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The Mistaken Presidency Authored by Julius T. Jaesen, II

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When CDC-George Weah assumed the Liberian Presidency in 2018 of January, unlike me and my intellectual peerage, many Liberians were cajoled that he could deliver a better Liberia and lift Liberians from the ashes of poverty to a buoyancy of new hope and prosperity considering that he too, like them, came from poverty. His messianic ascendancy to the Liberian presidency was seen by many, especially Cdceans, as the “second coming” of Jesus Christ to rib Liberia of unbearable hardship and state-sponsored corruption that has become so cancerous to our nation’s growth. Therefore, when Weah pronounced in his inaugural speech that the mandate he received from the Liberians who voted him en masse is to end corruption, coupled with his prophetic declaration that “In the cause of the people the struggle has ended”, many of our people including Cdceans, chanted “Hosanna” into the heavens. But quick frustratingly though, the CDC-Weah has institutionalized corruption and distributed wanton suffering and painful misery on the already struggling Liberian people who saw his presidency as a pathfinder of hope.

Many Liberians are now left in bewilderment and are still asking themselves these hard questions: “Is this really the change we voted for”? Is this the real President we wanted or a mistaken President? Is Weah the true Moses we voted or one of the Pharaohs that has suffered us for so long in the desert? How long will we endure this Weah’s mess? Where did Weah take all those monies to build palaces overnight that his money earned from the football field could not build? Were we under any demonic spell when we voted for him? Or was there an evil veil of deceptions that blinded our eyes? To answer these questions, I too, side with them that this cannot be the change they voted for in 2017. This is indeed not the hope for change they wanted. Again, we must accept the hard truth that Weah’s presidency is a mistaken presidency. Weah is a Pharaoh that was wrapped up in Moses’ clothing and belongs to the generation of Pharaohic leaders that have suffered Liberians for so long and if given more privileges in public offices, would suffer the population for millennia.

As for me and my contemporaries, we saw that coming far ahead and we green-lighted our people that Weah’s presidency would be a death-sentence of our democracy. When we said that, some of our mis-educated, less and unenlightened brothers and sisters said we aren’t prophets to cast such an aspersion they considered then as doom prophecy on our nation.

Conversely, we said to them and our people, that in Biblical times, particularly in Israel, there were people endowed with the prophetic visions and wisdom to forewarn people on happenings and issues within society. And the choice was up to the people after the prophets’ message. The duty was done once the people were told. Today, what it is true as young revolutionaries, we are not prophets, yet some of us are blessed with the revolutionary agilities to progressively understand the trending sociopolitical developments in Liberia and most likely, predict the noble future and destiny of Liberia. And admittedly, we did in 2017 to prevent the national nightmares and calamity in George Weah from befalling upon Liberia. Ridiculously appalling, our people did not listen and were flattered and street-talked by the CDC’s empty sloganeering and muyan-muyan battle cries. We played our role so effectively as the moral conscience and light of our society to call the nation to order on the impending danger we saw hanging over Liberia. Truly, that danger is the mistaken presidency. The mistaken presidency is the Weah’s presidency.

When Weah won the election in December of 2017, I refused to congratulate him. Some said that I was hateful, elections are over and it is forthright that we congratulate Weah. But still, I refused to bow in submission to their views. I refused to embrace the national spell cast upon our nation through a mistaken presidency. I then wonder whether we – Liberians are being bewitched by our ancestors to lower the supremacy of the Liberian presidency. I rejected the advice of our friends who wanted me to lend my signature to the wholesale looting of our country. Yet, I refused with every ounce of my blood to sign in to the pillaging of our resources and gang-raping of our country.

Today, history has vindicated me and my peers, as we are now glad that the evil veil of deceptions that has blinded the eyes of our people, cajoled the masses and positioned them into an alternative universe that is bereft them of any critical thinking and the solomonic wisdom to look deeper into the future, is now departing their eyes as our economy suffers collapse under the Weah’s mistaken presidency.

