Fellow Liberians, while it is certainly true Liberians need peace at all cost, it will be very wrong to start finding peace from the surface without first exploring the root cause to our problems.
Peace initiative in Liberia must be inclusive with representatives of the indigenous people, representatives of the indigenous returnees, representatives of the family of President Tolbert, representatives of the families of the 13 former Government officials that were brutally killed in 1980, representatives of the family of General Thomas Quiwonkpah, representatives of the family of President Samuel K. Doe, representatives of the family of President Charles Taylor, representatives of our current President (for her role in aiding and abating the NPFL as she claimed at TRC), representatives of all other former rebel groups and their leaders and representatives of each one of our 15 sub-political divisions at one table in search of a lasting peace.
I will like to thank my dear brother Ambassador Weah and President Sirleaf for attempting at bringing peace to Liberia through a soccer initiative, effort that did not materialize for one reason or the other. What I see wrong with President Sirleaf and Ambassador Weah’s peace initiative is the lack of aggrieved parties involvement. While soccer did not initiate our compounding and swept under the rugs problems, it can be used as a tool to ease our pains, but it stood in the way of peace instead of making one because it was wrongfully applied. What went wrong this time around?
Below, I want the Liberian people to carefully assess and critically analyze my ten points BITTER PILLS peace plan for Liberia which stands to be the critical chock between UNITY and DISUNITY in our country. But first, here are three major problems Liberians must overcome in our quest to securing lasting peace.
PROBLEM NUMBER ONE: We must understand that the indigenous returnees are part of Africans sold as slaves to westerners and taken to western countries. We also must note that during slavery in America and other places, our indigenous returnees were subjected to hardship and were treated like second class HUMAN. When they were emancipated, the group that came to the country now called LIBERIA knew their identity and their willingness to return to AFRICA, the land of their mothers must not be ignored. Though they were somewhat rejected by some of people they met on the ground, they stood their ground and later declared independence and established a government.
They went wrong when they decided to subject indigenous Liberians to the same treatment meted upon them by their slave masters. Indigenous returnees callous treatment of the indigenous people of Liberia allowed for the coup that savagely overthrew a government headed by an indigenous returnee and brutally killed 13 former Government officials for corruption and misrule. I personally thought they would have been treated differently if their only crimes were corruption and misrule which were later practiced to their pinnacle by coup leaders.
What our indigenous soldiers never knew at the time when they were killing those 13 Government officials is that, if not all of those indigenous returnees they murdered, some were children of the civil right movement of America, with friends and families such as congressman Charlie Rangle, the late congressman Donald Payne, former congressman Jessey Jackson Jr., Jessie Jackson Sr. Congressman Cummings, Johnny Lewis and Rev. Al Sharpton (Just to name a few), all were rooted in the US congress and other high places in America.
Today, the vicious acts of the indigenous people against the indigenous returnees is hurting us in the society where the indigenous people of Liberia don’t have a big brother to make our case like the indigenous returnees who are well attached to the black caucus of the US congress. On the other hand, the white people of America saw things differently; they wanted indigenous Liberians to be treated right and with respect by our more powerful indigenous returnee brothers and sisters.
PROBLEM NUMBER TWO: We, the indigenous people of this land are very complacent when it comes to standing our ground as the sole owners of the Republic of Liberia. But how complacent can we become in this day and age when the internet world is not on our side because of our own utterances and actions? How about the video recording of the killing of those 13 former government officials trending on YouTube? How about the video recording of former President Samuel K. Doe being brutally mutilated and subsequently killed that is trending on YouTube? How about our own utterances such as “whether you killed my mom and pop I will vote for you and “whether you know book or not I will vote for you?”
Whether the above utterances meant something to us at the time or if they were our way of expressing dissatisfaction with the system we found ourselves under or whether we were just being tired and fed up with those representing us, we must understand today that we were shooting ourselves in the foot when we sang those things. Why aren’t our educated people explaining our views to the world so we can be vindicated by virtue of related facts? Do we actually know what is good or bad for us as a people?
