As Liberians across the country were eager Monday to listen to your final state of the Nation Address as required by our constitution, I thought it was germane to listen to Africa’s first female President.

I listened because I believe in the future of Liberia and wanted to hear what my government has done and the prospects that lie ahead. I listened because I thought you were going to discuss ways to remedy the country from the great recession that has befallen it.

Sincerely Madam President, when you started to speak about asking that we give thanks to God for what he’s done for our nation, I joined in prayers for consoling our nation and its people despite all that you did that could lead to war:brutality by your loyal police against innocent citizens of this country, the flagrant violation of our constitution, the killing of innocent people, the clamp down on media institutions and the total muzzling of the press, etc.

I thanked God for keeping our nation safe even after your police killed an innocent Liberian in 2011 at the CDC Headquarters. I thanked God for keeping our nation safe even after the killer of Shaki Kamara in West continues to live freely in our country. I thanked God for keeping our nation safe though the killer of Angel Togba enjoys the pardon of your government. I thanked God for keeping our nation safe though you failed to provide the 20,000 jobs you promised.

I must admit Madam President; I was very fascinated at the inception of your annual address. But little did I know that my fascination would soon turn to anger and deep sorrow of reflection on the lives of the ordinary masses of our people.

I was kind of confused when you said “ I have been a witness as our country has gone from civil unrest, dictatorship, anarchy, and war; from the abuse of children conscripted as soldiers, pervasive sexual violence, and economic collapse; and then, finally, to peace, elections, development, and an open and dynamic civil society”.

My question: is the current recession in the economy not happening under your watch? Was the imprisonment of Vandalark Patricks, Henry Costa, Rodney Sieh, etc., an encouragement of dynamic civil society?

Madam President, you talked about Liberia transitioning from sexual violence as though we are blind. Since you didn’t say it, let me remind you that sexual violence against children is on the rampage madam president. So when you tell us about the better society you’ve created, we’re left with nothing but to ask:  is she really sincere as her apologists’ claims?

The United Nation Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in its 2015 report on Liberia said” “rape is the second most commonly reported serious crime in Liberia,” with 803 cases in 2015 alone. Not a single county is spared from sexual violence against women and children during your tenure as our president.

The report also says  “only two percent of rapes and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) cases reported last year resulted in a conviction in court”- so Madam President what happened to the remaining 98% of the rape cases that were reported?

 Today in Liberia young girls see you as a role model, yet they suffer the worst forms of sexual assaults, discrimination, and vulnerability in the Liberian society.

The problem is not that we don’t have institutions but our institutions that are spearheaded by your cronies and friends are weak and lack the willpower to institute laws and make sure they are executed. These things are only happening because you’re bent on branding your image internationally for more awards, while your people continue to live in shackles and despair.

We will continue to remind you that you have an obligation to the Liberian people for you failed them. You cried for power and we gave you power yet you betrayed us. Do you know how many young women continue to live in trauma as a result of your failed justice system?

Do you know how many young girls are raped because you’ve failed to protect them? Montserrado where you live accounts for the highest number of rape cases in 2014 according to the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Development during the program of the 16 days of activism.

 You’ve refused to invest in the human resource capacity building of the younger generation. Remember that probably fifty plus years from now, our natural resources:  iron ore, gold, diamond, and others might be no longer around, the only resources we will have are the human skills that would solve some of our pressing problems.

The time for getting prepared for that time is now. What investment have you done relative to human resource capacity building? You must Stop telling us about a future you’ve ruined already; invest in the human mind. A few months from now, you’ll no longer be the president of Liberia.

You talked about the next generation of Liberia being “empowered through education and new technologies” as if you’ve built a better education system. How many Liberian students in Bong, Nimba, River Cess, Mary Land and other counties in Liberia knows or have access to technology?

 Your failure to invest in the future of Liberian students has led your facebook education Minister to let a private company decide the fate of our education system. This is because you and most of your government officials don’t have children attending Liberian schools. If some of them do, it must be in the luxurious schools! You’ve failed us and continue to promise more of the same.

No doubt Madam President, that you’re noted for delivering fine speeches and-and fancy policies that you never intend to implement. What are the fates of the so-called vision 2030, the Poverty Reduction Strategy and the Agenda for Transformation?

