- By Counsellor Frederick A.B. Jayweh,
B.A., LL.B. LL.M.
IF you, as a Liberian, you have committed most of your adult life to planning, designing, and executing wars, deaths, and destructions of the socio-economic and geo-political fabric of the Republic of Liberia and Liberians and being mostly credited with passionately and ardently financing and promoting the killings of the frail and defenseless people of Liberia, simply to become Liberia’s Premier by maneuvering and by insensitively and thoughtlessly wasting of the blood of the economically deprived and impoverished people of Liberia, just because, you desperately wanted to be referred to as Mr. Premier or Madam Premier, then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a Liberian, you did knowingly, calculatedly, callously, and disappointingly choose to spend yours and your adult life’s fortune and treasures to buy arms and ammunition to thoughtlessly and inconsiderately prosecute wars and annihilation in Liberia to immeasurably maim and murder fellow Liberians, more than 300, 000 Liberians and residents of Liberia, just to prepare the way for you to become Liberia’s monarch, selfishly and coldheartedly to enrich yourself, your family members, and your political devotees at the expense and disadvantage of the people Liberia, then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a citizen of Liberia, during your adult life, you were the planner, designer, potent financier and an executioner of insensitive and every known irresponsible and reckless war in Liberia that inexplicably, deliberately, and purposefully murdered about 300,000 innocent people in Liberia at the bequest of making yourself great throughout the 15yrs of Liberia’s futile armed conflict, carrying less about the massacre and bloodbath that ordinary Liberians and residents of Liberia were compelled to undergo and to experience, just because you wanted to become Liberia’s foremost and premier ruler promoting the advancement of war and not the advancement of peacemaking and development in Liberia, just for your political comfort, appeasement, and ascension, then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a Liberian, you during your adult life, you were privileged and opportune to maneuver and manipulate, as well as commit Liberia and Liberia’s sovereignty and prime interests to foreign corporate directors and shareholders, against the interests of ordinary Liberian workers and absentmindedly to be known and be referred to in the future as a wealthy professional and a most treasured creature in the Republic of Liberia, at the expense of the deprived and poverty-stricken people of Liberia, just because, you were tactfully and discreetly planning ahead of the time of your life to become Liberia’s ruler over and beyond the prime and sovereign interests of the people of Liberia, whose principal interests, you have always disregarded, downplayed, and swept under the feet of affluent corporate directors and shareholders in the name of the almighty dollar and in the name of making yourself great, while committing the crime of bribery and other crimes in Liberia and correspondingly bribing every living creature along the way leading to the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches of Liberia’s Government in the interest of your corporate masters and yourself and at the throbbing disadvantage of the people of Liberia and Liberia, then and in that case, you are nothing, but, a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a Liberian, you have purposely failed to publicly pronounce in Liberia where young and frail indigent and destitute Liberian ladies are dumping their 1day old babies everywhere and you’ve neglected to declare Liberia, a country, where prostitution is excruciatingly and devastatingly on the rise and does represent a criminal offense in Liberia and in your quaint perception of Liberia and just to please your corporate partners and masters over and above the sovereignty of Liberia and its people, then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a Liberian, you are mournfully and woefully inspired and dedicated, because of power and wanting to be and remain Liberia’s chief, you are callously, impudently and unthinkingly appointing internationally and nationally known warmongers, killers, and war criminals to public offices in Liberia in order to protect and secure yourself and your kingship over and beyond Liberia’s sovereign and best interests as compared to your masters’ then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a Liberian, you, during your adult and professional life, it has never crossed your mind not to on purpose and willfully institutionalized and you failed to prosecute the Crimes of Property Theft and Economic Sabotage in the Republic of Liberia, largely and mindfully to provide comfort, conciliation, appeasement, and pacification for yourself, your lieutenants, as well as to enhance the advancement of yourself and your corporate partners and masters in Liberia just to make yourself great, then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a Liberian, you, have passionately and unemotionally campaigned against the building of roads, affordable healthcare centers, clinics, hospitals, affordable housing and educational institutions in Liberia and you have only focused your time and attention on the corporate interests for corporate shareholders and directors and just because you intended to get rich quick at the expense and woeful disadvantage of the Liberian people, and a portion of Liberia wants to secede from Liberia, then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a Liberian, you have selfishly and purposefully mismanaged Liberia’s money in the interest of financially strengthening yourself and your commitment to retain and remain as one of Liberia’s public officials at the intentional disadvantage and unmindful expense of the people of Liberia and yet you have confidently boasted to the world that you will be one of Liberia’s influential and dominant political contestants in Liberia to the point of decisively intimidating and reducing ordinary Liberians to threats and fears by reappointing their common killers to distinct and separate public offices in the Republic Liberia, then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, since coming to preeminence and disappointing sovereign in Liberia, you have continuously and persistently lived and grown up in corruption and institutionalized corrupt practices in the Republic Liberia under the pretense of system failure and breakdown at the total disadvantage and inconvenience of Liberia and the people of Liberia and you have knowingly failed Liberia to protect your interest and your masters’, then and in that case, you are nothing else, but, a Johnny-Just-Come!
