Editoral: Detesting The Protesters’ Action

They assembled at the Capitol Building on June 7, 2019, in an attempt to present the much-publicized petition to the Liberian Government was surprisingly not submitted.

Three months of rigorous planning, a group under the banner “Council Of Patriots” planned protest action against the Weah-led government was considered unsuccessful by several international and local bodies. Their message of planned protest resonated across the length and breadth of this country with the group saying the protest was an attempt to ‘’Save the state’’ but unfortunately to many Liberians, they were unable to do so and later Sunday, June 09, 2019 read points from the petition for further action by the government.

Their reservations which engulfed Talk Shows covered bad governance, corruption, injustice, etc, etc. The protesters vowed that their planned protest action was unstoppable accept “Thy Kingdom Come”. This so-called protest action produced serious political heat, which steams affected every Liberian, including foreign residents to the extent that it presented an imaginary picture that this country was at the brink of war again.

As the discussion of protest heated up in every nook and crony of our country, the Government of Liberia got concerned and called for a dialogue with the protest organizers, precisely on May 14, 2019, Unification Day in the presence of the international community. A golden opportunity given to them to present their grievances, but was squandered on grounds that they could only present said petition to the Government on the day of the protest.

Finally, the protest came to the fore where security protection was provided by the Liberian Government to the protesters.

The protesters argued that they could not present the petition to the Government unless the Justice Ministry release five of their members who are being detained by the Liberia National Police for multiple charges.

Foreign institutions, mainly ECOWAS pleaded with the protesters to submit their petition to the Liberian Government representatives, but to no avail.

We “detest the protester’s behavior and consider such, a serious setback to the government and its people and economic waste of time.

There were so many avenues available for them to express their grievances. Besides, the meeting with President Weah, where the international community was present, they failed to dialogue and express themselves, with several other opportunities available, including the D-day of the protest for the protesters to tell the Liberian people and the world at large details of their petition.

We seriously condemn that childish act carried on by the protesters, which caused serious setback where the country realized nothing in its revenue generation on the day of the protest.

The Government could not do business, least to say collect taxes; schools and businesses closed and the entire country shut down for fear of another conflict.

Let it be known here that we want serious people and not jokers as we detest such behavior. Having gone through several years of civil conflict which cost the deaths of over 250,000 Liberians and the pillaging of our country, we urge every Liberian to preserve our fragile peace and not crisis anymore.