Our country’s economy is in shamble. Instead of investing money in the economy, you spent thousands of dollars on organizing meaningless “Miss Liberia” and non-priority programs. What’s the rationale behind “Miss Liberia”?

Will it create more jobs for the jobless and provide food for thousands of the ordinary people living below one United States dollar every day? You talked about stability in the economy while struggling men and women from Lofa to Sinoe continues to be robbed of their dignity by private corporations. What dignity have you brought to Liberian workers and the ordinary masses our people? About 60% or more of Liberians are unemployed and the vast majority of those that are employed are underpaid.

Madam President, know that democracy without accountability is a mere bluff. There’s institutional corruption in this country. Over the years we’ve seen bandits transferred from one ministry to another. You’ve protected crooks in this country as America protects Zionist Israel against the innocent Palestinian people. There’s not a single government agency in Liberia that is spared of corruption.

The LACC was created to deceive the Liberian people. It’s just a money consuming institution that employed some of your loyalists who have no vision of fighting corruption. With the rising wave of corruption in this country, how many corrupt government officials have been charged since the LACC was enacted into law?

When you talked about the Health Sector, I sincerely thought you were speaking about the different country until I remembered that you were delivering the State of the Nation Address.

The Health sector remains dilapidated. It is in total ruin because your government would rather use the monies meant for medicine on traveling, award ceremonies or embezzle them, yet your government officials continues to build homes in foreign countries. Your government is literally killing thousands of people every day for the decay you’ve created in the health sector.

When you steal money meant for medicine, you’re killing many people who depend on that medicine to be cured. Do you know how many women deliver babies on farms in rural Liberia? Do you know how many people die at the nation’s so-called referral hospital because of the corrupt nature of the people you appointed there? NO. And that is because you care less about the Liberian people.

In the 1970’s about 70% of the rice we consumed was produced in Liberia. Today, our country imports almost 95% of what we consume. That is because you’ve seen nothing in supporting Liberian farmers. You see nothing in agriculture; this is manifested in an agriculture ministry being located in the capital! Why?

Your statement that papa has made many stops was an insult to the suffering men in this country. It was something that “papa” will never forgive you for. You lied on “papa”. You promised job but only most of the “papas” that could technically be used as “mamas’ were given the opportunity.

You’re leaving with a broken legacy. But one thing I can assure you is that Liberia will crush all the ills you helped create in our country.

About the Author:

Ansumana Konneh believes in change, empowerment and innovation as a means of creating socio-economic transformations for the betterment of the ordinary men and women. He can be reached at: ansumana.konneh96@gmail.com or +231775926845

The African Union is taking terrific steps by introducing a Pan-African passport. In its just ended summit in Kigali- the AUC shines light and brings onboard discussions centering on a Pan-African Passport.

Dr. Nkosazana Dhlamini Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, asserted that a Pan-African Passport “is a steady step toward the objective of creating a strong, prosperous and integrated Africa driven by its own citizens and capable of taking its rightful place on the world stage”.

In her mind, it yields some sort of solutions to some of Africa’s long standing problems.

Many across the continent seem excited about a continental African passport that will put an end to trade barriers and non-access to borders by nationals of other African countries.

Many also think that it’s a remarkable roadmap to developing unity among African Countries – the dream of the United States of Africa as proposed by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first democratically elected African head of state.

Nkrumah freed his native country from British rule in 1957 and said that “the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of Africa”. In May 1993, in Addis Ababa, at a meeting of thirty two African head of States, he further warned, “African Unity now or we perish”.

Moreover, he admonished his comrades to lay down foundations of the United States of Africa for it would be late in the future. He brilliantly deliberated on the need for  a single African monetary system, defense mechanism, currency and passport. Unfortunately his proposals were rejected – which menaces Africa is yet to recover. 

As people have exuberantly subscribed to a Pan-African Passport-the realities they fail to see is the effects of the colonial boundaries coupled with the hate it has created in Africa.

The unsettled barriers which many have still not seen are the problems that need to be remedied first in achieving an African passport which will gradually lead to genuine steps towards unity.  

