Montserrado County late Senator Geraldine Dor-Sherif, is clearly a victim of mixed characterization by both foes and friends, even in her grave.
The nation has been mourning since her passing on 10 February from protracted illness at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana, exactly four days following her 52nd natal day.
The late Senator Doe-Sherif was buried over the weekend following official wake-keepings and funeral rites here, occasions that were sometimes characterized by both grieved and emotionally-charged atmosphere.
In signing the Book of Condolence recently for the late senator, President George Manneh Weah described Madam Doe-Sherif as a “true patriot and a pillar of Liberia’s contemporary women movement.” But the campus-based Student Unification Party (SUP) of the University of Liberia thinks the President sheered crocodile tears, having earlier branded the woman, who once was chairperson for his now ruling Congress for Democratic Change party as “traitor and betrayal.”
While paying tribute at wake-keepings for the late Senate Doe-Sherif in the Rotunda of the Capitol Friday, 15 March SUP Chairman Carlos T. Edison, noted the fallen Senator was “chased and bashed” out of the CDC, and the party was already planning to unseat her in the 2020 Senatorial Elections even while she was in her dying bed. Yet, here was President Weah, Standard Bearer of the CDC, eulogizing her as “true patriot and a pillar of Liberia’s contemporary women movement.”
The apparent contradiction as obviously noted by the student group vividly exposed how people, particularly politicians, rain praises on bitter enemies once they are gone to the great beyond.
Such deceitful flowerings are common place in our society today. People are noted for saying all sorts of good things about the dead rather than when they are alive.
We should learn to accept people for who they are or for principles they uphold no matter how close or distance we are from them. In other words, tolerance in the midst of divergent views or thoughts is healthy for peaceful co-existence.
The scenario involving the late Senator Geraldine Doe-Sherif and the now ruling Congress for Democratic Change as pointed out by the SUP leadership should teach us to tolerate one another as Liberians.
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Perhaps the late Geraldine never knew how to play deceit in her politics. She was bold in saying it as she saw it. That should never mean she was an enemy, a betrayal or a traitor. She only spoke her mind and feelings with no evil intent, a character worth emulating.
