By by Sidiki Fofana | Truth In Ink
To the dear comrades in the struggle please be reminded that Silence Is Betrayal; Principle Must Trump Personal Injury in Liberia’s Fight for Justice.
”There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In a nation wounded by cycles of broken promises, the loudest betrayals are often not the screams of the oppressors, but the silence of those who once vowed to fight for the people.
An article recently surfaced, attributed to Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and former Solicitor-General under the Weah government, explaining why he cannot bring himself to criticize the current Boakai-led administration.
In it, he outlines painful truths; the betrayal he experienced from a government he helped bring to power, the cold shoulder he received from a president he once defended, and the political hijacking of a revolution he helped birth.
Yes, George Weah forgot his comrades. That is indisputable. His earliest appointments were not of those who bled with him in the struggle, but of strangers, opportunists, and even former opponents who once mocked the CDC’s rise. The people who helped build the political vehicle that drove Weah to power were left behind, disrespected, discarded.
But here is the inconvenient truth; personal betrayal does not absolve us from public responsibility.
Cllr. Cephus is not just a man with scars. He is a legal luminary, a patriot, a soldier of justice, and with that legacy comes duty. The law he once defended is now under siege. The Constitution he once upheld is being twisted by those in power. Institutions are collapsing. And yet, one of its best defenders chooses silence, because his loyalty was misplaced under the last administration?
That cannot be the standard.If Boakai Could Speak Under Ellen, Why Can’t Cephus Speak Now?
Let us draw a sharp reminder from the very man Cephus now defends in silence, President Joseph Nyumah Boakai. As Vice President, he was famously marginalized by President Sirleaf. But he did not retreat in silence. Instead, he raised his voice to say: “I was so unused, I became a parked car.”
And when asked about his tenure, Boakai admitted that the Sirleaf administration “squandered opportunities.” Yet it didn’t stop him from highlighting the ills in the government that Cephus served as its chief prosecutor putting the very Boakai on the witness stand.
That was courage. That was patriotism.
Boakai spoke up after he left power, going against the legacy of himself and his former boss even with much to lose. Cephus now stands on the outside, with less to risk, but his voice could still shape national direction. It could still inspire others to resist the growing tide of legal abuse and democratic decay.
If you once fought for the rule of law, how can you be silent while that very law is ignored? Liberia Needs Warriors, Not Wounded Silence
Thomas Sankara, the pan-African revolutionary, once said, “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness.” The madness he spoke of is the courage to speak truth to power, even when that power has wounded you.
There are many who, like Cephus, were betrayed; myself included. Yet they chose to remain in the fight, not because they were unhurt, but because the current hurt of the nation is bigger than their own pain. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela was betrayed by fellow comrades during the struggle, but he never gave up on the fight for justice.
Even his wife was reported to hand betrayed him. Liberia has its own examples: Henry Boima Fahnbulleh remained critical of excesses under every government he served or opposed. He didn’t wait for perfection to speak; he spoke because silence kills republics.
Criticism is not an act of vengeance. It is not performance. It is patriotism. And silence in the face of bad governance, whether by George Weah or Joseph Boakai, is complicity.
Selective Patriotism Is Not Patriotism at All : Liberia is on fire.
The rule of law is being trampled with the boots of executive arrogance. The Supreme Court’s rulings are ignored. Legal processes are manipulated for political convenience.
Economic hardship tightens around the necks of ordinary citizens. Civil servants go unpaid and remain underpaid while contracts are secretly awarded to cronies. The same nation that declared a National Day of Prayer continues to govern in direct contradiction to divine and democratic principles alike.
To say nothing now is to say that your voice was only valid when your interests were secure.
But that cannot be the legacy of a revolutionary. It cannot be the standard for those who claim to have once served the Republic. If you stood for justice once, you must stand for it always, not just when you are inside the palace gates.
As Frantz Fanon warned us: “Every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor.”
And so we say to Cllr. Cephus; Liberia needs your voice now, not as a lawyer who once served a fallen government, but as a patriot who still believes in the soul of this nation. Speak, not because Weah failed you, but because Boakai is failing the people. Speak, not because you were rejected, but because the people cannot afford further silence.
Let this moment be your redemption, not your retreat.
Truth must never take a sabbatical. The revolution does not stop because one man was sidelined. It continues until Liberia becomes a nation of law, of dignity, of justice, for all.
Comrade Cephus, the Liberian people look forward to seeing you on the battle field cloth in the armor of truth and justice.
