Ebola has become an issue of major national emergencies in Guinea-Conakry, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, with Nigeria the latest country to be hit by this disease. Granted! But my country Liberia is almost stealing all the headlines for all the negative reasons! Disgraceful! As disgusted and frustrated as I am with the shameful reactions of my compatriots, I am not at all surprised. Why? A careful analysis of our national history provides the often shameful behaviour if our people. Liberia is a nation that was founded in 1816 to resettle ex-slaves from the US who were considered useless in American society and had to be returned to the continent of their origin, Africa. Those ex-slaves had known no other life but to be used as farmhands and exploited for the benefit of the slave masters. Consequently, they came back to Africa with the same mentality of exploitation and slave-to-master relationship. They met on the ground kinsmen that were largely uneducated and uncivilized. Therefore, the ground was ready for them to put into practice the only life that had known; exploitation. Sadly, these former slaves themselves were men and women who lacked the vision and ideas to do things their own way other than what they had been taught. The Declaration of Independence, the National Flag, everything was copied on that of the USs without any idea of the practical and technical aspects. Therefore, these former slaves governed poor Liberia for over a century without showing any tangible mark of achievement or development. Everything that was ever earned as a nation was stolen and kept away in private bank accounts overseas. Some were used to educate their children in the most prestigious universities in America and Europe to prepare them for keeping the grip on power. The late 60s and and early 70s saw the break of a new dawn in Liberia. President Tubman introduced some new policies that were favourable to indigenous Liberians. The Tubman Administration ensured that some indigenous Liberians got some government-sponsored higher education at overseas universities. With higher education, these young indigenous Liberians got better insights into how the nation was being governed and expressed dissatisfaction with the establishment and the status quo. Therefore, they organised and galvanized for change. The calls for change culminated into the 1979 infamous Rice Riot, and then the bloody 1980 coup. A young indigenous military sergeant, Samuel Kanyon Doe was pronounced the coup leader. The then President William Tolbert had been murdered overnight. In the minds and words of the people, power had fallen to its rightful owners, the indigenous Liberians. However, this junta was meant to last for a period of transition after which elections were to be held. Before the elections, a new constitution was to be drafted. But having tasted the sweetness of how power is run in Liberia, the military refused to give way, and an internal wrangling among them ensued. Several years later, a bogus general elections was held with Samuel Doe declared winner, with other candidates left dissatisfied and disenchanted. Samuel Doe himself was young, inexperienced, and he barely had an elementary education. Therefore, he too lacked vision and the sense of moving a nation forward. His rise in power saw the rise in tribalism, cronyism, and nepotism. He surrounded himself with trusted kinsmen both in the national army and civil service. This means Liberia was still heading in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, the children of the ex-slaves had not forgotten the windfalls of power politics in Liberia, and they were organising a triumphant return to power at any cost. On the eve of Christmas, 1989, the imsurgency to remove Samuel Doe from power began...(to be continued)
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 19:57:21 +0000
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