What The Paramount Chief Will Say On July 26, Liberia's Independent Day

Liberia's 162nd Independence Day celebration will be most unique this year: A Paramount, for the first time in the country's history, will be the national orator. What the Paramount Chief should tell the nation and its people is the topic of the feelings in my gut right now:

According to the Daily Observer Online, July 13, 2009 edition, the orator for July 26 this year will be a Paramount Chief from Bong County . Whoever thought about this must be given a bow, for as Tibelrosa Summoh Tarponweh wrote in a commentary published by FrontPageAfrica on July 14, 2009, “What does changing national symbols like the flag, and renaming cities and streets has to do with the callous disregard of laws by state functionaries and neglect of the governed?” So, for the 162nd anniversary of Liberia ’s Independence, the Paramount Chief from Bong County should focus on other things that will really bring change to his county and country.

The paramount chief should start off by saying that after 162 years, the people of Liberia are tired of crossing monkey bridges to get their sick love ones to clinics or hospitals miles and miles away. After getting a rousing ovation for this, the Paramount Chief should tell the Liberian people, the majority of whom are just like him…that they are tired of not being able to take their farm produce to market because of the deplorable condition of the roads in the country.

After those two statements, the Paramount Chief will have to interrupt the applause by going on further and telling his distinguished audience that the majority of the people of Liberia now know that they were left out from fully participating in their country’s development by keeping them as illiterate as possible. “We hear that to keep the majority of us from seeing the light,” the Paramount Chief will continue, “our leaders took all the money that was generated from Bong Mines, Lamco, the Sarpo National Forest, LMC, the Oil Palm Companies, LAC, B F Goodrich, Firestone and many other money-generating entities, to send their children to schools in America and Europe, leaving us here in Liberia to struggle and fend for ourselves.” The Chief must make it clear that this kind of inequality and divisive and discriminatory attitude must be abolished from our national polity.

The Paramount Chief knows that there is a lot of tension in the country at this time, especially, since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission put out its report. He has to address this, for without peace in the country and the people united, none of the things he just mentioned can be implemented. The Chief must remind the Liberian people that the war that killed so many of his people was a useless war. “Where are Generals Bush Shaking, Snake In The Grass, Peanut Butter, and Rambo today? All those who brought so much pain and suffering to us during the 14 years of war, where are they?” The Paramount Chief must ask. The Chief must again remind his very attentive audience that those who once pointed guns in their faces, raped their wives and children are right here in Liberia, amongst us; some begging for mercy while some are just too big for their britches to even admit that they did some terribly wrong and inhumane things to us, their own people.

The Paramount Chief will not want to keep his listeners sitting in their uncomfortable seats for too long in the hot auditorium; he will want his speech to be short and concise; a speech that will be remembered for generations to come. So, he will turn his attention to the President of Liberia: “Madam President,” he will say. “You are our only woman President, democratically elected, that our country has had since we declared to the world our Independence , 162 years ago. Almost 69% of those who voted in 2005 felt that you were the best qualified to lead us, even though we knew that you carry on your back a kinjah with a lot of questionable stuff in it. We also voted for you so that when push comes to shove, you, Madam President, will stand strong, like a patriotic Commander-in-Chief, to unite the people of this land.

The Paramount will tell Liberians and foreigners witnessing the Independence Day Celebration that our own Liberian men have over the years bamboozled the country. Besides keeping majority of the citizens oppressed and suppressed, all the Liberian men who have been in leadership, have destroyed this country from greed, immorality, and a vision that has been extremely nearsighted.

This Kpelle Paramount Chief will tell Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that if she has never worked harder for her country, now was the time for her to demonstrate to the Liberian people that she is ready to work for them. She must use all the energy and means at her disposal to bring peace and unity to Liberia . She must rally her people and make them to understand that in this dog-eat-dog world of politics, she was able to play hardball just like those who were advanced in the game, from Joseph Jenkins Roberts to Charles Ghankay Taylor, and was able to survive to become their first female president in the whole of Africa . "Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Madam President," the Chief will continue, "you must come out, braver than ever before and confess to your people how you agonized day and night when you saw that things were not going right as planned."

The Paramount Chief will end his speech by calling on all of his fellow chiefs to join him and the president of Liberia in galvanizing the people and encouraging them to see the need for genuine reconciliation. For without genuine reconciliation, equal opportunity for all Liberians, and love and respect for one another, there will be no unity and of course, a doomed Liberia.

Amidst a thunderous applause, the Chief will end by saying in Kpelle: Kwa gana; ku kelay kwa pa, kwa gbeteh. Interpretation: We've destroyed it; all of us must come to together, to fix it.