By Samuel D. Tweah, Jr. (former Minister, Finance, Development and Planning)
VOTERS: During the 2023 election, you UP guys said CDC was bringing in Kush to destroy our children; now we see you have turned Liberia into a cocaine state. Why should we Liberians ever trust you guys with power again?
UNITY PARTY: We have reason to believe some CDC people are behind this and we will be calling them soon.
VOTERS: Please mehn we beg you, let’s stop you right there. You UP guys should not make us angry mehn !! All the people arrested, in jail or under suspicion publicly are NOT CDC people and you all want to drag CDC into this?
We will never buy that. Nobody can bring $317 million worth of cocaine into the country without the collusion or complicity of national security people in POWER? Da CDC people in power controlling security? CDC people are not controlling national security under the UP Government so to tell us CDC people are involved is to insult our collective intelligence!
UNITY PARTY: Don’t get us wrong, we are not insulting your intelligence we are just assuring you that we will break this cartel and solve the drug problem as we promised during the 2023 campaign. We are only asking for more time.
VOTERS: So, the UP Government will make the problem worse before solving it? After a list three years you are still asking for time? After almost four leadership changes at DEA, we should give you another three years? But let’s go to another aspect.
Recently, Senator Amara Konneh told us on SPOONTALK that the Americans told President Boakai to keep in place the national security infrastructure of President WEAH. If this is true, then President WEAH had something good going on in security. Why did President Boakai reject this advice and why is he now coming back to it, with the appointment of WEAH ‘s defense Minister Daniel Ziankahn?
UNITY PARTY: So, you people would believe everything Senator Amara Konneh says publicly? Without saying he’s lying or telling the truth, what we can say is that all security personnel trained with taxpayers’ money deserve a chance to help their country.
VOTERS: No no no let’s stop you guys right there again. Why y’all can’t be honest? You guys are getting on our nerves now. During the 2023 campaign, you all said President WEAH’s national security people were the ones behind drugs and were endangering the country. Even today, you are still accusing them of involvement in drugs.
Some of us voted for UP because we believe the stuff you guys were throwing out there. Now, almost three years in power with your government collapsing under the weight of drugs, you want to change the argument to taxpayers money training people? Were we all not made to believe during the election that President WEAH had no good person in his government? That all his policies were bad? Have you not proven unable to change some of his policies, like HARMONIZATION and Free Tuition or FREE WASSE etc? So, tell us why we should vote you back if you are now turning to WEAH’s people.
Yes, Liberians trained former Defense Minister Daniel Ziankhan, but it was President WEAH’s JUDGEMENT that took him from army life to civilian life and made him defense minister. Yet it is this JUDGEMENT you UNITY PARTY guys alway want us the Liberian voters to DISTRUST, to believe WEAH’s JUDGEMENT “means harm to Liberia and cannot carry the country anywhere “when we see that same JUDGEMENT helping you to run the country today! This is HYPOCRISY!
UNITY PARTY: woe woe woe woe! Y’all take it easy! You guys are throwing a lot on us so let’s control the discussion, so we don’t lose focus. There is something in Government called “CONTINUITY .” That means what one Government started another Government can build on it. For example, CDC built on the Lofa road we initiated under President Sirleaf, or the CLSG electricity project, among others.
VOTERS: hey hey stop it stop it. Stop it mehn!! CDC built on those projects you named but CDC did not say and has NEVER said the UP did NOTHING under President Sirleaf. It is you UP guys who told us in 2023 that the CDC was destroying Liberia, so we needed to vote them out.
It is you UP guys who said CDC did NOTHING in education, but you are proud to dedicate the 45 schools or thereabout the CDC started building before it left power. It Is you who did not even invite Pres Weah to Liberia’s first solar plant at Mount Coffee, a project Weah’s Government signed and brought into being with the World Bank and the IFC.
It is you who want to claim the Saclaypea Tapita road that the CDC built and you who do not want to recognize the financing secured by the CDC for the whole Ganta Fishtown stretch. For us voters, we now know who is telling the truth and who is lying. But let’s get back to drugs. Why are all the security people involved in the cocaine business not behind bars? Why are they out walking and boasting around and why can the president not call for an independent investigation?
UNITY PARTY: First of all, under our laws to put people in jail you have to have strong evidence. We are still investigating people. The President has confidence in the national security structure that is leading the investigation with the help of our international partners.
The minister of Justice has said if “Liberians don’t trust the national security actors involved with the investigation they can trust the Americans who are supporting the investigation. “We can assure you the Liberian people that justice will be done and that all linked to this drug issue would be prosecuted.
VOTERS: (showing signs of disappointment and frustration) Let’s be honest for once, the UP is not leading the country in the right direction. As a government, you have undermined the whole structure of law in Liberia. Now you have an opportunity to redeem yourself through an independent investigation and you want to hide behind American honesty?
We trust the Americans, but they are NOT leading the investigation. If the President cannot call for an independent investigation the way President Weah did during the $16 billion crisis, which was proven to be a lie, it means he and the UP have something to hide. IG Gregory Coleman has already said senior officials are linked and we believe the President is afraid to take action on them because they might talk and expose everybody, in line with the Liberian saying, “you haul rope, rope will haul bush”!
So, the President is now held hostage by his people. Only an independent process will convince us the voters. Appointing a new DEA head is not the solution to the problem of how the drugs entered the country and how the cartel infiltrated the national security architecture.
We the people demand an independent investigation otherwise; the Unity Party will be in a hard zone in 2029.
UNITY PARTY: Our people, we encourage you to await the President’s decisions and actions as the investigation continues and not to rush to judgement. The President may be slow but, he is sure!
VOTERS: Y’all talking cliche! Our dialogue is over. You guys do not come to this discussion with honesty but with politics. You played politricks to come to power and now you want to play politricks to govern? As the Nigerian Prelate has said, the whole Government is confused. (Walking out grumbling and murmuring in apparent frustration) 2029 will be tough for y’all oooo!
