The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
October 17, 2019

For peacefully appealing to the government to pay their teachers, these teenage students were tear-gassed, beaten and the bodies of some students were gouged by the ruthless Liberian police. Don’t they have children?

On Tuesday, people in the Diaspora were awakened by chants from teenage students of the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS).  They chanted: “We want take test.”  “You paid the Zogoes, pay the teachers.”  The Zogoes are said to be the unfortunate people who cannot make ends meet and as a result, they revert to criminal activities in the city. The information reaching us, the students indicates that President Forky Klon Weah and his Government paid the Zogoes L$5,000 (Liberian dollars) each on the Liberian Flag Day. The teachers of the school system have decided to lay down their chalks because as the saying goes, an “empty bag cannot stand.”  In other words, for the past three to four months the teachers have not gotten paid.  So, the only alternative or trump card available to the teachers, as was in the case of the healthcare workers, faculty of the University of Liberia, faculty, and staff of Tubman University, was to put down their chalks or tools in order to arouse government’s attention to their quandaries.  And those who are affected by the actions of the teachers.  It appears that it is time for the students to take their tests.  This seems to be the reason why they are chanting: “We want [to] take test[s].”  Their first marking period tests were to start on Monday, October 14, 2019.

As one may expect, the students of MCSS decided to go to the capitol building for redress.  But President Weah who is said to spend most of his time playing Ludo, or inspecting or dedicating projects most of which are from the Sirleaf Government, decided to go the work using the same route the students were using and this led to an unfortunate situation where students were brutalized by the Liberian National Police Force.  They were tear-gassed, beaten and the bodies of some students were gouged by the ruthless Liberian police.  One of the heartless parts is the nobody treated the wounded who were taken to the hospital.  Some say the order to terrorize the students came from the President, but there has been no independent confirmation, neither has there been any statement from the president to condemn the atrocities committed by the police and statement that the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

We know, this has been in the making since the 2017 General Elections in Liberia. The then candidate Weah made it clear in Tapita, Nimba County, that education is not good for Liberia because, according to him, the educated people have caused the prevailing mess in Liberia.  But despite this baseless attack on education by the then presidential candidate, on election day, Liberians, including perhaps some of the parents of these brutalized students, voted en masse for Forky Klon Weah. It can also be recalled that not too long ago, the progressives, most especially Dr. Tipoteh, were belittled by the president when he remarked that some people have been lifetime progressives and yet don’t even have a bicycle. 

But at the time the president was attacking the educated people, construction workers were roofing his 47th mansion built from money allegedly looted from government’s coffers. We must not forget that during the inauguration, Mr. Forky Klon Weah reminded Liberians of his pledge to protect Madam Sirleaf, her family and keep her legacy alive.  And before the inaugural program was over, President Weah started building these 47 homes/mansions and that seems to be in line with his pledge to keep the Ellen corruption legacy alive. His officials followed suit: they started building mansions in and around Monrovia.  Minister of State, Nathaniel Mcgill said he paid $200K for his home barely a week in office and claimed he borrowed the money came from the Liberian Bank for Development and Reconstruction (LBDI), a bank that seems to finance only government officials as others in the Sirleaf’s government also claimed they borrowed huge sums from LBDI when they were accused of corruption, albeit such borrowings with no tangible collateral or paperwork to support the borrowing. 

The dramatic decline of the Country Giant's popularity is beginning to look like a Shakespearean tragedy.  The massive deterioration of the economy is the trigger factor of the once very popular government rapidly growing into the most unpopular government in just under two years. 

The aggression at the students was a blatant betrayal of President Weah' s commitment to upholding the fundamental laws regarding freedom to speak, peacefully assemble. Many pundits both domestic and international, have psychoanalyzed President Weah and believe that he is insensitive to the fast decline of economic and security situation within the country. 
 
A leader who sailed on the confidence to many youthful voters especially grade school students, but these youthful students are now victims of his brute driven force perpetrated by his ruthless security forces especially the Liberian National Police. 

In the face of a very fragile economy, many  Liberians are querulous that the Nation might become a failed state if robust interventions are not made.  The government appears very feckless, ineffective and unlikely to succeed. 

International human rights organizations are very concerned about the wellbeing of school-going children, therefore abusing their human rights could have potentially severe and dangerous consequences. 

If people who stole the missing 16 billion Liberian dollars were held accountable, if Samuel Tweah did not take $25 million dollars from the National Bank of Liberia, if Forky Klon Weah did not build 47 mansions from money allegedly stolen from government coffers, if  President Forky Klon and his inner circle of thieves were not living lavished lifestyle, if Speaker Chambers was not being paid $40,000 per month, if the 103 (one hundred three) lawmakers were not making $15,000 to $18,000 per months, if the head of the Maritime was not making $30,000 per month, if Chief Justice Francis Korkpor has allowed the salaries of the chief justice and the associate justices to be cut, the Liberian Government was going to be in pretty good position to pay civil servants on time including teachers and healthcare workers.

We, therefore, call on the Forky Klon Weah and his administration to launch an investigation into the atrocities committed by the police and bring to justice the doers of the acts.  Not only that, the government must immediately pay all arrears owed all civil servants. Pay the teachers!: as the late South African President Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”  So, we should like to reiterate to the President Weah and his Government to not be afraid of this powerful education weapon but to provide the enabling environment for all Liberians to possess it.   

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