Liberia: Daily Suffering Not Election Suffering

There are many, many calls, emails, postings and articles coming out about the suffering of the people of Liberia. The much talked about this suffering is coming out now because we are getting close to the general and presidential election of 2023.

Persons who seek election and re-election feel that the best time to talk about suffering is when the election is near rather than every day when the masses of the people are suffering.

People are dying every day because of hunger alone but the persons seeking election and re-election are focusing just on the election period to take advantage of the people's misery. 

In their misery, many of the poor voters, seeking to reduce their hunger, come out with petitions and statements of support for the persons seeking election and re-election. Some voters say that they will chop but not vote for the persons seeking election and re-election.

Other voters say that they will do the opposite thing. In any case, persons seeking election and re-election continue to view the election as an opportunity to chop State revenue presumably raised to help the poor to help themselves out of poverty.

Here we have the situation where the persons who want to get rich are using the poor voters to get rich..No wonder that there are National Conferences and billboards around calling upon taxpayers to pay taxes because revenue promotes development. In Liberia, the opposite prevails because of longstanding and widespread corruption that pockets the revenue.  Wonders Shall Never End. 

When we look at the Annual Reports of the CBL, MFDP, MCI, ADB, World Bank and IMF, we can see how the rich  get richer while the poor get poorer.

Legislators who were living in rooms paying USD10 a month, now have access to at least USD1,000 a day, and their foreign partners, in the commercial sector alone, have access to at aUSD2. million a day while the suffering asses have access to at most less than USD2 a day. As for LISGIS, the State Statistics House that should be providing information about the people's condition has the wrong definition of employment.

The internationally acceptable definition of employment says that any person who looks for work at a given wage rate and finds the work is employed but does not find work is unemployed. An irony sets in when State managers operating on the wrong LISGIS definition consider the thousands of unemployed youth, commonly called Zogoes, to be societally problematic. 

The ironies are many. The irony that is the focus of this Commentary is the wave of petitioning taking place near the election, citing the suffering of the people when the people suffer daily. No wonder the youth of Grand Cape Mount County wanted to know why they would elect persons who forget about them as soon as they get elected.

They were told correctly that they failed to examine the records of the candidates. If they had done such an examination, they would not have elected them. The examination of records is ongoing well. What is the evidence on this examination?

Nearly all of the Legislators of the 52nd and 53rd Legislatures who wanted the re-elected were not re-elected and this trend is highly likely to take place with the 2023  election. 

As the 2023 election draws near, political parties know that unity is highly important. However, they are engaged in power struggles through the flow of money to get in the front position of a coalition.

Political parties know that the Rule of Law is most important for attending to any societal problem but they choose to follow the Rule of Outlaw by acting unconstitutionally.

We know that unconstitutional actions have led to coup d'etat and civil war in Liberia, not forgetting other countries, especially in most recent times.

State management knows that Truthtelling is most important for promoting Justice, the only sustinable ingredient for peace and progress.

However, State management provided United States dollars to mop up Liberian dollars which did not exist because all f the commercial banks had declared publicly that they were faced with the lack of Liberian dollars.

As the 2023 election draws near, State management has put together Christmas and New Year packages to entice voters at the tune of LD4 billion, respectively, out of a 48 billion package approved by the Legislators who are supposed to be representing the voters.

State managers know that cleanliness is next to Godliness, as when we take care of the Earth, the Earth will take care of us.

However, State managers wait for a 200th anniversary celebration and the 2021/2022 Season to clean up the garbage when citizens die daily from pollution.

Community managers now have to take charge, realizing that people suffer every day and not only when the election draws near.