Why do certain Liberians hate the indigenous returnees and the Mandingo people so much and why certain indigenous returnees and certain Mandingo people hate certain Liberians so much? Aren’t we one people who supposed to have one common goal? Why don’t we learn to love one another and coexist peacefully and forget our bitter past? Do we know that things are rapidly changing around us and therefore our minds need to develop or change the same way things are rapidly changing around us? If we don’t change our way of thinking at this time, when will we? Do we know that because of those utterances the world perceives us as people that cannot be trusted with themselves?
PROBLEM NUMBER THREE: Why the people of Nimba and Grand Gedeh pretend to love and respect one another and at same time hate one another with passion underneath the surface? Why the Lorma and Mandingo people pretend to love and respect one another and at the same time hate one another with passion underneath the surface? Why the Krahn and Sarpo people pretend to love and respect one another and at the same time hate one another with passion underneath the surface? Why do we nationally hate one another with so much passion? Why not make peace for the sake of our children and future generations?
Fellow Liberians, I strongly believe before we get total peace and reconciliation in our country, we must critically look at the following ten-point peace plan for Liberia. This may be considered the bitter pills of our time, but, I believe it has the proclivity to cure and unite us and at the same time discourage seeds of discord lurking in and around our country. We must accept responsibility in areas of wrong, apologize to one another and move on as one people tasking ourselves with the ultimate responsibility to fight prolonged hatred, corruption, abject poverty and severe neglect in our country:
TEN-POINT PLAN
Plan One:
Chief Representatives of the indigenous people of Liberia must first symbolically apologize to the indigenous returnees for selling them as slave to Westerners and for rejecting them after returning to motherland-AFRICA. We must understand that the indigenous returnees were only coming back to AFRICA where they were taken from. If the Chinese and other people are welcome, how about our own?
Plan Two:
Chief Representatives of the indigenous returnees must thereafter symbolically apologize to the indigenous people of Liberia for treating them like second class HUMAN as they too were treated in America and other places. Remember Kunta Kante and the movie color purple?
Plan Three:
Chief Representatives of the indigenous people must on behalf of their soldiers/children symbolically apologize to the indigenous returnees’ children whose parents were brutally murdered by their indigenous soldiers/children.
Plan Four:
Liberian leader must symbolically apologize to the Mandingo people for making them to feel rejected for so long. The Mandingo tribe is found among the 16 tribes of liberia and the notion that they are not Liberians is wrong to say the least. We must wake up from our stooper.
Plan Five:
Chief Representatives of the Krahn people will symbolically apologize to the Gio, Mano, Gbi and Doru people for brutally murdering General Quiwonkpar, a son of Nimba County.
Plan Six:
Chief Representatives of the Gio, Mano, Gbi and Doru people will symbolically apologize to the krahn people for brutally murdering President Samuel K. Doe, a son of Grand Gedeh County.
Plan Seven:
Chief representative of all former rebel leaders and their supporters including our current president will symbolically apologize to the Liberian people for their bad.
Plan Eight:
Chief Representatives of we, the Liberian people will symbolically thank the international community for standing by us when we needed them most.
Plan Nine:
A prayer service by both Christians and Muslims will be held thereafter and followed by massive dissemination of the good news throughout Liberia by way of local radio stations, print media and through other obvious initiatives.
Plan Ten:
Unity sporting activities must be organized by LFA, Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of INTERNAL AFFAIRS to educate our youth and future generation that hatred can only lead destruction but with unity, progress is assured. If this peace plan is carefully worked on and implemented with the participation of all actors out of sincerity and clear heart, Liberia will be on the right course and all will be well with our people and country again.
About The Author:
Emmanuel A. Rogers is a Liberian hails from Lower Nimba. He is currently in the Diaspora (United States of America) due to the 14 year civil unrest in Liberia. Mr. Roger works as a Director at a New York Security Firm. He is married to Louisa Rogers of Maryland County; Republic of Liberia. EAR is a Father of eight (8) children. He studied Criminal Justice at Ashworth University. He is also the owner of Eastern Business Group Liberia Inc.