The condition of majority of the people in Liberia is not something to boast about. No conscientious Liberian can look at the living standard of the people and say with glee that all is well. What is then the way forward before 2017? Here is my take after it was suggested that the conditions at Belle Yalla were no different than the present conditions being experienced by majority of Liberians:

If after seven years of an Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf government, the Liberian people are still congregating at Red Light, at Duport Road Junction; if the pathways through Kakata, Gbarnga, Ganta, Voinjama, and perhaps many other town and cities are being blocked by people struggling to make a living after the war ended  almost ten years ago; if Flumpa is still dark and Toe Town and Barclayville have no pipe-borne drinking water; if a pregnant woman must ride on the back of a motor scooter from Saclepea to the Jackson Doe Hospital in Tappita, on a muddy, back-breaking road; if students are struggling with their Legislators for scholarship money and government officials are scrambling to Nigeria or Ghana or the United States to seek medical attention, how can most of us say with sane and conscientious minds that indeed, Belle Yalla was most notorious for being oblivious to human dignity?

 

We can help to change these conditions by reminding those in power in Liberia that they are not doing well for the people whose sons and daughter were displaced and or killed during almost fourteen years of a brutal war. Those in the Diaspora must make this known to the people of the United States whose taxes made many things possible for the new and old big shots in Monrovia.

 

Liberians in the Diaspora must muster the strength to gather en masse in Washington, DC, at the UN in New York or even in European Capitals to remind Liberia's partners that what is being done in Monrovia is far from being in the interest of the people who deserve better.

 

And lastly, and more importantly, I don't think it will be fair to the Liberian people for the UN to leave Liberia when Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's term to govern expires. Leaving Liberia will be like leaving the hen house exposed to the foxes. The UN cannot just protect Ellen and leave when she leaves the Executive Mansion in Monrovia.

 

What do I suggest the the UN do? The UN has accommodated with open arms, those who were most responsible for the atrocities in Liberia. These people are now representatives and senators; ministers and big shots in the government. (I don't know whether anything like this exists anywhere in the world.) Liberia must be a very bad lucky country.

 

The rain and snow that come from heaven do not water the earth for most Liberians. They do not bring forth the bud that gives rise to seeds for the farmers and bread to those in need. Our rains have been useless to us for more than a century and a half. The change we've been calling for has been very elusive.

 

The UN, with the help of the Liberian government, should come up with a retirement plan for the war lords of the land. Get them out of politics for good with a retirement plan, and supervise an election in 2017 that will bring in a new breed of Liberians that will preach and foster peace and commit to prosperity for all. 

 

The Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf era may not have prisoners at Belle Yalla or in Zwedru; freedom to speak one's mind may abound in the streets of cities and towns in Liberia; but corruption with impunity carries more evil than we can imagine. It sucks the life blood out of the country and those who are to inherit it.

 

We must cross our fingers and hope that the best for Liberia is yet to come.