By Sidiki Fofana/ Truth in Ink
In Liberia, history does not whisper, it screams. The names may change, the faces may age, but the pattern of power remains strikingly familiar; when citizens rise in protest, the powerful respond not with humility, but with insult.
On July 17, 2025, thousands of Liberians poured into the streets in peaceful protest under the banner of “Enough is Enough.” They came not to sow chaos, but to challenge a government growing ever more detached from the realities of ordinary people.
They came with petitions, not weapons; with grievances, not violence. But instead of being received with the respect their civic courage deserved, they were mocked, vilified, and dehumanized.
In a deeply disturbing display of elite contempt, officials of the Boakai administration, including the President himself, responded to this historic protest by calling demonstrators “drug dealers” and “zogos.” Rather than engage with the legitimate concerns: corruption, unemployment, rising hardship, police brutality, President Boakai reduced thousands of struggling citizens to caricatures of addiction and lawlessness. What kind of leadership meets cries for justice with such insults?
This is not just rhetorical carelessness. It is a dangerous strategy rooted in Liberia’s long-standing class divisions. This is the same thread that ran through the heart of April 14, 1979, when the rice riots led by the Progressive Alliance of Liberia were met with bullets instead of dialogue.
Back then, too, the ruling class saw protest as disorder and the poor as expendable. Over 40 people died that day. Their lives were not lost merely to riot, they were lost to a system that refused to listen.
Fast forward to June 7, 2019, under the presidency of George Weah. Tens of thousands gathered again in protest, this time, the government allowed space, security held restraint, and though tense, the day passed without mass violence. Protesters were seen. They were not demonized as “zogos.” That is what maturity in governance looks like. That is what respect for dissent should be.
But here we are again, back to the politics of insult. To call protesters “zogos” is to strip them of their dignity, to paint them as less than human. It is to say that the poor have no voice unless sanctioned by elites. It is to repeat the same tired script of Americo-Liberian supremacy that once saw indigenous people as incapable of governing, thinking, or dreaming.
This is not just about words, it’s about worth. A leader who sees his people as addicts, criminals, and troublemakers is a leader already disconnected from their reality.
What President Boakai and his officials fail to understand is that protests are not signs of national failure, they are signs of national awakening. People protest because they believe the country can be better. They march because they care. The alternative is silence, and history has shown that silence is often the prelude to collapse.
Mr. President, you were elected not to rule, but to serve. You are not the landlord of Liberia, and the people are not squatters on your estate. The youth you dismiss as “zogos” are the very heartbeat of this nation. The market women, the teachers, the students, the unemployed, they are not drug dealers or enemies of the state.
They are the state. This government came to power on the promise of change. But change does not begin with insult. It begins with humility. It begins with listening. It begins with respect for those who dare to speak, even when their words are uncomfortable.
History has a way of circling back. April 14, 1979. June 7, 2019. And now, July 17, 2025. Each was a test of how governments respond to dissent. Each revealed the character, or lack thereof, of leadership.
What will July 17 be remembered for? That is now up to you, Mr. President. Until the people are seen and heard, this movement will not rest. The slums will rise. The overlooked will speak. The stigmatized will stand. And no amount of insult will silence a nation awakened.