Historising on the Broken Promises of the Mistaken Presidency

In Weah’s inaugural address in 2018, he promised Liberians that the most effective way he believes his government can directly impact the poor, and narrow the gap between the rich and poor, is to ensure that public resources do not end up in the pockets of government officials. Today, public officials, especially selected kitchen cabinet officials including the mistaken President in Weah, are siphoning taxpayers’ money without an ounce of remorse and are living in opulence – building expensive mansions overnights as well as wearing jewelries and buying luxurious cars while the people in Gilbrata where Weah grew up can’t afford full square meals. This is not the interpretation of the Pro-poor Agenda the Liberian people supported in 2017! The Pro-poor Agenda shouldn’t be mere political utopian slogan but rather a nationalistic agenda meant to take our people from the ashes of acute poverty to a dignified life worth living.

In Weah’s inaugural message, he again averred that Liberians must be rest assured that he’ll not let Liberians down, but in less than three years walking down the road in his administration, he has already let Liberians down. There is worsening economic hardship never witnessed before since independence in 1847, not to even mention the world at large.

George Weah pledged in his inaugural speech in 2018 that it’ll be his task, his duty, and his honor, to lead this nation from division to national unity, and toward a future of hope and prosperity. But sadly, it’s the reverse that’s been witnessed in our country by the Weah’s leadership and Party. I wouldn’t want to mention his divisive utterances made against the Ureys and Abraham Darius Dillon in the 2019 by-elections – lowering the standard of the presidency. But again, no wonder why he is a mistaken president.

In less than a year, the CDC-Weah government fueled division, bitterness and hatred amongst our people. There’s heightening political division and bigotry which is instigating widespread violence all over the Country. The question that lingers on my mind is, wasn’t it Weah the one preaching to us in his inaugural sermon that we must learn how to celebrate our diversity without drawing lines in our new Liberia? But barely after few months after that vainglorious sermon, Weah’s party chairman was the one threatening that they’ll go after people who remain opposed to the CDC and the government, even if they’re their blood brothers. Few months after, we witnessed the tragic death of Hon. Adolph Akwe Lawrence who held some opposing views to the government’s policies. What did Weah tell his party chairman then? Nothing! It is simply because he is the chief patron of divisive rhetoric and politics. But again, we must not forget that he is the mistaken President.

Weah accentuated that under his leadership, that he would forewarn public officials that it is time to put the interest of our people above their own selfish interests and it’s time to be honest with our people. But in less than a year, Weah and his band of thieves have acquired more properties than ordinary Liberians have acquired for themselves combined. Any leader who does this, he or she is nationalistically and patriotically illiterate, and carries in his or her belly, “deep-seated insensitivity”.

Weah and his marauding criminals have positioned their egos over the Country and its people. In less than a year, Weah has sponsored several monument projects just to idolize him. Was he, Weah, true to his promises or was just spilling out naked utterances? I sure the latter would suit his empty pledges and not the former. He furthered intimated in his address that it was time that his government pay civil servants the living wage so that corruption isn’t an excuse for taking what isn’t theirs. But unfortunately, the government has slashed civil servants’ wage in the name of salary harmonization. I can only encourage the CDC-Weah to wait and see! The biggest protest against Weah-led administration for waste and abuse will not be from the collaborating political parties, neither Henry P. Costa and his Council of Patriots, but the thousands of civil servants whose purchasing power have been affected hugely whilst he (Weah) and his criminal cabal spend the cut in wages on womanizing and exploiting our young girls who are burdened by poverty and hopelessness. That protest will be a referendum on the failures of the CDC-led government, which will ultimately be through the ballots in the upcoming senatorial elections and will be antecedent of the demise of the Weah’s presidency in 2023. This was not the true meaning of the pro-poor mantra, neither was it meant “change for exploitation”. But again, this too, is the mistaken presidency.

About the author

Julius T. Jaesen, II, holds a bachelor of at degree in Political Science from the African Methodist Episcopal University on 34 Camp Johnson Road. He is a licensed grassroots political organizer, message development specialist, researcher on Harvard University Academia.com and Grin.com. He is also a published author. He can be reached on the following:

Email addresses: coyies2004@gmail.com / juliusjaesen@gmail.com

Contact numbers: +231886661061/+231776585152

WhatsApp: +231886661061

 

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