Happy April 12 and April 14 Days
By Isaac T. Settro, Jr
The celebration of April 12 and April 14 is very crucial to the
political development in Liberia. These are the days where Liberia
became a balance country and Liberians started seeing each others as
equal. On the morning of April 12, 1980 while waiting to hear the
execution of the PAL and MOJA leaders who were in jail, we woke up to
the execution of President William Richard Tolbert and the overthrow of
his entire Government in a coup led by Master Sergeant Samuel kanyon
Doe-The first native President of Liberia and his seventeen gallant men
of the AFL. Though the struggle for equal right, social justice and the
abolition of rampant corruption started way back before April 14, 1979,
however, it only came to the limelight as a result of the people’s
uprising for the reduction in the price of rice- their staple food on
April 14, 1979. On this day, Liberians woke up to massive violent
demonstration throughout the land and breath of the country. The
demonstration became violent because the Willie Tolbert led government
decided to violate the masses’ right to free assembly and masterminded
violent tactics to abort the demonstration.
As we also commemorate the holy week we want to pay tribute to those who
lost their lives during these tough times in our nation's history. We
are now preparing for another round of election in our nation’s history
and there are calls for the resignation of the chairman of the Election
Commission by political leaders in the country. I will hope that the
process is free and fair and is calling on political leaders not to rely
holy and solely on the election Commission for free and fair processes.
I am glad that pluralistic democracy is on course and every Liberians
irrespective of where they come from are participating in the democratic
process. This tell us that the efforts of the late Albert Porte, late
Madame late Wleh Gbeh, late Wiwi Deba, late Wuo Garbe Tapia, late G.
Baccus Matthews and many others have not gone in vain. However there are
more works to do and the struggle must continue.
One area of concern for which the struggle for change was launched was
rampant corruption. Rampant corruption continued to eat the very fabric
of our nation. Members of the old order, some of our progressive
friends, the entire government are all involved in rampant corruption.
As we celebrate April 12 and April 14, I will like to make the following
recommendation in an effort to curb corruption and place Liberia on a
sound fiscal footing:
· That the Government of Liberia after the October 2011 election
hold an ‘All Liberia Conference’ where the stakeholders in the country
will have a frank discussion in eradicating rampant corruption;
· That any recommendation from the all Liberian conference be
submitted to the Legislature for ratification to become law of the land;
· That existing laws dealing with corruption be implemented vigorously;
· That GOL begin to study the salary structure of government
officials and make sound recommendation to appropriate authority;
· That all Liberians begin to serve as whistleblower in reporting corruption to appropriate agencies of GOL.
It is my hope and aspirations that if these recommendations above are
adhere to couple will other suggestion then we can eradicate corruption
and be able to save public funds for the construction of projects that
will help the masses of Liberia. Happy April 12 and April 14 days to all
and sundry.
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