AT THE PEAK of any truly democratic electoral process, emotions are naturally bound to stretch to elastic limit, and participants, mainly candidates and diehard supporters, would get into do-or-die mood. At this point, there is less care for order, fairness and at times for life once that is going one’s way and taste. This is true for the by-election taking place in Nimba County, the second most populated county of the country next to Montserrado County. As balloting takes place tomorrow, nearly all contestants and their supporters (some with no voting right) have been spewing bellicose rhetoric. In the last days to polls, the cruelest of rhetoric is being heard from all sides with little or no concern for the bigger picture – Nimba, its order, human relationships and the greater bond that have kept the people together and relatively prosperous ahead of most counties.
BEFORE ELECTORAL EMOTIONS get over the head of brothers and sisters of that great county, before the zest for power intoxicates candidates and supporters in the Nimba by-elections to the extent that they would seek breaking down every social fabric and the promising future the county bears, let’s remind all and sundry of a few things. Firstly, whoever wins the elections this week, knowing the nature of a typical Liberian, they take a personal job, not a communal job. Their salary, emoluments, go to them or family. Their lawmaking skills won’t put bread on the table for the over a million citizens of Nimba County. Every soon, a week or two after the elections, most Nimbaians would not go close to them. Everyone else soon recoils to the daily hustle that puts bread on their table and nature continues in its course. Don’t ruin Nimba to satisfy politicians’ raw quest for power.
SECONDLY, NIMBA HAS been at peace with itself and its neighbors, doing particularly well economically and politically since the end of the Liberian civil conflict. Continuing on the trajectory is far critical and important than who replaces fallen iconic Prince Y. Johnson by becoming a senator for the great people of the county. For Nimba to continue on that rightful path of stability, peace and prosperity, it needs all its citizens, something that is not possible when the bridges that connect its ethnic and political cleavages are broken into pieces in the aftermath of the senatorial elections. Nimba’s unity and peaceful are solid ground for its power and influence in Liberia’s politics. Don’t break that.
THIRD, LET’S REMIND Nimbaians as they go through stupor of electoral belligerence that they owe skeptics an answer in the way they conduct themselves during and after the by-elections. For instance, there are those who think Nimbaians are naturally violent, hateful, and unreasonable. This stereotype or stigma has come a long way, and it is time for them to disprove those who harbor such a weird perception. Thus, as they go to the ballot box to climax of all the vicious, polarizing campaign, it is important the political leaders and candidates and their supporters reflect on those three reminders. The late Johnson whose replacement is being found, despite all his negative overtures cited by critics, left behind a Nimba that was peaceful, politically and physically protected, steadily climbing the steps of prosperity. It therefore behooves contemporary Nimba elites, particularly candidates and their staunched supporters to take responsibility and cue from the late Senator Johnson traits that left a count he led for well over 25 years unscathed.
WHAT IS MOST important to particularly the ordinary citizens of the county who are making ends meeting, is the hope of a promising future of their county; that Nimba’s security, peace and prosperity – and not a Kogar job or a Gongloe-Weh’s job, or whoever being the winner. Whoever wins, let us see it as Nimba win. As the people’s win, and the people’s senator.
IT IS OUR plea and expectation that no amount of electoral emotions, or zest for power and job and victory would deaden the consciences of key players in this by-election to see the a more united, peaceful and prosperous Nimba County afterwards.
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