The Superintendent of the Weala District Conference of the United Methodist Church Jacob Methuselah Sackie is warning his members against the “June 7 Protest”.
The United Methodist Boss said protests in Liberia have never been good but rather bloody out as such; his members should stay away from the upcoming protest.
Rev. Sackie, “But you know with the history of Liberia when it comes to protesting we don’t have any good history, it has always been bloody out when you look at the rice riot, the 1980 coup d’état and there are lots of things that went on” he lamented.
According to him, the 1979 rice riot and the 1980 coup d’état as well as other protests have taken place in Liberia adding that other people may consider the results from those protests as good but he does not consider them to be good on grounds that there was bloodshed while innocent people lost their lives.
The Liberian Cleric explained that people have always assured Liberians of violence-free protest but it turn to be violent indicating,
‘in 1980 some people said they were going through this; the mind was not we going to kill the president maybe their mind was we want to hold the president or we want to call the attention of other people so that they can be able to come to our aid and know that things going and is not fine’.
Reverend Sackie narrated that he believes dialogue is the way forward and with dialogue, there will be a success. He stated that there is a need for the protesters (Council of Patriots) to come together and listen to the President own approach to them.
He, on the other hand, encouraged the national government to involve other eminent Liberians who have versatile knowledge in the area of economic development in order to be able to put the government and the economic system in the proper perspective.
The Man of God used the occasion to call on his members and Liberians in general members and other Liberians to divert the protest into praying, fasting and having dialogue for the Country and the success of the government.
“So we are encouraging our members to pray now, we all can get on our knees to pray for the success of this government, if for whatever reason the current leadership is there for six years we can pray and God can change any situation around so we are asking and challenging our members to make it their business to get on their knees to pray for some level of changes in this Nation because we all are feeling it.
You know we are all human and then we understand the situation we are faced with, in fact in my previous statement I said to you that the hardship is not only for the government the ordinary people are feeling it even the religious people are feeling it we ourselves are feeling it because if our people don’t have money they will not be able to attend our programs and our activities so that’s what we are faced with now” he added.
Rev. Sackie meanwhile frowned at people who said Liberia does not need fast and prayer now, but taking it the other way will be the solution pointing out that fast and prayer will be the number one thing to do and through that God will look down upon Liberia the Land of Liberty as it exists on the paper.
