Liberia: Henry Costa Woos University of Liberia Students

Monrovia – Ahead of the much-talked-about June 7, planned protest, Mr. Henry Pedro Costa appeared on the main campus of the University of Liberia to continue his canvass for more Liberians to join his protest.

The protest, according to Costa, unarguably the biggest talk-show host in Liberia, along with other members of the “Council of Patriots (COP)” dubbed, #SavetheState, is aimed at directly getting President George Manneh Weah’s attention to satisfactorily meet up with certain demands they have.

So, on the Capitol Hill campus of the University Friday, May 24, hundreds of university students from different academic backgrounds and employees, gathered in the square to listen to Costa, who had been invited by the campus-based Student Unification Party (SUP) to speak to their student partisans.

Costa ascended the stairs leading to the famous UL bell and stood above the crowd where he was very visible to everyone who had come to get his message of June 7.

Again, his was the usual message about how the Liberian Government under President Weah has failed Liberians, who voted for him to bring the necessary “change” that he promised.

Costa was frequently forced to pause his mesmerizing extemporaneous message with rounds of applaud from his listeners.

His message was overwhelmingly endorsed by most of those listening to him and some pledged to join him in his quest on June 7. However, there were some in the crowd, who felt that the need doesn’t exist to hold a protest against the government.

Before Costa left the stage, which was necessitated by the rain which began to drizzle, he encouraged his listeners: “God bless you, God bless the University of Liberia; see you all on June 7 so that we can #SavetheState.”

Even when he descended the stairs, huge crowd still followed him until he entered the offices of SUP for some consultations with the party’s leadership.

In an exclusive interview with Mr. Martin K. N. Kollie, leader of SUP, he told FrontPageAfrica that SUP has endorsed the June 7 protest and will, singlehandedly, bring onto the streets not less 50,000 protesters from the student community. Many months before COP called for the June 7 protest, SUP had craved 60 reasons, based on which they are calling for President Weah to step down as President of Liberia.