A Patriot’s Diary With Ekena Nyankun Juahgbe-Droh Wesley
Liberians anxiously awaited the October 2023 polls. Then came the deciding November 14, 2023 runoff in which retired football legend George Weah lost. He conceded graciously to the Unity Party’s two-termed Vice President, Joseph Nyuma Boakai. History will remain kind to Weah.
The best George Weah could in the democratic development of the small West African nation. Reports have it that some diehard party faithful of the former ruling CDC were unhappy. That could not change the results after all. A transition process was well underway. Although critics say it was not the best, it happened anyway.
Constitutionally stipulated, Liberia’s new President Joseph Nyuma Boakai was inaugurated January 22, 2024 at a colorful event although interrupted as a result of bellowing heatwave that consumed the new president while delivering his inaugural address. All was calm! The President was alive and safe. He’s continuing the business of the government.
Ahead of the President-elect, Boakai’s inauguration, scores of exile-based Liberian professionals descended on the small West African nation on a job-hustle spree. Dozens of credentials enveloped in various packages were bundled up in a frantic job search. As a young revolutionary, we were mentored to appreciate: “What you know is equally as important as what you know…”
Lest we forget, for six physically, psychologically, economically, socially and politically painful years – former Vice President Boakai who graciously conceded in the 2017 polls that brought political neophyte – George Weah to power were traumatically heckled. Weah and his gang sowed seeds of their unanticipated defeat. The same masses that brought President George Weah to power voted him out. Power shifted to Joseph Boakai; a man with a 40-year history in public service. In six years, Weah – who became Liberia’s first historically recorded and remote-controlled President plunged the nation into total backwardness.
Passionately cum revolutionarily tucked in the trenches for some tumultuous six horrendous years of humiliation, abuse, public ridicule and outright disdain, the boys in the trenches sacrificed and struggled with Joseph Nyuma Boakai. No struggle cum political sacrifice is simply because anyone loves Liberia like God loves mankind. The ultimate sacrifice in any political theatre begets reward. No doubt the reward is all about dividends and interest. Surely, politics is about interest. Make no mistake!
President Boakai must be commended for adhering to some kind of UP-carved plan. Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf set the pace. Under her watch, scores of young and enterprising Liberians were given countless opportunities aimed at professional development at home and abroad. It was about investing in the young people for the greater good. Never before in the history of our country has a sitting President unreservedly empowered and entrusted an avalanche of young professionals with public service as President Joseph Boakai. Before Boakai, we saw Willie Tolbert start the Rally Time on that score. Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf pragmatically followed the footsteps of slain President Willie Tolbert’s pace-setting empowerment of the young people. But Boakai remains that towering and most formidable leader as it were to form a government almost entirely made of young people.
The delay in naming the most hard-working and industrious footsoldiers from the trenches with Boakai must have generated consternation. Delays are dangerous! But the 40-year old public service czar knew what he had been up to. Boakai knows exactly what life in the trenches seemed like. Being another Weah in spite of age could hunt his legacy. Mosquitoes tattered, snakes bites, sleepless nights, hunger-tempting lifestyle among others occasion any struggle in the trenches. Now that the days of the locust are over, Boakai can make no mistake.
From abroad, doves of Liberian professionals landed on the shores of the small West African nation. They had shown up as the best qualified, well learned, experienced and scholarly educated eagerly waiting to join Boakai’s bandwagon or caravan. Making the presidential choice between party faithful cum boys of the trenches versus Liberian professionals who trooped in to give to their country – has been herculean. Boakai ultimately proved grateful! Boakai surely cannot satisfy everyone. He is human!
The hustle will continue abated, folks. Give President Boakai a break. The government is large. Give the president a chance to salvage a messy state. Boakai will indeed build a government of inclusion. The reason is simple! The trappings of a divisively fought election speak volume. We encourage fellow Liberians or our professional hustlers not to trash the hundreds of credentials already bundled up. Who knows? Boakai knows the political risk abandoning the boys of the trenches over any kind of professional hustlers. The professional hustlers could run away anytime but not the ‘boys of the trenches.
Your turn could come soon. But over and above, it is the private sector that we must all concentrate on because it is the engine of growth for mass employment. But the government must create the environment to stimulate a burgeoning private sector. Neighboring Ivory Coast is a fine example of agro-industrial growth and success. Boakai’s recent visit should set the tune for the dawn of a new era.
Whether they belong to the trenches that catapulted Boakai’s win or come with somewhat rich credentials from abroad or perhaps helped to bankroll the new President’s victory, Liberia deserves better. Victory in any struggle is halved by the trimmings of weighing in decisively on how power was ultimately acquired cum attained. Yes, silver did play a part, but the priceless human sacrifices remain incalculable as it were.
Ekena Wesley
Darby
Delaware County, PA
+16107650305
Email: wes.critic@gmail.com
“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall. – Che Guevera
