate and diabolical scheme. As many are made to strangely believe; what manner of a good a man in Stanton would risk the lives of so many innocent people by letting loose and criminally certifying quacks in a critical life-saving sector as the health and human services?
Amid the dozens of Stanton-incensed fanatics consumed by the trappings of largesse cum the booty of thievery borne out of treacherous and alleged criminal business dealings – we are simply bamboozled that even the churches and religious zealots in the small West African nation don’t get it.
If indeed as in the words of Allan Aubrey Boesak, a South African clergyman who was one of South Africa’s leading spokespersons against the country’s policy of racial separation, or apartheid; is anything to go by our churches and religious leaders heralding Stanton as a ‘pious man’ are guilty. Allan Boesak argued: “The church is the church of this world and it must minister the gospel in truth and spirit.” In this case, the church has sought to ignore its role at the expense of materialism.
If the church let alone our religious leaders cannot beacon a moral high ground in the sanctity of their convictions and abiding faith as God’s true servants, then we must be found wanting as it were. In this case, the church turns a blind eye to the immorality of humankind only because it is not prepared to lose its offering. The church cannot lead the campaign to ‘play God.’ It is wrong and unacceptable! It must be condemned!
In a comical construct, comrade Eric Kennedy, posted on his Facebook page: “HATE is when ‘yor’ criticized and condemned pastors who were praying for sanctioned McGill but sending prayers for indicted Stanton. I don’t hate Stanton but I hate the hypocrisy in people.” Hmm! Some of our churches have become the source of blasphemy. Again reckoning the church’s moral authority if you may.
Perplexingly, the sole proprietorship associated with Spoon Talk has rendered its panelists spineless and without scruples. For Christ’s sake; not one person could tell Stanton to recuse himself? A panel of commentators sheepishly cowered by a blinding thoughtlessness, to say the least. In spite of how powerful our friends might be, if we are unable to look them squarely in their faces to tell them what they ought to hear rather than what they want to hear, we do them no service. Our association becomes questionable!
The truth and genuineness in our brotherhood or sisterhood would be measured on account of where we boldly stand with our friends when they do the right things and unashamedly chastise them when they go wrong. The singular or collective inability, ineptitude, and mindlessness of the Spoon Talk panelists to speak truth to Stanton in spite of looming adversity – especially in a matter they all consciously know he has screwed up – is simply untenable. History will unwittingly be unkind to the Spoon Talk panelists and their consciences!
Social commentator, Benedict Brown postulates: “The feds do no move until they do their due diligence by gathering all the evidence. Anything anyone says right now is just damage control; don’t listen to it. Does the case about Ellen Corkrum or the late Daniel Cassell ring a bell? The brother is in a mess!” It is just foolhardy to hide behind some team of lawyers presumably working behind the scenes.
Lawyers, no doubt, take up cases as a means of survival. As good marketing professionals; they would often say: “You have a good case.” Initially, they wouldn’t want to invoke heartbreak or psychological disorientation. Even if a yellow-belly swine were to ask a lawyer for representation, he/she would avail him/herself in real-time.
