By Lincoln G. Peters
Heated verbal exchanges have erupted between President George Manneh Weah and Liberia’s former Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations, Amb. Lewis G. Brown.
Both statesmen have resorted to calling each other names.
On the pulpit at his Forkay Klon Jlaleh Family Fellowship Church on Sunday, 2 October 2022 in the Rehab Community, President Weah said Amb. Brown is a complete rebel.
He was reacting to a comment attributed to Amb. Brown, who is said to have suggested that President Weah will not contest the pending 2023 presidential and legislative elections.
But President Weah said he did not know what Amb. Brown meant by saying such a thing.
“Well, I want to tell him (Amb. Brown), he thinks he is a rebel but other people [are] crazy more than him,” said President Weah.
Last month Amb. Brown declared his support for the presidential bid of opposition leader Alexander B. Cummings, citing his ability, competence and integrity to transform Liberia with real change.
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He claimed that Amb. Brown, a former Liberian Information Minister, is somebody that does not have any comprehension about diplomacy.
According to President Weah, Amb. Brown was fired by the past administration because he voted against the United States of America while serving at the United Nations.
Weah argued that the Amb. Brown does not know nor understand international diplomacy at all.
He said further that Amb. Brown does not understand the traditional relationship between America and Liberia.
He accused Amb. Brown of being allegedly very disobedient and disrespectful to leadership authority.
President Weah said this also led to Amb. Brown being fired from the international mission.
Responding to President Weah’s allegation Sunday evening, 2 October, Amb. Brown said the President’s alleged threat and allegation against him are reckless.
Brown said it’s now time that Liberians bow their heads in shame and ask themselves how their country got on this path.
He alleged that President Weah is making all of these statements because he had endorsed Mr. Cummings, the political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC).
“I am not afraid of you. I sacrificed too much for my country for you to think you can run me out of it,” said Amb. Brown.
Amb. Brown rejected President Weah’s claim that he is a rebel.
He clarified that he is not a rebel, and at no time did he ever support any rebel group to unseat a democratic President as President Weah allegedly did.
“You cannot frighten me. You have power, money and so, maybe you can even initiate army robber and petrol bomb on my house that is possible in you range and you have warned me that you are capable of doing that,” Amb. Brown alleged.
He insisted that he will not be chased out of Liberia by President Weah, claiming to know what the president is afraid of.
“You think this presidency is an entitlement? You must have. Sorry,’’ Amb. Brown noted.
He indicated that it’s so frustrating that President Weah will use the pulpit of God and the word of the Almighty to threaten the life of another person.
He said he took President Weah’s statement seriously, claiming that what he said at his Church was a coded message that he was sending to him (Amb. Brown).
“You cannot run me away from this country. President Weah, I give too much to this country for you to scare me,” Amb. Brown said.
“President Weah, I am here by choice. I respect public service to my country. You can threaten my life but you will not run me out of Liberia,” he noted.
The former Information Minister alleged that President Weah counts himself as a man of peace, but on one face he is a rebel.
Amb. Brown said President weah is yet to answer to a claim by Mr. Cummings that he is a rebel, and that he allegedly supported, financed and funded rebels.
He said it’s shameful that President Weah will be using God’s pulpit to insult and spread lies.
He accused the president of threatening the life of another man simply because he disagreed with him.
“I am taking this very seriously because this is a place where we are still trying to find out how auditors who were auditing government accounts died,” said Amb. Brown.
“We are still trying to know how they died and many others under this government.”
He alleged that the country is now a place for shipment of drugs.
Responding to the issue about voting against the United States, Amb. Brown defended his decision.
He said he voted against the United States of America because the issues that were voted upon were not issues of the United States, rather Israel.
He also clarified that at no time did he ever walk behind the current government to give him a job.
Rather, he alleged, it was the President who requested to see him in a meeting and pleaded with him to serve as Ambassador to Nigeria. Brown said he turned down the offer.
