This is Where I Come in

A reply to Nat Gbasaygee

I have yearned for the kind of debate/approach you have presented as the strategy for native Liberians to take (back) the leadership of Liberia. It’s that premise that I will like to address. On the count that I am insulting native Liberians and have exhibited bigotry, I do not intend to dignify. The antidotes of your paradigm are countless and I am sure you know them as I do.
On the approach that we should support Mr. Weah and after he has gained the power and authority we can then rally around him, back him with a contingent of native technocrats, I differ. This is where I come in. I disagree, Mr. Gbasaygee, that this approach is prudent. I see it as putting the cart before the horse. Or it’s like swallowing the ‘dumbboy’ before looking for the soup to go with it.
Mr. Gbasaygee, I was born in a village and I have being amongst the most marginalized group of people in Liberia. I understand what it means for a government to view you and your people as less than human beings. This is exactly what majority of Liberians experienced during the over century rule by the TWP, predominantly Americo-Liberians and their wards. Samuel Doe and others saw the need to change the course of events after an enormous damage was already done. They removed the TWP from power. Doe had his share of flaws but this is not what this piece is about.
Ten years later, majority of our people decided to side with their heartless abusers and exploiters then wreaked havoc of unimaginable proportion on themselves. They fought a brutal war for them. 14 years after the destruction, the very victims went back to their victimizers to beg them for mercy in the following ways: 1. they massively elected Charles Taylor to rule over them. Taylor truly delivered until some strangers heard our cries and decided to drive him away. 2. As if not much damage was done yet, the same victims went out in an election and turned their lives over to another victimizer, a perpetrator of Liberia’s long running chaos. They knew quite well that Ellen Johnson was with Taylor on the day when his rebels struck Butuo and Karnplay. She was with him when over three hundred thousand lives of native Liberians were wasted. After all of our experiences or amidst all of this, we are setting out again looking for the individual to lead us. This is where I believe we have got it wrong. We are looking for a leader without asking ourselves what kind of leader we really want. We are again setting out looking for a leader without laying out what we require/ expect of the leader and asking how he/she is going to deliver.
In your argument, Nat, you maintained that our priority should be taking power from the victimizers (emphasis added), then we shall decide what to do with it. I think this approach is risky. This is the gamble we should not afford to take. It has the propensity to prop up tyrant. It creates pompous leaders who listen to no one. If our preoccupation is just to get power then later decide what to do with it, then we may as well don’t get it at all because we will end up hurting ourselves again. This will in the long run make us less worthy of trust. We will end up being worse than the ex-slaves who have kept this nation in the dungeon for so long. Our preoccupation should be taking power and keeping it for good, managing it to the best of our potentials. We can do this by being better than the victimizers, putting ourselves in the position to do by far better than they have done in nearly 200 years. We are not taking power just for the sake of power but to deliver, creating an enduring environment for all of Liberia. We cannot do this with a quick flight. We can do this first by setting out concrete and measurable goals for Liberia and having the proper people in place that are willing and prepared to do better than the Americos and their wards. This can be done when we begin to have concrete consultations and lay out sound agenda to move Liberia forward and restore sanity to the battered people of Liberia. In this token, I admonish that we look not for our leaders but let the leaders look for us and work on our agenda.
Let us ask ourselves, what kind of Liberia do we envision? How do we create what we have envisioned? When the answers are satisfactorily found then we can find the executors. This is my take, Nat.