The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
April 10, 2021

Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh

It is always good to find an opportunity to solve a problem, especially a societal one. This is what is being done in this Commentary. The Spirit of Easter is about Falling Down and Getting Up or Making Mistakes and Correcting Mistakes. As Liberia falls down but does not get up and the same mistakes are being made to make the poor poorer and the rich richer, it is of highest importance that the Spirit of Easter be drawn upon to Raise Liberia and Prevent the Making of the Same Mistakes. Easter falls on this coming Sunday and it is celebrated as a Christian Event but the Spirit of Easter is for everybody in all Religions of the world.

Some persons and organized social groups advised the State decision-makers over many years that Liberia would continue to fall down by making the same mistakes. But these decision-makers continue to consider the individuals and social groups as "enemies of the State". Such consideration is wrong and most unfortunate because it leads to violence and even civil war, as in the case of Liberia.

The national decision-makers in Liberia continue to give away to foreigners what our one and only Creator, God/Allah, has given us. The decision-makers consider Liberia's greatest asset to be money or natural resource rather than reason or human resource. Much public money is managed by persons who love themselves rather than love Liberia and so corruption prevails as the decision-makers use the people's money to improve themselves and their foreign friends. These decision-makers have access to at least USD 1,000 a day and their foreign friends have access to at least USD2 million a day while over 80 percent of the people of Liberia have access to at most less than USD2 a day.

Profit-oriented international partners continue to dictate to the decision-makers, who continue to follow the dictation because they want to continue to get money from the partners. Although the same mistakes are being made through the poverty generating production of raw materials for export, the partners provide loans and grants with praises of the decision-makers for their fiscal discipline. And the beat goes on because the partners and their national decision-makers are interested in the revenue from the production of raw materials for export. The value subtraction mistake rather than the value addition correction goes on and on.

While the same mistakes are repeated, what becomes most worrisome is the tendency for violence, even civil war, to take place. In this most dangerous situation, the frustration generated through poverty generation becomes the pretext for more greedy persons to emerge and take center stage to lead protests and get elected unconstitutionally to install themselves into State power, making the societal environment worse.

Through increasing awareness about the evil that bad persons do to Liberia, the voters have lifted themselves up from the ground by voting out of offices most of the Legislators from the 52nd and 53rd Legislatures who were running to be re-elected. But the beat of corruption and bad State governance still goes on because the electoral system remains bad, resulting in the "election" of bad persons to hold public offices. Such an "election" has to stop now and it can only be stopped now when masses of people engage in non-violent actions to change the electoral system from bad to good. The electoral system is changed from bad to good when Liberians with good records over the years are appointed as Commissioners of the National Elections Commission (NEC). Let us recall the Tipoteh versus Korkoya Case in the Supreme Court of Liberia when Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh took Mr. Jerome Korkpya, then Chairperson of NEC, to the Supreme court on grounds that he was not a citizen of Liberia and working in violation of the Constitution of Liberia. Dr. Tipoteh, ably represented by Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe, made such a relevant Case that the Supreme Court gave up and indicated its unpreparedness to give a Ruling on the Case. Up to now, spanning over two years, the Supreme Court has not given a Ruling on the Case. None of the national leaders, including the political party leaders, gave support to the eviction of Mr. Korkoya.

When Mr. Korkoya tenure ended, the "new" NEC repeated the same mistakes made by the Korkoya NEC: non-Liberians serving as NEC Commissioners, reliance on un-cleaned voter registration rolls, illegal transportation of voters from Sierra Leone, Guinea, and from Counties of residence in Liberia to other Counties, use of flawed voter registration machines and the illegal differences of decisions by NEC Registrars, NEC Voting Center Representatives and the NEC Commissioners. But the voters continue to vote for bad persons, thereby giving support to the unconstitutional electoral process that promotes the "election" of bad persons. No wonder the Youth of Grand Cape Mount County made a public appeal to understand why they voted for some persons who pursued their personal agenda upon their "election" instead of the agenda of the voters. The Youth were told that they voted for persons whose public records they did not know when I served as Guest Speaker at a Community Program in Madina, Grand Cape Mount County. With me at the Program were Mrs. Elitha Manning, Founding President General of the Liberian Labor Congress, Mr. Dempster Mananga, Secretary-General of the Bong County Council of Chiefs and Elders, Sheikh David Kiazolu. Vice Chairperson, National Muslim Council of Liberia, Mrs.

Abigail Kofa, Women Leader, Borough of Kru Town, and Sheikh Mamamudu Pusahl Susukuu Coordinator of Western Liberia, all of whom participated in the awareness raising that took place in Madina two years ago.

With more awareness about the public records of Legislators, most of the Legislators from the 52nd and 53rd Legislatures were not "re-elected"!! Therefore, the Way Forward for the Better is the use of knowledge to raise awareness in ways that motivate voters to take non-violent actions to change the electoral system from bad to good so that good persons can get elected to change State governance from bad to good and move Liberia away from poverty generation to bring in poverty alleviation.

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