Quality Within Quantity Matters Most

Throughout history, the Powers That Be boast about having the quantity of people to pursue their selfish interests. Over five centuries ago, greedy slave buyers from America and greedy slave sellers from Africa engaged in the transatlantic slave trade that recorded the murder of millions of African slaves on account of the horrific treatment that they received from the slave owners. Still pursuing their self interests, greedy State rulers of Liberia were forced to resign from State offices through the mass pressure placed on them in The League of Nations for their slave trading. While engaged in slave trading, these rulers were also falsifying election results to stay in State power to the point that Liberia acquired the world record for fraudulent elections, in the mid-1920s.

Still pushing their self interests, the State rulers ruled that only freed slaves had voting rights in Liberia, Again, mass pressure on the State resulted in freed slaves and indigenous persons being allowed to be citizens. After the record-breaking fraudulent election, the State rulers continued with manufacturing election results in favor of the elite, the State rulers and their collaborators. This collaboration continues and produces unconstitutional results, as the National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia remains active violating the Constitution of Liberia by having non-Liberians serving as NEC Commissioners, allowing the illegal transport of foreign and local voters, the use of un-cleaned voter registration rolls, the use of flawed voter registration machines donated by an international partner, and the non-vetting of NEC representatives at voting centers and their inconsistent decision-making.

In the midst of public health epidemics, the State managers continue to engage in public rallies and other public activities, where they violate the public health protocols. Now that the corona pandemic has victimized some of the friends/partners of the State managers, the alarm has been put out by the government, stressing the need to follow the public health protocols.  This is why one can see many more people wearing the masks, but, still, State managers continue to violate the public health protocols and the panic-stricken masses continue to follow suit by packing the commercial vehicles and market places, where food items are being sold in the middle of garbage dumps. Miss Liberia 2017 led a Campaign to clear the garbage and she was thanked profusely by the Marketeers in Doula, Bushrod Island, Monrovia. But some international partners of the government proceeded to give the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) several dump trucks for city cleaning. The MCC proceeded to place big rocks on the areas where there was garbage and failed to engage in any Campaign of awareness raising to stop the garbage dumping and prevent further garbage dumping. The Liberian Marketing Association (LMA) collects LD200 weekly from the Marketeers, amounting to some LD20 million a week for market spaces but there is a worsening of the garbage situation in the markets. Some media houses, like The Daily Observer,  The Inquirer and The Analyst are raising awareness through photos and publications. For its part, the Servants of Africa Fighting Epidemics (SAFE), founded by the late Dr. Mary Nema Brownell, the late Sheikh Kafumba Konneh and me, has intensified the SAFE awareness  raising throughout the country, covering over one million persons. With the passing away of Dr. Brownell and Sheikh Konneh. Mrs. Elitha Manning, Founding President General of the Liberian Labour Congress (LLC) and Sheikh David Kiazolu. Vice President of the National Muslim Congress of Liberia have become part of the leadership of SAFE to help with the intensification of the Awareness Raising Campaign.

The 2023 election is coming up and persons are touring, campaigning illegally. What they are doing is illegal because NEC has not announced the opening of campaigning for the 2023  election. Persons interested in holding public offices are running around the country spending plenty money to get large crowds as evidence that their quantities meet the electoral test. What these aspirants and incumbents fail to realize is that quantity alone never suffices to make living conditions better for the voters, especially the poor voters. What makes the living conditions of the voters better is the quality of the aspirant or incumbent, as seen in the record of each one of them. This was my position given to the youths of Grand Cape Mount County when they asked me about their voting for persons who turn their backs on the voters as soon as they get elected. When the record is good, that is a record of helping the poor to help themselves in the struggle for justice to improve their living conditions, there is a high likelihood that living conditions will get better from the good decisions made by the good persons elected through a FAIR electoral system.

The reality remains the existence of a bad electoral system that announces the election of persons who promote poverty generation instead of poverty alleviation. As Liberia moves towards the 2023 election, voters who love Liberia have to work harder and better together to change the electoral system from UNFAIR to FAIR so that Quality Within Quantity can prevail for good persons to be elected to move Liberia away from poverty generation to bring in poverty alleviation.

The awareness raising about the foregoing reality is making progress, as seen in elections in Liberia. Witness how voters did not elect most of the Legislators of the 52nd and 53rd Legislatures who wanted to be reelected. This trend is highly likely to continue in the 2023 election. Not only in Liberia and other parts of Africa are we witnessing the rise of quality voting in the face of prevailing populism, where quantity voting is the order of the day, the recent election in the United States of America, where Mr. Donald Trump was voted out of presidential office, is a clear example of the benefit from quality-oriented awareness raising.

LET US NEVER GET TIRED OF WORKING TO GET QUALITY WITHIN QUANTITY VOTING!!!