A Patriot’s Diary
With Ekena Nyankun Juahgbe-Droh Wesley
When a group of young people went out and about trumpeting change for a better Liberia, little did a bewildered group of the masses understand the motive. They were passionate in an aura of pseudo preponderance that their advocacy was about liberating the masses. Whether we choose to agree, the masses will always be beleaguered by the trappings of neglect and marginalization. Have the once marginalized become liberated? Sadly, the masses are worse off than under an administration they demonized fearlessly.
Perceived as a mass-based political movement, the CDC, made largely of young people, sought to hoodwink the masses into often vague and philosophical platitudes. Ideas and ideals, on their own, cannot liberate people. When such ideas become tested after power is won, then it is only fair to reckon truth from falsehood. Gray has been one of such ‘purportedly smart chaps’ in an ocean of neophytes.
Gray would engage in a deliberate misquote of Plato’s theories endlessly even though he made no sense to the audience under the tone of his voice. Mind you, his usually empty lectures would be targeted at young cadres who were not sure of transportation fare to return to their communities but were blindly committed to some kind of struggle.
Throughout the small West African nation’s recent history and as the main opposition party, the now ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), was characterized by an avowed patent of violence, reckless demonstrations, thuggery and lawlessness. Party conventions repeatedly ended in chaos. Such violence did not spare party executives who still carry bruises of intra-party violent clashes. Insanely, they would defend such madness as a common feature synonymous to disagreement within institutions. Law and order in terms of party structure seem nothing to write home about. The party is noted for organized hooliganism! There was no sanity as far as a central command was concerned.
The takeover of state power has worsened a trademark that has occasioned the CDC. At the helm of power, the ruling CDC, has undoubtedly emboldened the trimmings of vigilante escapades to instill a reign of terror in order to force the population into submission. One group that continues to remain intransigent to the gross human rights abuses of the regime is the UL-based Student unification Party (SUP).
At the celebration of the country’s last independence event, SUP militants were mercilessly brutalized and chased in hot pursuit by state-sponsored thugs. All such abuses happened in the full glare of officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP), just a heartbeat away from the U.S. Embassy near Monrovia. Fingers were pointed at Monrovia City Mayor, Jeff Koijee, an allegation he flatly denied.
City Mayor Jeff Koijee has for the most part led the orgy of violence that has become systematically bedeviling to say the least. Koijee’s imprints continue to erode the regime’s human rights record as it were.
Amid a spate of peaceful protests by UL-based Student Unification Party (SUP), often demanding accountability, transparency, and respect for the rule of law, Representative Moses Acarous Gray of the ruling CDC has unceremoniously opted for the limelight for all the sickening reasons. Seemingly, under the disguise of tendering a lunch in honor of scholarship students from his District, Gray chose to defy the odds to walk to the Main Campus of the University of Liberia unremorsefully.
Dressed in military camouflage, Gray was sandwiched by CDC militants en route to the UL main campus to do the unthinkable. Power has surely and simply revealed the true manner of mankind in Acarous Gray. Despite intervention by scores of colleagues and party faithful, Gray refused to listen. Indeed the trappings of Newton’s Third Law of Motion became self-evident.
Rationally, Gray understands the ramifications associated with leading an array of militants in SUP’s territory without rancor. Gray is acutely aware of whatever his action. He cannot justify anything to the contrary in the name of harmless repercussions. Gray’s recalcitrance amounted to the predictable. Hell broke loose! Several persons were reportedly badly wounded while one person allegedly feared dead. It is yet to be independently verified. Police vehicles smashed! Gray’s utter madness has yielded consequences he underestimated.
Going on the UL main campus after making official pronouncement earlier connotes a test of the titans. Scenes from UL main campus on Monday were unfortunate and distasteful. Gray had no business invoking the reaction generated.
We are in an election year and Gray, as an official of the ruling party, must lead by example. His action was untenable and uncivilized. Let’s call a spade a spade. Acarous Gray had no business on that campus under the disguise of going to have lunch. Gray will surely not get away. Representative Acarous Gray laid the basis for chaos and must be held to account. Would Patrick Sudue have the guts to invite Representative Gray? No! He’s not a threat to President Weah. But a threat to public safety is greater than a threat to President Weah whatsoever.
