“On this Mother’s Day, I will remain true to myself and speak as I see it. In 2017, I supported Former VP Joseph Nyema Boakia’s bid for the Presidency despite the extremely poor treatment, TRC Commissioners received at the hands of the Government of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her Unity Party, with JNB as the VP.
By Massa Washington, Former TRC Commissioner, Contributing Writer
I was patriotic enough, conciliatory enough and magnanimous enough to lick my wounds and put my weight behind JNB because I felt that given ALL, he was the better candidate. Some of you from the Unity Party know this.
Unfortunately this year, I will NOT be supporting the Joseph Boakai/Prince Johnson ticket. I feel strongly that choosing the party of Prince Johnson, is a punch in the face to victims of the Liberian war, especially women who were debased and their dignity stolen from them by the now closest partner of Joseph Boakai, Mr. Prince Johnson.
As a woman and human rights advocate and someone who has won coverted local and international human rights awards including for women, supporting this ticket will be out of character and hypocritical to everything that I stand for.
Today, I see people hailing this JNB/PYJ partnership as rescue 1 & 2. We’ve seen this horror movie before. Some people spoke similarly as some of you are, during the peace process when we were trying to end the war. They instituted the appeasement of warlords and made unlimited concessions to warlords and rebel forces. We ended with numerous peace conferences all over the place and more than 22 failed peace Accords, with the ultimate disgrace of having multiple interim governments, including useless Council of States, represented by warlords and their henchmen.
A monster like the Butcher of Monrovia, George Dweh, who murdered the entire Johnny Nah family, opened Mrs Famatta Sherman Nah’s stomach in her 8 Month of pregnancy and butchered the baby as well, ended up being Speaker of the National Transitional Legislative Assembly.
Those criminals did nothing but loot the national treasury and spat on the graves of their victims. And this trend continues whereas mass murderers and serial rapists who should be facing prosecution for their crimes, are being hailed by some of you.
This so-called “best ticket”, will not win the Presidency. If it happens, I will come back on social media and say I was wrong and you’re right.
It is hard to say Happy Mother’s Day at this time! Massa Washington
