A Patriot’s Diary
With Ekena Nyankun Juahgbe-Droh Wesley
Responding to one of A Patriot’s Diary’s last week’s edition, veteran Liberian writer, Dr. Abdoulaye Dukule said: “Does the infancy predict the future?” Surely, it was an expression of free speech as it were. Historically, there are instances where an infancy would predictably translate into the future.
We all knew George Weah would fail from the get go! Weah could not give what he doesn’t have in any case. Errors, we agree, are human-centered. But some errors are just Unpardonable! However, admitting to errors does not suggest one has failed. It is an admission of the fact in order to make amends.
President Joseph Nyuma Baokai won the November 14 runoff by a slim margin because he was a better choice. George Manneh Weah lost as a result of his own self-ordained destruction. He had set out to fail and he did so dismally.
Unconfirmed news, widely circulated whispers, chatters and murmurs about money clandestinely changing hands to influence presidential appointments cannot be outrightly dismissed if you may. Resorting to being mum simply because Liberians lack the capacity to sustain any form of pressure is foolhardy.
The whispers and murmurs about money changing hands to induce presidential appointments – is not just peculiar to the Joseph Boakai era. Similar murmurs and chatters occasioned the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration when a former senior presidential aide who was later fired for a different reason attracted accusing fingers as master-mind of pecuniary overtures in exchange for presidential appointments.
It was utterly despicable to say the least that amid a list of all-qualified candidates, the vetting committee would resort to capitalizing on financial inducement. It is insane and negates the tenets of good governance. Clearly, integrity will not inform such nominees output let alone the confirmed and appointed officials’ modus operandi.
It is a very bad precedent after all and must be resisted by all civilized forces of accountability and the promotion of integrity. If one’s qualification or experience cannot make a candidate the most suitable for the job, financial inducement should not be the basis for consideration.
The immediate past regime unarguably proved the most reckless and unprincipled in their pursuit of financial inducement amid home-grown “House of Cards.” Former President Weah’s disgraced Chief of Staff was reportedly the ringleader in the ‘money-for-jobs’ saga. No wonder looting was at its highest in living memory. Worse still, he is currently battling US-imposed sanctions – although he claims innocence.
Those who paid to get presidential appointments under Weah surely didn’t give a damn. They believed that they had invested and it was just commonsense to heighten the plundering of the national coffers. It didn’t matter whether schools and hospitals were adequately resourced to serve the people.
Whispers, murmurs and unconfirmed reports that monetary inducement is taking shape under Boakai must be immediately investigated to clear whatever doubts there are.
If there are people or anyone for that matter around the presidency bent on unscrupulously dragging the new administration in the stain of corruption at such an early time, President Boakai should not hesitate to launch a full scale investigation in the interest of probity and accountability.
If officials poised to serve are bribing their way through for jobs, the foregoing is obvious. Here, the infancy predicts the future. When the bribery scheme becomes a source of investment, then shameless people will go to any length to reap the returns on their investments at the detriment of the suffering masses.
Just as it was untenable when done during the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and George Weah administrations, it is even woefully diabolical to subscribe to such menace under Joseph Nyuma Baokai. The sooner President Boakai acts expeditiously the better the stitch in time might save nine.
What the hell is going on, folks. We vehemently detest the “old wine in new bottle” mindset. Our people deserve better.