IF you, as a Liberian, you have committed and dedicated the last days of your life on this earth to running across constricted and questionable borders to feast with queens, kings, and devils just to empower you to become Liberia’s cream-of-the-crop and ruler caring-less about who could be innocently injured or killed in the process of your engagement, just because you have wanted to fervently and mercilessly lead Liberia and its people into unthinkable hardship and suffering, while commanding that only members of your party and supporters be employed first, over and above the larger Liberian public and ordinary citizens of Liberia, then and in that case, you are a Johnny-Just-Come.
Everyone is a genius
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. – A Einstein
Drawing the line in Liberia
Crimes sponsored, committed, or masterminded by handful of individuals cannot be blamed upon an entire nationality. In this case, Liberians! The need for post-war justice is a step toward lasting peace, stability and prosperity for Liberia. Liberia needs a war crimes tribunal or some credible legal forum that is capable of dealing with atrocities perpetrated against defenseless men, women and children during the country's brutal war. Without justice, peace shall remain elusive and investment in Liberia will not produce the intended results. - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Men with unhealthy characters should not champion any noble cause
They pretend to advocate the cause of the people when their deeds in the dark mirror nothing else but EVIL!!
When evil and corrupt men try to champion a cause that is so noble … such cause, how noble it may be, becomes meaningless in the eyes of the people - Bernard Gbayee Goah.
When evil and corrupt men try to champion a cause that is so noble … such cause, how noble it may be, becomes meaningless in the eyes of the people - Bernard Gbayee Goah.
If Liberia must move forward ...
If Liberia must move forward in order to claim its place as a civilized nation amongst world community of nations, come 2017 elections, Liberians must critically review the events of the past with honesty and objectivity. They must make a new commitment to seek lasting solutions. The track records of those who are presenting themselves as candidates for the position of "President of the Republic of Liberia" must be well examined. Liberians must be fair to themselves because results from the 2011 elections will determine the future of Liberia’s unborn generations to come - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Liberia's greatest problem!
While it is true that an individual may be held responsible for corruption and mismanagement of funds in government, the lack of proper system to work with may as well impede the process of ethical, managerial, and financial accountability - Bernard Gbayee Goah
What do I think should be done?
The situation in Liberia is Compound Complex and cannot be fixed unless the entire system of government is reinvented.
Liberia needs a workable but uncompromising system that will make the country an asylum free from abuse, and other forms of corruption.
Liberia needs a workable but uncompromising system that will make the country an asylum free from abuse, and other forms of corruption.
Any attempt to institute the system mentioned above in the absence of rule of law is meaningless, and more detrimental to Liberia as a whole - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Liberia's Natural Resources
Besides land water and few other resources, most of Liberia’s dependable natural resources are not infinite, they are finite and therefore can be depleted.
Liberia’s gold, diamond, and other natural resources will not always be an available source of revenue generation for its people and its government. The need to invent a system in government that focuses on an alternative income generation method cannot be over emphasized at this point - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Besides land water and few other resources, most of Liberia’s dependable natural resources are not infinite, they are finite and therefore can be depleted.
Liberia’s gold, diamond, and other natural resources will not always be an available source of revenue generation for its people and its government. The need to invent a system in government that focuses on an alternative income generation method cannot be over emphasized at this point - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Liberia needs a proper system
If Liberians refuse to erect a proper system in place that promotes the minimization of corruption and mismanagement of public funds by government institutions, and individuals, there will come a time when the value of the entire country will be seen as a large valueless land suited on the west coast of Africa with some polluted bodies of waters and nothing else. To have no system in place in any country is to have no respect for rule of law. To have no respect for rule of law is to believe in lawlessness. And where there is lawlessness, there is always corruption - Bernard Gbayee Goah
If Liberians refuse to erect a proper system in place that promotes the minimization of corruption and mismanagement of public funds by government institutions, and individuals, there will come a time when the value of the entire country will be seen as a large valueless land suited on the west coast of Africa with some polluted bodies of waters and nothing else. To have no system in place in any country is to have no respect for rule of law. To have no respect for rule of law is to believe in lawlessness. And where there is lawlessness, there is always corruption - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Solving problems in the absence of war talks
As political instability continues to increase in Africa, it has become abundantly clear that military intervention as a primary remedy to peace is not a durable solution. Such intervention only increases insecurity and massive economic hardship. An existing example which could be a valuable lesson for Liberia is Great Britain, and the US war on terror for the purpose of global security. The use of arms whether in peace keeping, occupation, or invasion as a primary means of solving problem has yield only little results. Military intervention by any country as the only solution to problem solving will result into massive military spending, economic hardship, more fear, and animosity as well as increase insecurity. The alternative is learning how to solve problems in the absence of war talks. The objective of such alternative must be to provide real sustainable human security which cannot be achieved through military arm intervention, or aggression. In order to achieve results that will make the peaceful coexistence of all mankind possible, there must be a common ground for the stories of all sides to be heard. I believe there are always three sides to every story: Their side of the story, Our side of the story, and The truth – Bernard Gbayee Goah