Monrovia – When Mr. Abraham Darius Dillon, the chair of political affairs in the opposition Liberty Party took a decision to walk out of last Thursday’s meeting between President George Manneh Weah and members of the opposition, the fiery and outspoken critic of the government instantly came under fire from some supporters of the president, drawing stinging rebuke from Mr. Eugene Fahngon, Deputy Minister of Information for Public Affairs.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Mr. Fahngon wasted no time in turning to the social media Facebook in a bid to slam the Liberty Party official: “When you drop out of third grade, you will walk out of a STATE meeting because you are ignorant,” Mr. Fahngon ranted. In another post, he averred, in reference to Mr. Dillon: “You refuse to go to school. You want put mouth on a President you cannot match in any shape or form.”
LP Leader Denies Dillon Fallout
Mr. Dillon’s walkout dominated much of the discussions following the meeting. In fact, many took to social media to suggest that Mr. Dillon had fallen out with the party’s political leader, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence because he was not allowed to speak during the meeting with the President.
In a bid to allay those suggestions, the Senator said Saturday that she and Mr. Dillon were on the same page. “Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, the political leader of the Liberty Party, and the Chair for Political affairs A.B. Darius Dillon, are on the best of terms,” the Senator posted on her personal Facebook page Saturday.
Tipoteh ‘Knew Nothing About the Meeting’
Besides the noise surrounding Mr. Dillon’s departure, media awaiting the outcome of last Thursday’s meeting took note of the early departure of Dr. Togbah-Nah Tipoteh, an economist, educator, politician and the founder and leader of the Movement for Justice in Africa(MoJA), who was seen leaving the meeting hall shortly before it was about to start. Many assumed and speculated afterward that the veteran politician, like Mr. Dillon had walked out on the President. However, when contacted at the weekend, Dr. Tipoteh told FrontPageAfrica that his departure has been taken out of context.
Said Dr. Tipoteh: “Thanks for contacting me. I knew nothing about the meeting, as I was not invited to the meeting. I went to the Bella Casa Hotel to meet with the Owner of the Hotel, Mr. Amin Modad, who is a Member of The Ecumenical Economic Policy Committee, which I Chair. We met upstairs in the Hotel and after our meeting I left the Hotel. Although the Media was after me to make some comment during my entry into and exit from the Hotel. I made no comment whatsoever!.”
In the hours following last week’s meeting, Mr. Dillon himself has been airing out his views as to why he walked out of the meeting before it came to a climax. “I thought is was a political stunt and spin game for the president. We advised the alliance – – Liberty Party, Alternative National Congress and the former ruling Unity Party – that we honor the president’s invitation, howbeit short notice.”
Mr. Dillon said he was surprised that key members of the government through the ministry of information and the president’s office came after him the way they did, particularly about his need to go back to school. “You know, when the government as an institution start to attack me it means that there are no limitations to the rule. We have a lot of misfits in this government – some with fake documents, some with the documents don’t know a Jing thing, don’t even know what they are doing, that once they praise the president it means performance delivery on the job.”
“Everybody cannot bow down to the Golden Image. Shadrach, Meshack and Abenego refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar. They said even if we will get burned in the furnace fire, we will burn but we will not worship another image because we believe that there is a God. Why are we making it a rule, a law to worship a president – if you don’t’ do it then you don’t belong in the country?”
– Mr. Abraham Darius Dillon, Chair of Political Affairs, Opposition Liberty Party
As a member of the three-party alliance, Mr. Dillon said the President failed to show respect to the heads of those political institution. “I would be blunt to say that the disrespect shown to our political leaders by the way the communication was written, the time it was sent and the time the meeting was slated for. If my political leader was out of the country, her flight was supposed to detour to come to Liberia because the President want to meet her? If Cummings is out of the country, he’s supposed to take a flight immediately and come fly back to Liberia because the President of Liberia want to meet him on short notice? If Joseph Boakai is on his way to Lofa – and he actually is, or flying out of the country, should he cancel? I mean, no respect.”
But in a statement at the weekend, President Weah’s office declared that it is a rarity in Africa for sitting Presidents to bring opposition parties around one table in six months of leadership in the cause of unity, reconciliation and political open-mindedness and welcome their inputs in the governance process for sustained national development and cohesion.
The President’s office described the gathering as a long step toward ‘busting the myth’ and leading by example. “The one-day red-lettered meeting with political leaders only sheds light on his desire for a united, peaceful, reconciled and developed Liberia.”