There are still a lot of barriers to be remedied, one of which is Xenophobia in South Africa. In April of 2015, we saw awful, violent and brutal acts committed against other Africans by South Africans, who claimed that they stole their jobs. Many were tortured, burned, wounded, while some lost their lives.

In addition, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan etc. have migration restrictions. Nationals of other African countries require VISA before entering these territories.

Today in Africa, when an African from Morocco tells you that he’s a Moroccan, it is quite different from an American saying I’m from Colorado. The intentions are just different!

The Americans see themselves to be the same-and would do anything to protect their union.  People are not judged on the basis of which state they come from. In a nutshell, what I am trying to point out is this:

The idea of producing a Pan – African passport is awesome but what needs to be prioritized most is ending the hatred that Africans still practiced against one another.

The current breed of leadership in Africa as George Ayittey would put “is a far cry from the ideological traditional breed of leadership that emerged in the 60’s and 70’s”- that surfaced the issue of a Pan-African Passport.

The leaders in the 60’s and 70’s such as Nkrumah, Nyerere, and Sekou Toure etc. were Pan-African conscious and were willing to sacrifice anything for the attainment of African Unity.

In February of 1966, when Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown, Sekou Toure called him and made him Vice President of the Guinean government.

Furthermore, when Miriam Makeba was exiled from South Africa following her subsequent harassment by the US government, she went to Guinea and- was appointed Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nation.

There are so many instances of such, like Nyerere giving Makeba a Tanzanian Passport, and Guinea giving Stockley Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and his family a space to stay in Guinea.

The pondering yet unanswered question is, do we currently have leaders like those in the 60’s and 70’s to pursue this cause for real? I guess no. Until we have that generation of leaders in Africa-a Pan-African Passport to me will be fruitless and a mere cliché.

While I’m not pessimistic about a Pan-African Passport, I think a lot has to be done to achieve the dreams of our revolutionary fathers. Unity is significant to that dream. With united Africans, a united Africa is sure.

About Author:

Ansumana M.M Konneh is a young Liberian student, and an ardent believer in the philosophy of Kwame Nkrumah. Email: ansumana.konneh96@gmail.com or 0775926845 

With all due respect many Liberians have miserably failed to come to the realization that “every generation out of relative obscurity must discover its mission, fulfil it betray or it” as propounded by the black existentialist and revolutionary – Frantz Fanon. The progressive forces in the 70s, 80s, and 90s in Liberia struggled within the context of their time just as any other revolutionaries with respect to the unfolding issues of the day.

These men struggled with all the fibber of their bodies to redeem the people from the shackles and yoke of oppression and massive poverty that enveloped the society where the masses of the people lacked political and economic freedom but were duped into believing that they could elect their own representatives. For years the masses of our people (indigenous) were held under the chains of kakistocratic regimes that treated them as colossal servants and pitiful echo-chambers and cannon folders.

The progressive forces were inspired by what was happening in the third world when oppressed people all over the globe were taking arms to redeem themselves. They admired Amica Cabral and his revolution in Guinea Bissau, Moses Samora Machel and his revolution in Mozambique, Moa Zedong and his revolution in China, Che Guevara and his revolution in Cuba, Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Modibo Keita in Mali, Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso,Patrice Lumumba in Congo etc. etc. The progressives came home after years of study to struggle not in search of jobs but the emancipation of the suppressed and maligned people of Liberia which is a true embodiment of every man who feels the injustices perpetrated against his people.

Most of the histories of Liberia or so that were written by subjective and right wing writers-writers that write in accordance with their personal view and opinions disregarding the true nature of what transpired, has been plastered with misconceptions and false vilifications of the men and women who ensured that the sons of the people could have a voice in the political space of our country; the people can sit on the radio stations today analyse or criticize, the newspapers writes independently without the knock of the mid night police, at the level of the national legislature both the upper and lower houses the sons of the people are represented. This is what the progressives fought for!

