Liberia’s Problem: Unless Our “Minds and Attitudes” Are Changed…

For weeks now in Liberia, the air-waves and newspapers pages continue to be saturated with calls by some Liberians for President Ellen Johnson-Sierleaf to resign continue to be persistent. “Corruption, nepotism, as well as abject poverty” continue to be at the core of the huge media advocacy for the resignation of the President. Of late, some Liberians in the United States of America join the fray, which culminated into the Tuesday, September 24, 2013 ‘protest against the President of Liberia and the Unity Party Government at the Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, East 47th in New York as world leaders gathered for the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

According to a coalition of Diaspora Liberian organizations under the banner of Concerned Liberians Against Corruption and Impunity or CLACI, in collaboration with the Movement of Liberians Against Corruption or MOLAC, the current Liberian Government under Madam Sirleaf has failed miserably to deal with rampant corruption, impunity, abject poverty, affordable healthcare for Liberians and the deplorable educational system, which she referred to as a “mess”. According to them, the current trend of ‘ineffective leadership’ in Liberia is a perfect antecedent of renewed violence in their beloved country and, if unchecked, the relative peace and security enjoyed through the assistance of the international community would be endangered.

In as much as  the actions by our compatriots at home and abroad may be seen as ‘democracy at work’’. We must also hope and pray that these advocacies and protest actions don’t instigate violence in our home, but serve as guide to renewal only. The foregoing is against the backdrop of calls in certain quarters of the Liberian society for the resignation of the President and establishment of an interim government – to this, we disagree. Liberia’s political system has, for decades now, been characterized by protests/demonstrations, coups, as well as ‘sentimental’’ hatred, culminating into years of devastating intermittent civil conflicts causing unspeakable and wanton destruction of lives and property “planned, organized and executed’ by Liberians abroad.

Listening to the negative utterances from the mouths of some of those who claim to either be part or at the core of the so-called “Ellen Step-down” Campaign on public radio and Television Stations in Monrovia, as well as a few diasporas Liberian support to such campaign, it is worth-wide for any well-meaning Liberian, who actually experienced the previous conflict, to vehemently disagree with such trends. If Sir Winston Churchill’s “it is better to jaw-jaw, than to war, war” is a concept to go by, we think it is absolutely the path on which the people of Liberia must thrive as a way of maintaining the peace won by all of us, with the help of the international community.

While it may not all be rosy under the current Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Administration, we must all share the blame for whatever “negative roles”  we, whether in the Diaspora or at home have played and continue to play to the detriment of progress since the end of our years of fratricidal civil conflicts. The fact that we have and continue not to be committed and sincere with our country and people we one way or the other lead,  we must all share the blame for such socio-economic and political injustices.

In view of the foregoing, and borrowing from Liberia’s former  Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Lawrence K. Bropleh, unless we change our minds and attitudes toward each other and our country, the governance process will continue to remain shaky, while our country’s unity and growth will remain stagnant.