Nothing Reconciliatory in Subtle Attacks
In contrast, Mr. Dillon believes that the meeting was anything but reconciliatory, pointing out an assertion made by Mr. George Dweh:
Mr. Dillon also threw jabs at Mr. Dweh, a former speaker of the erstwhile National Transitional Assembly who took to the microphone to sing the president’s praise. Mr. Dillon quoted Mr. Dweh as saying: ‘Mr. president you know we endorsed you in the second round and we here you know, don’t mind this UP and ANC and Liberty Party saying they are the real opposition, we are a member of the parties that endorsed you.’
Mr. Dillon also described the president’s closing remarks as disappointing. “It only exposed the inability and lack of capacity of the president to govern this country. In his closing remarks, he went on ranting – the president said why we cant pass dual citizenship bill so his son, Timothy can be able to play for Lone Star. Dual citizenship bill with George Weah is about his son. The President said to fight corruption is difficult because all of us related in the country. Benoni Urey said we must bring war crimes court here even if he will be affected. The President said, some of the people to be affected by war crimes court are in the government, so we have to be careful what we are doing. That’s the leader of the country talking so. The President personally went after Cole Bangalu, the head of UP delegation, saying Bangalu that his pekin, he helped to pay his school fees, he helped to send him to school. His cabinet people were there even though he called political leaders, leaders of political parties, your assistant ministers all in the hall.”
Mr. Dillon says he also saw the gathering as a contradiction in that while the president is calling for reconciliation, his supporters are out on Facebook attacking people. “Does he listen to his public officials speak to Liberians. Does respect only belong to the president and people in government? What’s about other national leaders? What’s about them? Alex Cummings spoke to the economy of the country and proffered suggestions as to how he things we should go. Sam Mannah, the President’s press secretary wrote a commentary and posted it on the Executive Mansion website and said to run a government you don’t need strategy. Being President is different from selling Coca Cola. What a disparaging, disrespectful response to the kind suggestions, constructive suggestion made by Alex Cummings, coming directly from the office of the president, posted on the Executive Mansion website then you say opposition just destructive, they can’t make suggestions.”
Mr. Dillon went on to say that opposition suggestions are often taken out of context. “You only want people to sing praises. I don’t know how to. The kind of praises I like to sing are of common good. When you do it right, I will praise it – and in praising you people say we looking for jobs or when we commend the president for being on the right track- and you want to support him because it is in the country’s interest. Our kind of opposition is to be constructive, support and commend where necessary and criticize when it is needed.”
Mr. Dillon said it was strange that the President called opposition to discuss serious matter but had nothing specific to talk about. “You don’t tell us specifically what you need us to talk about, what specifically you want from us, and just say we should talk. And you fill the room with some of the parties whose names some of the journalists in this country cannot remember.”
Mr. Dillon said the opposition expected the President to lay the basis for the invitation. “We wanted him to give us a bit of overview of his stewardship of the country, the challenges and where he seeks our support and where he wants us to support him.”
Mr. Dillon said some opposition political parties took issue with the organization of the meeting and bundling the major opposition parties with those who endorsed the CDC and currently serving in the administration. “In that room, you had LINU, the party that was founded by Cllr. Winston Tubman, and he left long time. It is headed by Nathaniel Blama, who is supposed to be head of that party, he was appointed by the president and serves as executive director of the Environmental Protection Agency. , he supported the president in the run-off and he takes the microphone and telling the president everything is all right.”
The LP official also took issue with what he said was the presence of political parties that have been silent while others have been raising red flags on numerous missteps by the ruling party.
“All of these parties with the exception of UP, ANC, LP and ALP – all these other parties have not said a word since the inception of this administration. MOVEE, the party of former Central Bank of Liberia governor Mills Jones, was represented by Kimbaya, its executive chairman. Kimbaya is appointed by this president as deputy minister of foreign affairs. He works under Gbezhonga Findley. He comes to the meeting as a member of the opposition. His boss is moderating the interactive aspect of the meeting and he takes the microphone, what do you expect him to say?”
The LP official frowned on the three-minute time allotted to each member of the opposition to speak. “I really though it was a waste of my time. That meeting today, does not impact the rate in a positive way. The exchange rate remains the same will remain the same or may increase tomorrow morning. That meeting today, does not give home that the school fees will decrease, it does not give home that for anything that’s going to change, it was a complete waste of my time.”
This is why he said, he quietly left that room. “I’m supposed to be nothing, I was supposed to be maybe a completely uneducated man, I should have no relevant at all, I should be a quote on quote nobody left the room and it should become news over president calling political leader over the country. It only tell the publicity stunt, the political stunt that the president wanted to gain out of today didn’t happen. So, it was a transferred aggression. I quietly left, I didn’t speak to no journalist when I left – and all of a sudden it was like Darius Dillon left. Yes, I left in protest but not in noisy protest that distracted the meeting. In fact, I thought that nobody will even realize that I had left.”