A Patriot’s Diary
With Ekena Nyankun-Juahgbe-Droh Wesley
MONROVIA – We are in an electioneering season! The stakes are bound to be high! Tension-brewing will be craze-stricken! Emotions will run through the roof. Mudslinging will take the center stage. The madness of politics will ensue. But that does not mean we should lose our sanity? No! Harry Truman was categorical when he said in a warning to politicians: “If you don’t like heat, stay out of the kitchen. Not everyone can stomach extreme political heath though. The CDC/NPP thugs crossed the line after all.
Politics should never be allowed to mess with our inalienable rights! The right to subscribe to any religion is constitutional! On Sunday, May 21, 2023 – what seemed a near repeat of the infamous April ‘6’ smoke-screen that unimaginably exploded resurfaced at Christ Chapel of Faith Ministry of senator Prince Johnson in Paynesville – outside Monrovia. A group of young men under the banner of the dreaded National Patriotic Party Youth (NPPY), unceremoniously besieged the Chapels’s Sunday morning Worship Service.
It was indeed an unprovoked attack on a peaceful religious assembly. It is categorically condemnable! No intelligence-gathering puzzle is required or should be sought to unravel any mystery in this equation. The government of President George Weah through its mastermind – Vice President, Jewel Howard Taylor and her co-conspirators planned, designed, orchestrated and unscrupulously implemented such cowardly madness!
Where have we gone wrong? While democracy is not necessarily the surest ticket to all the niceties of life, it offers hope for inclusiveness and participation. It is when we resort to the trappings of square pegs in round holes that the unfortunate is bound to happen. That is when a fool’s paradise syndrome becomes awakened by thugs posing as leaders.
Absolute power triggers absolute insanity! It is the drunkenness of power that translates into its wanton abuse. Such abuse breeds the flagrant disregard for the rights of the governed by the power-drunk so-called governors. It is unfathomable that a government that came to power through the democratic process will tread the path of gangsterism and hooliganism. The unprovoked attack on Praise Chapel of Faith Ministry confirms a deliberate act of state-sponsored terrorism as it were. It is unacceptable in any civilization!
What is ironic about this latest beastly insanity is that just yesterday – Senator Prince Johnson gave his support to the current ruling leaders of gangsters and he was a fine gentleman. But in the dynamism of the nature of humankind, CDC and its leadership have resorted to calling him names they would rather not dream about had he pledged support to them. Senator Johnson is resolved on where he wants to go.
So is it the exercise of his rights that has turned him into the worst political enemy? According to the CDC, they are now doing business with chiefs in Nimba. If that will pay off, then the politics and propaganda of reminders of years of war is untenable. While civil servants go without pay for months, the criminal empire led by President Weah and his gang of thieves are now dishing out money to woo votes ahead of October 10, 2023. If cash violence could make a difference, the CDC would have crushed Senator Darius Dillon in two successive elections.
As indicators of early warning become self-evident, we wish to call on the Council of Churches, Inter-faith Mediation, Muslim Council, Civil Society, political leaders, our international partners and well-meaning Liberians to – in the strongest possible terms condemn Sunday’s attack on peaceful religious assembly – targeted at Christ Faith Chapel Ministry of Evangelist, Prince Y. Johnson. In 14 years – instability plunged our country into the abyss. We needn’t remind ourselves of such ugly path.
Lest we forget, it was the same abuse of the fundamental rights of others that dragged our country into war…If a country now being led by a so-called former Peace Ambassador cannot keep the peace – we are doomed! But let no one make any silly mistake! No one person has a monopoly over acts of violence.
We are in an electioneering season! The stakes are bound to be high! Tension-brewing will be craze-stricken! Emotions will run through the roof. Mudslinging will take the center stage. The madness of politics will ensue. But that does not mean we should lose our sanity? No! Harry Truman was categorical when he said in a warning to politicians: “If you don’t like heat, stay out of the kitchen. Not everyone can stomach extreme political heath though. The CDC/NPP thugs crossed the line after all.
Politics should never be allowed to mess with our inalienable rights! The right to subscribe to any religion is constitutional! On Sunday, May 21, 2023 – what seemed a near repeat of the infamous April ‘6’ smoke-screen that unimaginably exploded resurfaced at Christ Chapel of Faith Ministry of Senator Prince Johnson in Paynesville – outside Monrovia. A group of young men under the banner of the dreaded National Patriotic Party Youth (NPPY), unceremoniously besieged the Chapels’s Sunday morning Worship Service.
It was indeed an unprovoked attack on a peaceful religious assembly. It is categorically condemnable! No intelligence-gathering puzzle is required or should be sought to unravel any mystery in this equation. The government of President George Weah through its mastermind – Vice President, Jewel Howard Taylor and her co-conspirators planned, designed, orchestrated and unscrupulously implemented such cowardly madness!
Where have we gone wrong? While democracy is not necessarily the surest ticket to all the niceties of life, it offers hope for inclusiveness and participation. It is when we resort to the trappings of square pegs in round holes that the unfortunate is bound to happen. That is when a fool’s paradise syndrome becomes awakened by thugs posing as leaders.
Absolute power triggers absolute insanity! It is the drunkenness of power that translates into its wanton abuse. Such abuse breeds the flagrant disregard for the rights of the governed by the power-drunk so-called governors. It is unfathomable that a government that came to power through the democratic process will tread the path of gangsterism and hooliganism. The unprovoked attack on Praise Chapel of Faith Ministry confirms a deliberate act of state-sponsored terrorism as it were. It is unacceptable in any civilization!
What is ironic about this latest beastly insanity is that just yesterday – Senator Prince Johnson gave his support to the current ruling leaders of gangsters and he was a fine gentleman. But in the dynamism of the nature of humankind, CDC and its leadership have resorted to calling him names they would rather not dream about had he pledged support to them. Senator Johnson is resolved on where he wants to go. So is it the exercise of his rights that has turned him into the worst political enemy?
According to the CDC, they are now doing business with chiefs in Nimba. If that will pay off, then the politics and propaganda of reminders of years of war is untenable. While civil servants go without pay for months, the criminal empire led by President Weah and his gang of thieves are now dishing out money to woo votes ahead of October 10, 2023. If cash violence could make a difference, the CDC would have crushed Senator Darius Dillon in two successive elections.
As indicators of early warning become self-evident, we wish to call on the Council of Churches, Inter-faith Mediation, Muslim Council, Civil Society, political leaders, our international partners and well-meaning Liberians to – in the strongest possible terms condemn Sunday’s attack on peaceful religious assembly – targeted at Christ Faith Chapel Ministry of Evangelist, Prince Y. Johnson. In 14 years – instability plunged our country into the abyss. We needn’t remind ourselves of such ugly path.
Lest we forget, it was the same abuse of the fundamental rights of others that dragged our country into war…If a country now being led by a so-called former Peace Ambassador cannot keep the peace – we are doomed! But let no one make any silly mistake! No one person has a monopoly over acts of violence.
