By Gideon Nma Scott, Jr.
The rebirthed opposition, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) has again gone into its political noisemaking mood and ignited a political fire that has in some parts threatened the nearly 20 years of peace after the arrest and incarceration of some people who served at the echelon in the Weah-led government.
While many Liberians were still in the euphoria that climaxed the July 26 celebration, the Monrovia City Court ordered the arrest of Samuel Tweah, former Finance Minister, Cllr. Nyanti Tuan, former Solicitor general and acting Justice Minister, Moses Cooper, former Comptroller of the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA), and former National Security Advisor to the President, Jefferson Karmo following a complaint filed by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC).
The LACC complained that the accused allegedly conspire under a diabolical scheme and under false pretext of discharging their duties as official of the joint security of Liberia and unauthorizedly transferred from the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) to operational account of the FIA the amount of L$1,055,152, 540 and US$500,000. Of the four, one person, Samuel Tweah, is still at large.
Following the issuance of the Writ of Arrest on them, former Finance Minister Samuel took to his Facebook page, claiming that their arrest warrant was a witch-hunt by the Joseph Boakai led government against some former officials in the past government led by former President George Weah.
The ‘witch hunt’ claim by Tweah did not only excite his political party and followers, but also has set a stage to reenkindle chaos in the country as former President George Weah has threatened the Boakai led government and the Unity party that any attempt to go after his men would be resisted, saying, “Mr. Boakai, your action to politicize justice will be resisted and resisted strongly.” Weah claimed that the Unity Party government, in the execution of their evil plan, chose to ignore legal and constitutional reliance, available evidence and pursue reckless measures, stating, “The Unity Party must be reminded that these antics have only brought about disorder and confusion in Liberia’s recent history.
But while we have come a long way as a people since the end of our civil conflict and would not want to go back to our ugly past, we would also not want people to use the name to peace to continue to threaten the pillar of our existence.
Every democracy must be built on promotion and protection of some basic principles such as accountability, transparency, equality, peace and security as well as human rights and dignity of the person. This is why it baffles me to hear the immediate past president of our country making an inciteful statement to avert these principles in the name of politics.
Among many things, Liberians witnessed some of its worse politically managed era under George Weah and his CDC. Just to remind you of few missteps during his regime, the country witnessed the deaths of five auditors, the three missing boys from the St. Moses Funeral Parlor, the death of Princess Cooper; all attributed to extrajudicial killings to his government; the US25m mop up exercise that saw money going into the hands of money changers and forex bureaus that Tweah himself count not identify, the missing L$16b from the Central Band of Liberia, the politically influence Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott and other case, the denial of Brownie Samuka from taking his seat at the senate, the president 48 days stay out of jurisdiction as well as discussing key government policy from his podium at his Forkay Klon Church, yet no one threaten to burn down this country.
As for Mr. Tweah, I, along with many Liberians long expected his assertion of witch hunt as a diversion to prosecute those liable of mismanaging, misusing or misdirecting public funds. We knew that the Weah group would have also taken this rout to buy public sympathy and sentiment that that are being hunted by the Boakai people for personal reasons and not on the basis of their work.
Like Bob Marley said, “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time,” and as the Rev. Shirley Caesar said in her song, ‘My Mistakes,’ “Falling in live unwisely once is bad luck and to love foolishly twice is useless” this is why we were not moved by the Weah “yen-yen” talk on July 31 would have gain no political substance.
Maybe he has forgotten that drum of war he and his followers are beating destroyed the basic fabric of this country and no Liberia is willing to go back to those ugly days. While Mr. Weah was playing football and living in Europe, some the parents of some of those children turned adults were doing all they could to save them from gunshots and bombshells, so, in part, they did not experience the war like we did and think that when the war comes, it will be coming for only government officials. Let them ask what happen when Taylor said he only came for Doe.
But let’s “tohso and tohso,” the Boakai government is not also proceeding as expected. As the government said it would rule this country on the basic content of democracy, it is expected that it acts in a way that promotes fair play in the justice system as they try to ensure that people are held accountable.
Though they seek to ensure that people in the past government account for the responsibilities entrusted to their care, those people also have rights that should be respected under the law. So, if those legal bench marks are reached, I don’t think anyone will oppose them as they execute their duties.
