Despite some commitments to co-exist, Liberia’s brutal civil war had left years of bitter relationships between citizens from Nimba and Grand Gedeh Counties because there were events when the war took tribal lines, and Liberians killed each other senselessly.
Monrovia, April 11, 2024: Grand Gedeh County Senator and former Liberian top warlord Thomas Yaya Nimely has opened ethnic wounds in an outburst against the maltreatment of his kinsmen by the people of Nimba County.
In Senate chambers this week, Nimely explained that Grand Gedeans have opened their arms of friendship with Nimbaians, allowing intermarriages and property acquisition in his county, but Nimbaians are not reciprocating.
“Today, we can boast more than 17,000 Nimbaians in Grand Gedeh County. They are in every village and town, digging gold, setting traps, marrying our sisters, loving our wives—they are all over the place,” said Mr. Nimely.
He directed his complaint to Nimba County’s political ‘godfather,’ Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, another former Liberian warlord under whose rebel command then-sitting President Samuel Kanyon Doe was brutally murdered.
“Nimba County is not reciprocating. You are not accepting Krahn people into Nimba County. That is a serious problem for me,” Senator Nimely complained.
“If we accept you and your children, your brothers are buying land, and they’re living with us, and we are inter-marrying, you should have that moral and religious obligation to accept us,” he continued.
Senator Nimely said every Krahn person who lives in Nimba will have to lie that they are either Grebo or Kru.
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Citing some examples, he told a story of a Nimba lady who was so much in love with a Krahn man that she decided to take him to her parents.
Sen. Nimely said that upon realizing that their daughter had brought a Krahn man, the lady was told that the man had to leave Nimba.
However, he narrated that the man died from poisoning through liquor in one week after the lady refused to allow her man to leave.
Additionally, Sen. Nimely said another Krahn man also died from liquor poisoning in Nimba.
In response, Nimba Senator Prince Yormie Johnson said what his colleague did was not good but to disgrace the people of Nimba.
Johnson said he had just heard from Nimely that someone from Grand Gedeh had been poisoned, noting that they both visit each other’s offices, and it was not fair to bring the matter in public.
“What you said today was a disgrace to the people of Nimba. I have been here long, that did not come to your attention, to our attention,” said Johson.
He questioned Grand Gedeh Senator Zoe Emmanuel Pennue and why he did not reveal this information if he knew of Grand Gedeans being poisoned by Nimbaians.
Sen. Johnson argued that during the past election, Sen. Nimely urged the people of Grand Gedeh not to vote for his Nimba kinsmen.
Johnson lamented that Nimely has again indicted the people of Nimba for not allowing the people of Grand Gedeh to migrate to Nimba.
“Everyone is allowed to migrate [to] whatever county they want to go to. If you keep yourself conservative and don’t travel and settle there, well, it’s up to you,” said Johnson.
He called on his colleague, Sen. Nimely, to maintain the peace in spoken words and in all that he does.
Jail to Nimely and Yormie. They are morally bankrupt to talk about unity, peace and coexistence because they are the cause of the hatred and suspicion between the two tribes
I know it is a difficult thing to ask, but could you guys just see each person as a Liberian without attaching an ethnicity? It bleeds my heart. Over the the year I have grown to love Vice President Koung so much just because of how he has started from scratch and navigated his was on the political landscape of our country. I see hi as a Liberian whose example is worth emulating in many ways. We don’t belong to the same county. But that doesn’t matter to me. Our history reminds us of some very ugly things that happened during our civil war, but we need to heal together as a country and not as individual ethnic groups. Our elders need to champion this cause. The two senators need to do more to ensure that ethnicity should be a force for good. It should never divide us.
I know it is a difficult thing to ask, but could guys just see each person as a Liberian without attaching an ethnicity? It bleeds my heart. Over the the year I have grown to love Vice President Koung so much just because of how he has started from scratch and navigated his was on the political landscape of our country. I see hi as a Liberian whose example is worth emulating in many ways. We don’t belong to the same county. But that doesn’t matter to me.
Our history reminds us of some very ugly things that happened during our civil war, but we need to heal together as a country and not as individual ethnic groups. Our elders need to champion this cause. The two senators need to do more to ensure that ethnicity should be a force for good. It should never divide us.
This is the reason that making the war and economic crime courts relevant or necessary for all those people who causing or had caused heinous crime against the Liberian people face justice.