 Many conservatives over the years have had the guts to tell the Liberian people that the progressives are responsible for the chaos and destruction of the Liberian society. But what they dare not tell our people is why is it that after a hundred and sixty eight years of so-called sovereignty, there is not a single history of the people? Why is it that from the A-Z of your national history there is no history of the peasants, no history of the workers, no history of the shoe shine boys, no history of the rubber tapers and equally there is no history of our national heroes?: Edward Wilmot Blyden, Abert Porte, Juah Nimely, Sao Boso, H.Boima Fahnbulleh Sr, D. Tweh, Baccus Matthews etc. etc.

  It would be unrealistic and a dishonour to blame the progressives for radically confronting tyranny for “whenever there is injustice, there will be young men and women conscious enough to confront injustice” to quote Dr. H. Boima Fahnbulleh Jr. It would be a disservice to call men of conscience who struggled for our socio-economic redemption failures; men who struggled for the liberation of our people from the dungeon of economic stasis and skulduggery but were never afforded the opportunity of taking state power by the very people they fought for! The Liberian people have never given them the luxury of leading the country relative to the highest seat of the land.

In the 1997 General and Presidential Elections, Dr. H.Boima Fahnbulleh Jr, who at the age of 18 became an avowed revolutionary and dedicated his shortcoming for the restoration of the lost heritage and dignity of his people contested elections, but the Liberian people out of ignorance told Charles Taylor “you killed my ma, you killed my pa but I will vote for you” We refused to give this young nationalist and convinced follower of  Kwame Nkrumah the opportunity of transforming the country but voted a fugitive bandit with no ideological orientation and no history of revolutionary struggle in our national history and body politic.

In 2005, Tipoteh who had been the leader of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA); a vocal institution that was critical in sharpening the contradictions in the country contested but again, the Liberian people were seen in paraffin gear and speed voting for George Weah and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

We must refine our thinking and stop shifting blames for what happened to this society for the Liberian people themselves have one way or the other contributed to the pitfalls of our country.

The Cubans over the years after the July 26 movement have honoured their national heroes; Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raul Castro including the peasant guerrillas with so much respect and dignity, the American honours theirs; Patrick Henry and George Washington, the Mexican does the same for their liberators, the Congolese pay homage to Lumumba, the Egyptian to Nasser, the Guinea Bissauans to Cabral, the Tanzanians to Nyerere, the Ghanaians to Nkrumah and so on.

What have the Liberians done for theirs? Insults, blackmails, vilifications and other naive and inane names! We have rewarded them with nothing but to call them failures! Even Che Guevara would have been told the same had he been a Liberian!

The necessity of a revolutionary agitation in Liberia

In history no terror and injustice against the people has gone with impunity. The masses of the oppress people across the world have always from the dawn of human history been the liberators of themselves drawing from the fact that none but ourselves are the makers of our own history. Injustice to the peasants is historically a heresy that must be resisted by any means necessary for they have “nothing to lose but their chains”.

The masses have always marched in history with valiant sense of resuscitating and restoring their God given rights (freedom) as the fundamental backbone of any society.

The peasants as the working class without whom the society is doomed must at all time in history strive for the control of state power that which  necessitated revolutionary struggles in North America, Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia etc. There must be fundamental changes in power or social structures that deprive the people of their inalienable rights.

Evidence of this is the Haitian Revolution of 1971 under the leadership of a black slave Toussaint Louverture, the Iranian revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Cuban revolution under the astute leadership of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, the Chinese Revolution under Chairman Mao Zedong, the Russian Revolution under cde.

Vladimir Lenin, the French Revolution led by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Mexican Revolution with Emilio Zapata and many other revolutions and resistance against oppression and dejection of the masses of the people.

Considerate of the African scenario where for centuries blacks were subjected, pillaged, tortured, humiliated, raped and mishandled, it took men and women with courage to take arms and redeem their people from the stasis that had been created by white colonialists and imperialists.

The progressive forces in Liberia were only upholding to the revolutionary traditions that had been initiated and stimulated by our revolutionary fathers: Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Marcus Monsiah Garvey, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Malcolm X, Samoral Machel, Steve Biko, Chris Hani and many of our African heroes that placed their lives online against hostile social forces.

In the 70s, 80s, 90s the Liberian society could not have remained as it had been for years with power in the hands of an arrogant few minority that treated the people with so much arrogance to the extent that it became unbearable to their sons and daughters that were conscious enough to see the contradictions and decided to act upon it.

