Reckoning Opposition Protection Unit Ahead of 2023 amid Signs of Violence

The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
August 8, 2022

OPU, Opposition Protection Unit A newly formed unit to protect opposition protesters and opposition leaders

In opposition, George Weah assembled a bunch of malnourished folks and called them his personal bodyguards. They received absolutely no formal training in body-guarding their leader. They simply pretended to be rookies! At the mercy of used clothing on sale, they could be seen looking shabbily attired. Most times, oozing sweat scent inundated them. They were not to blame. Their leader and former football legend didn't give a damn. But his entourage was always consumed by an undeodorized environment.

They seemed not to focus on the basics of VIP security orientation as it were. At least to provide elementary insights critical to unrefined body-guarding. By then most of them looked like Macho men. Hanging onto a fleet of speeding vehicles, they were seen wearing dark sunglasses irrespective of the weather. They followed Weah wherever he went. They would jump from moving vehicles in a show of grotesque gymnastics. Literally, they were no different from zombies! These were mainly young men who showed selfless loyalty to the man they perceived as their true leader. Many times, they survived for days unfed. They made a living from handouts – courtesy of Good Samaritans. They still unquestionably remained loyal!

Amid the locus transfer of power, Weah's security advisers hurriedly rushed them to the National Police Training Academy. There, they received two weeks of so-called intense training. A complete violation of the Police Academy's curriculum. Sadly, amid inadequate training, they carry firearms. All recruits screened to enroll in the Police Academy are required to receive formal training for a period of at least nine months. Weah's former Sabu unit chaps didn't. What do we expect? Power had shifted! Weah had to do everything his own way.

After five years on the throne in the small West African nation, state-sponsored lawlessness eclipsed. The new government of soccer legend George Weah could not stomach the harsh realities of democracy. Amid sheer intolerance, a former dreaded child soldier assigned to Chuckie Taylor, Jeff Koijee swung into action. A section of the CDC Youth League City Mayor, Jeff Koijee had been training as militias to engage in counter-protest, and gangsterism became gradually unleashed. As venomous serpents, they thuggishly unmasked their Sabu Unit and CDC-COPs! Their target was defenseless civilians. With Jeff Koijee at the helm of dreaded vigilante groups, banditry permeated our society.

Mysterious killings, wanton rape, politically motivated murders, and counter-violent protests have become the order of the day. The man elected to lead is clueless! His powers have been devolved! In 2018, Koijee led a group of thugs brandishing pistols, and cutlasses in the Township Barnersville outside Monrovia. The aim was to instill fear amid a by-election, which the CDC lost. The war in Liberia didn't just ignite. Rwanda's genocide did not come from the thin air. Today's factionalized Somalia was once peaceful. Peace is not the absence of war. It is about the active presence of justice, now missing in Weah's Liberia.

Although Liberians supposedly voted into office a new government in 2017, they've become worse off than at any time in the country's history. Voices of descent are summarily quashed. Brute force has become the regime's tool to coward into submission. Weah wants Liberians to buy CCTV for their own security. What then is the role of the government? Sit and do nothing as citizens get murdered in cold blood.

One man who is not taking the current wave of insecurity lightly is Montserrado District #10 Representative, Yekeh Kolubah. At a press conference on Sunday, Yekeh announced the setting up of the Opposition Protection Unit. Do we actually need one? Perhaps, especially where the citizens feel unsafe and insecure. Particularly, when Liberians can no longer trust Weah, his Sabu unit, and CDC-COPs. Yekeh says the group would need a full strength of about a 5,000-strong composition. Their role, according to Yekeh, would be to protect Liberians since their government failed to guarantee their safety and security. Representative Yekeh Kolubah is not alone. Former Truth and Reconciliation Chair, Cllr. Jerome Verdier has called on Liberians to begin to act in self-defense amid the government's inability to protect them.

If the regime can no longer protect its people, they lose hope. When police standby as thugs and bandits unleash mayhem, there is bound to be despair. The essence of government gets defeated when the people cannot trust those in authority. The citizens will find alternate means when the government they elected is insensitive! The people lose hope when justice becomes elusive! No group of civilized people can leave their fate in the hands of a terrorizing state. What should the citizens do when there are no longer voices in the wilderness? They cannot sit idle. Of course, the government has failed them dismally. Deciding their own course of action might sometimes be perilous but a necessary preoccupation. That's when the end justifies the mean. History will remember only those who choose to act when hopelessness abounds.