The Liberia National Students Union (LINSU) president Mohammed Kamara says LINSU disrupted the 46th Anniversary Celebration of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA) on 23 March to claim organizers’ attention that they did not include LINSU in the program.
Some top politicians here were forced to flee for safety when thugs from LINSU besieged the G. W. Gibson High School Campus on Capitol Bye-Pass where MOJA was holding its anniversary program.
Campus – based Students Unification Party (SUP) Standard Bearer Martin K.N. Kollie of the University of Liberia had been selected by MOJA to serve as a panelist during the 46th Anniversary celebration.
But MOJA’s decision to select Mr. Kollie did not please LINSU, as its president Kamara raises argument that the decision was a disservice to his institution.
According to Mr. Kamara, LINSU has been in the vanguard of students’ advocacy struggle along with MOJA in the late 1970s for social change and peaceful environment for students’ participation in the decision – making process of the country.
“When LINSU was struggling for a political environment” that protects, defends, and sustains the political advocacy for their colleagues who were being intimidated, harassed, and sometimes prevented from acquiring education in the country by those in power those days, Mr. Kamara wonders where was the Students Unification Party in the struggle.
MOJA was founded in 1973 as a leftist Pan-African movement dedicated to the struggle for social justice and democracy in Liberia with chapters in Ghana and The Gambia.
Some of its pioneering members include Henry BoimahFahnbulleh, Dew Tuan-Wreh Mason, River Gee County Senator, Conmany B. Wesseh, and former interim president Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, among others.
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To the disbelief of Dr. Tokpa Nah Tipoteh, Senator Wesseh, the President of the Liberia National Bar Association Cllr. TiawanGongloe and other guests, MOJA’s anniversary celebration for this year was disrupted when LINSU thugs stormed the event on Saturday at G.W. Gibson.
A member of the progressive community, John H. T. Stewart, was giving the history of MOJA when over 75 thugs dressed in T-shirts with inscription Liberia National Student Union, LINSU, invaded the auditorium.
They compelled Mr. Stewart to quietly leave the stage, as the hooligans sang anti-democratic songs, branding the gathering as a disservice to the student community for selecting SUP leaders Martin K.N. Kollie and Carlos Edison to serve as discussants.
LINSU president Kamara claims that the presence of SUP officials was intended to downplay LINSU’s contributions to the changing political process of the University of Liberia and the nation in particular that allows campus – based students politics to be retained.
He maintains that LINSU’s action was intended to remind MOJA Anniversary organizers that LINSU had something to say on behalf of its membership which was allegedly never recognized by MOJA anniversary planners.
Meanwhile, opposition Liberty Party (LP) has strongly condemned the recent action of LINSU, led by its President Mohammed Kamara for disrupting the 46th anniversary of MOJA.
LP discloses that it is very disheartening that LINSU that claims to be in the vanguard of students politics and struggled for social justice would behave in such a manner and faction that is condemnable by every Liberian.
An official of the LP issued the condemnation during an interview with local broadcaster Truth FM on 26 March.
By Emmanuel Mondaye –Edited by Winston W. Parley
