By Festus Poquie
Liberia’s ruling Coalition for Democratic Change Secretary General has dragged the civil war records of a top opposition figure to taint his crusade for mass protest against the Weah administration.
Lewis Brown, the Alternative National Congress (ANC) official leading the call for a cost of living demonstration in Monrovia is a bad messenger, Jefferson Kiojee said in the capital Monrovia.
He charged the planers with hypocrisy and said it will rather be a protest of the rich against the poor. He said Brown must reconcile with God for his atrocious role played during Charles Taylor war and rule of the ‘90s,
The ANC has scheduled December 17 for the protest dubbed “We Tired Suffering.”
The proponent of the so-called protest are exemplar of Liberia painful past and as such they should be more concerned about repentance and not protest,” Koijee said.
“Who are those calling for protest? It’s the likes of Lewis Brown, a certified killer who served as an advisor for a regime (Charles Taylor’s national security chief) that was responsible for the gruesome and ruthless murdered of innocent and defenseless citizens? It’s Lewis who served as Information Minister of a government that pillaged the resources of Liberia for 12-unbroken years.”
Brown accuses Koijee and the ruling establishment of corruption and suppression of the poor.
“I owe him no explanation. I owe him no apologies,” Brown said.
“I don’t expect him to be happy that Liberians are tired suffering and want to express it. You expect Jefferson Koijee to be happy? Those who have privileges and are abusing power are afraid when people want to speak to such abuses.
“But let me tell you what is worse. What leads to chaos is when people don’t exercise that right to express themselves. That is what is troubling for democracy.
“I don’t need Koijee to tell me how to organize a peaceful rally. He has no pedigree. He has no capacity to tell anybody that I just named here how to organize a peaceful rally.
“What he has proven he has is the capacity to disrupt. And I dare him to on that day. Write it and report it, and let him hear me clearly. There is a reason they are afraid of me. Tell that little boy, there will be a rally, a peaceful rally on December 17, and he has no capacity to threaten anyone or disrupt it. I dare him,” Mr. Brown stated emphatically.
The Alternative National Congress will be among an estimate dozens political parties and candidates that will rival Weah for the presidency on October 10, 2023. The votes will be held on the heels of a struggling economy occasioned by series of corruption scandals, the COVID-19 pandemic and the attending global price volatility.