Our reading of history tells us that from the declaration of the so-called independence by the settlers extending to the 1980s, the sons of the people were kept down the trash box and could rarely feel the positive impact of power but it negatively affected them which thereby forced thousands of our people into slums and ghettoes that exposed them to deadly animals and dangerous things.

This is justified by the fake treason trials of so many Liberian agitators including the scholar H. Boima Fahnbulleh Sr., the tortured and incarceration of D. Tweh, Juah Nimely, Kollie Tamba and many others. The imprisonment and intimidation of student leaders, the muzzling of the press and the hounding and victimization of critical intellectuals that were still fresh in the minds of the progressive forces.

The insane imprisonment of ”Telmon Harris, Emmet Coleman and Quingar Harris for being fanatical of Kwame Nkrumah” were among the many mistreatment of agitators who felt something must be done to remedy the tragic conditions of our people. Whenever the peoples’ grievances are not satisfied within a given society, the masses always yearn for radical change that which has to be revolutionary!

 In establishment of the facts relative to the agitation of the progressive forces, the struggle that led to the death and overthrow of the wretched oligarchy was initiated by students who themselves were fed-up with the conditions of the people on various campuses of the University of Liberia and the Cuttington University.

The Revelation newspaper published on the campus of UL and the Cuttington Echo on the Cuttington University campus were some of the many students’ democratic rights agitators in the 70s.

The progressives struggled for state power as a means of transforming the objective conditions of our people knowing for the fact that transformation comes only at the helm of power. That is in accordance with positive societal betterment and transformation. This was a struggle geared towards the upliftment of the masses.

Unfortunately the quest for power was met by extreme resistance by people who couldn’t let go power for they had subscribed to that ideology where they and only they must continuously be the rulers of the people. Tyrants are fools and that is why they never outgrow their narrow belief!

What must be understood for a simple historical fact is that the progressives were not or did not constitute Clara Town, West Point, Buzzy Quarters, New Kru town, Vai Town, Smell no Taste; neither were they in the ghettoes and slums in Monrovia. The progressives only explained and interpreted to the world what the people felt but could not say, they did what the people wanted to happen but were somehow afraid for there were no political education available to the masses of our people at the time.

Any political education at the time for the people was a sham-education! The progressives in Liberia were persistent in pursuing their positive goals and were undaunted by setbacks and obstacles-the emancipation of our people. Even today, they hold such belief of throwing their lot with the people in times of uncertainty.

They are consistent, reliable ideologically, logical, authentic in their assertions, well-adjusted and emotionally stable. Injustice in itself is a deprivation of the fundamental entitlement of the individual who’s been look down upon.

Not even God has been supportive to tyranny and oppression. God himself has been extreme in dealing with injustice against the masses of his people. We learned from the Bible that God destroyed Babylon for her wickedness against the children of God, for killing saints (same as the oligarchy destroyed the sons of the people), for cracking down on decent and the peace loving people of God (same as the oligarchy cracked down on peaceful protestors in 1979), hate and intimidation of the people were the sins of Babylon (same arrogant behaviour exhibited by the oligarchy that treated the people as nothing but pitiful cannon folders).

Babylon was warned but couldn’t listen and destruction was last the only alternative and so it was. The Oligarchy warnings came from courageous men who had been inspired by humanitarianism that the only way forward to this oldest African Republic was to give everyone a genuine sense of belonging to participate in the body politic of our common patrimony-Liberia.

Edward Wilmot Blyden warned that the only necessary means for raising the country from economic backwardness and the protection of our national boundaries was to fraternize with the natives. That portrayed that only hands in hands as one people where we could “rise and fall together” shall this country live the “true meaning of its creed” “the love of liberty brought us here”

The oligarchy refused until the coup on April 12, 1980 which became a new beginning of our countrymen.

About The Author:
Ansumana Konneh is a young Pan-African nationalist who believes in the elimination of the colonial boundaries in Africa. He’s a devoted and convinced follower of revolutionary struggles and movements meant for the emancipation of the black race. ansumana.konneh96@gmail.com