By David K.Dahn
When Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh spoke to our consciences in his commentary titled “Headed in the Wrong Direction”( Inquirer Vol. 33 N0.239 P.4) of Tuesday, 24 December, 2024, I was reminded in the words of the ancient philosophical pivot, Plato, that “the wise talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” Prof Tipoteh had something to say.
Dr. Tipoteh drew his reliance from the Afro barometer research of October to December 2022 as was amplified by the FrontPage Africa daily stating that eighty per cent of the people of Liberia are of the view that Liberia is headed in the wrong direction.
In the referenced commentary, Dr. Tipoteh defined the wrong direction. Hear this from Dr. Tipoteh; “The wrong direction is that Liberia has longstanding and widespread poverty that has become the pretext for violence, which, at times includes coup d’état and civil war.” Both forms of violence, unraveled the commentary, have been experienced by Liberians, as seen in the coup d’état of 1980 and the civil war of 1989 to 2003 which took the lives of at least 300,000 people and injured many more.
By its content, the commentary, as reflective of the learned Economist and Politician’s view, is indeed a tour de force. Lest I forget to mention that the learned Professor(Tipoteh) presented a solution out of the wrong direction, noting, “The way that Liberia is being placed in the Right Direction is through Awareness Raising within the Rule of Law rather than the rule of outlaw, the awareness raising by the people who love Liberia.”
Undoubtedly, an excellent direction pointer but having read the commentary multiple times I construe the concept of the wrong direction we are headed as a nation as proffered by the learned professor. But the philosophical question that still lingers in my mind is in the first place, “Why are we headed in the wrong direction?
Now, without the full weight in empirically addressing the question of “why we are headed in the wrong direction, I wish to submit here by opening a new frontier of debate that we are headed in the wrong direction because of leadership flaw that has entangled our academic, economic, social, religious and political institutions , etc.
For an example at the academic fringes, we are witnessing the mushrooming of institutions(Early Childhood through tertiary) professing to be catering to the preparation of the youth as well as men and women capable of contributing to the task of nation building. But on the contrast, it is proven that quantity has now become a satisfying substituted factor for quality. Many of these institutions, operating outside the loop of quality control, have turned out to be exploiters of the knowledge seekers either in one of two ways; failure to provide quality instructional materials and the failure to meet the required minimal remuneration for hired staffers who then revert to the students as the economic absorber of their poverty in both cash and kind . How can we ever be in the right direction under such circumstance?
At the economic level, while we hail the free market doctrine, we see an oligopolistic market, in economic terms, which control over an industry lies in the hands of a few large sellers who own a dominant share of the market. With few powerful market participants, we see a market flooded with low quality of simple commodity like God’s gift to humanity- water. The quality of water, using the bare eyes for examination leaves one to wonder whether our marketing system is under scrutiny and who benefits the most? How can we head in the right direction under such a scheme of activities?
At the social level, families are entangled into cases of perpetual non-support, leaving the kids in most instances to fend for themselves at tender ages . Mothers and fathers have failed to provide affection, counsel, or leadership for their children because they are busy settling divorce cases which seem to have no conclusion in near sight. But the litigation(court) process only benefits the lawyers( legal fees) and leaves the children foundationally impoverished, unguardedly featureless and psychologically broken, perhaps for life. On the larger scale, how can we ever head in the right direction with a crumbled family unit?
At the religious dimension, the stories are comparatively no different from those emanating from the secular environment; allegation of rape, schism that threatens the unity of the church, and financial scandal by people professing to be of the sacerdotal order have become pervasive. But I got news for them as issued by the Prophet Isaiah 5:20 “ Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”(Authorized King James Version). How can we head in the right direction on a crooked slope?
At the political level, what has to be pointed out is that it seems leaders(The term is used here holistically wherever leadership is provided and not necessarily a particular office) have failed to realize that they need to learn from others. The quicker those claiming to be leaders realize that “ leadership is action, not position” (Stephens, 1999:20) the sooner they can turn from the wrong direction whether at the domestic, corporate or national level. We find ourselves in a “novel”(fresh) upbringing of society where we now fail to exercise what H. Douglas Brown(1994:111) refers to as “ambiguity tolerance; the willingness to tolerate ideas and prepositions that run counter to your own belief system and structure of knowledge.” Do we need to create awareness about persons capable of participating in rational public deliberations without threat to or participation in physical violence?
On leadership, I succeeded in invoking the wisdoms of Nelson Mandela as quoted by Stephens(1999: 20). Given his experience, Mandela notes “As a leader I have always followed the principles I first saw demonstrated by the Regent at the Great Place. I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion have to say before venting my own opinion. Often times my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the Regent axiom: a leader, he said, is like shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go on ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”
Dr.Tipoteh insists that the way Liberia is being placed in the right direction is through awareness raising. This awareness raising method according to him, is the only and best way to transform what he describes as the unfair prevailing electoral system into the fair enduring electoral system.
This article therefore seeks to romanticize Dr. Tipoteh’s call that “awareness raising is the only and best way to get persons with good records elected to bring in the system of justice, the indispensable ingredient for peace and progress in Liberia and in any other country.”
