Putting Personalities On The Back Burner

I am the leader of the local chapter of UNICCO, an organization that represents people of Liberia in the United States hailing from Nimba County. There has been chaos and misunderstanding in the national leadership since I became a local leader. On May 30, 2010 an election for new leadership of the National Body was held. The elders in the community made a pack with all members to be flexible with the rules and allow the elections to go on. With all of that, protests went forth condemning the process. The defeated Board Chairman set up a committee to investigate. The result: Nullify the election and set up an interim administration. I hate chaos. I despise unproductiveness, and I hate those who seem to lack vision. Below is my gut feelings about the whole mess:

My fellow Nimbaians:

I see nothing wrong with this piece or the piece written earlier by Dr Taryor. This broken system was mentioned, I believe, in Mr Kruah's platform during his run for UNICCO's presidency. This old, funny, and expensive way of voting will be given due diligence during the next two years of the Martin Dorliae administration.

If principles, realities, and personalities are at war, there is presently a cease fire in place; and as far as I am concerned, principles and realities seem to strongly have the blessings of the majority of the visionaries in UNICCO.

Because of other pressing local engagements, I missed the last Board meeting. In fact, the conference numbers given me, or that I recorded on a notepad, did not let me through. President Keita mentioned the outcome of the deliberation to me, and I was shocked. If the elections were held today and at the same venue, Neither Mr Wanquoi nor my friend, Tony Fele would win. Not only that, if our elders had asked that election rules be made flexible to begin a new day in UNICCO, and it was agreed that this be the case, how critical then can one be if flexibility and common sense were the main factors? Were the suggestions of our elders idiotic?

Here is another shocker to me. I respect Mr Diah-Kpodo very much. I felt all along that the coup in Philadelphia against him for the leadership of the local chapter of UNICCO was wrong. I sided with him at my own peril. To hear that plans were in place to end this chaos in Philly and to further learn that Mr Diah-Kpodo voted to nullify the elections of May 30, 2010 after he wholeheartedly embraced the results that were announced in Newark, New Jersey, is just amazing. Mr Diah-Kpodo is too smart a fellow to comprise his principles. Flip flopping does not sit well with me.

Many of my good friends that were vehemently complaining of the lack of progress in UNICCO at the North Carolina UNICCO Conference, and who felt that we had to do something to bring our people together, are the same ones calling for an interim administration after a Peace Committee, an Elections Commission and voters had put so much energy into a process to move us forward.

I must commend the Robert C Byrd of UNICCO's Constitution, Mr Tom Grupee. You are a wise and sagacious individual. To denounce what took place last Friday was heroic and principled and farsighted. You, Mr Tom Grupee, are the most influential person in UNICCO right now. And to my classmate and Chapter Leader of UNICCO, California, Mr Sam Koaloe, good move. It is better to abstain or vote no to a deeply insidious and highly divisive issue in UNICCO than to encourage chaos in an already chaotic environment.

I am so happy that Keita is about to enjoy his retirement from UNICCO. As I will continue to say, Mr Mohammed Keita is a good leader. He will sacrifice his all for UNICCO. I am happy that those chains around his ankles and neck will soon be unshackled.

Tony Fele, my good friend, stop writing. You don't need to respond to every Saye,Gray, and Gonkanue.

I am beginning to see with my own eyes the reason why leaders are belittled and disgraced in Africa. Relinquishing power for the good of society is indeed a taboo, even if these African leaders reside in these great United States.

I took my son to the North Carolina Conference last year. I wanted him to see what I was experiencing whenever I left home for UNICCO this and UNICCO that. After the trip, his observation was that UNICCO is a club of old men who seem set in their old ways...and who enjoy making long, senseless speeches. I felt bad because this boy is my son and he was calling my UNICCO colleagues old men with no vision! The pitiful thing about it all is that we are not making this 'lil boy shame at all. Many of us want to forever remain in the limelight of unproductiveness and chaos.

I saw my name on a list from the new administration. I didn't know that I was already on a list; but yet, I continue to give my unflinching support to the new UNICCO administration, headed by Mr Martin Dorliae. I am tired of shunning reality and heading in the wrong direction. The path that was taken on Friday by the Board is riddled with confusion and I don't want to be a casualty of such a sinking ship.

If I must give UNICCO $1.00, I want to do it in order to contribute to sending a container of computers to school children in Nimba County and nothing else. That is my commitment; and that is the vision I want to be a part of.

Never Forgetting The Past

Liberians are so divided that most organiztions formed by them are under water or about to go under. This was not the case when we had only two groups of people in Liberia. Those who took part in running the government that came to power in 1980 did more to divide the country than to unite it. Some want us to forget the past, but Liberians all over the world must never forget our history.


Fellow Liberians:

The ethnic division and tribalistic tendencies that were fostered, nourished, and showcased in the 80s by some of our elder statesmen and eminent citizens are today affecting the Liberian national psyche. Many of these elder state-persons were once members of a government that was supposed to unite our people. Instead, they encouraged or wrote the blue print that would later divide and rule, kill and pillage.

The sour grapes that were sown during those wicked days of the 80s, ripened and matured in the 90s and later, and have resulted into the bitter realities of today. God will not just save Liberia. Those who helped to destroy the peace must return to the scene of the crime and help restore the dignity our people were used to; these so-called liberators of the people must go back and help to restore the camaraderie and peaceful co-existence once enjoyed by all Liberians of all ethnic groups. You can't spoil it and then run away...and expect other people to fix it!

By pursuing this simple odyssey and restorative challenge, all Liberians will begin to see a future of glorious potential and ethnic harmony. There will be no need for any of us to assume that there are "endangered" groups of citizens within our common heritage.

Those who change the course of history for self aggrandizement and ethnic superiority will have to prostrate before God and our people, confess their sins against humanity, and beg for everlasting forgiveness.

Doing this, I believe, will allow the Great Arbiter of all mankind to give a second thought to rendering judgement in our favor and saving us all.

8/15/10