By Davide Z. Patrick
Some people just like to look for trouble even when trouble is avoiding them. This is the case with the washed-out, has-been decadent political vonvon Cyril Allen who erroneously goes by the title “chief”. I am yet to get the right information on his chieftaincy title, because it must have been given him in Nigeria, his birthplace, and not in Liberia; though I stand to be corrected regarding the issue of his nativity.
However, most importantly, the crux of my argument has to do with the profoundly reckless statement that Cyril Allen made during the week. I say “profoundly reckless” because knowing Allen’s political savviness and uncanny sense of history, that was the least I had expected from the former Chairman of the National Patriotic Party, a party he helped to nurture, and whose leader, an Americo-Liberian, ultimately became the 20th president of Liberia, having wreaked havoc on his compatriots to attain state power – thanks in no measure to Mr. Cyril Allen and many others today parading the corridors of government.
Howbeit, let us look keenly at what Mr. Cyril said that has prompted this article, and for now put aside his role in the destabilization of Liberia and the subregion.
Responding to questions from a posse of journalists who had gone to his residence to pick his brains on unfolding national issues, Mr. Allen, in my opinion, perfectly worked his way around contending critical issues bordering on the COVID-19 pandemic, rigmarole at the national legislature, among others.
But when it came to the issue of the opposition consolidating itself to democratically take state power from the governing Coalition for Democratic Change, Mr. Allen became totally unhinged, saying squarely that Liberians are no longer prepared to elect another president from the Americo-Liberian stock.
Stating emphatically that it’s the wrong time for another Americo-Liberian to become President of Liberia, which he considered an anachronism,” Mr. Allen, forget to mention that he himself accumulated ill-gotten wealth and political capital mainly during Americo-Liberian Charles Taylor’s dastardly reign.
I am certain that sound-minded Liberians are pondering why would Mr. Allen try to bring back the dark chapters of our troubled history, from 1822 to 2003. It goes without saying that our country was birthed on the wrong principle of Southern antebellum racism where freed slaves in the United States remained disenfranchised. We know from history it was those freed slaves who were repatriated back to Africa because their former white owners wanted to rid their country of enlightened blacks. We know from history that those freed slaves did not appear in the Americas by their own volition, but because the natives sold them into slavery. We know from history that the freed slaves who landed here faced issues with integration into a society where they could no longer under the languages of the aborigines, nor their cultures. We know from history that the freed slaves/settlers consolidated themselves into colonies and enclaves to ward off marauding tribesmen. And we know that the settlers, who later became lords of the land exacted reverse racism upon the natives, similarly as they suffered under their former slave masters.
But we also know that over time, the true stock of freed slaves has been watered down due to intermarriages with natives; and that the issue of a true blood Congua no longer holds in this country. Finally, we know that even after the 14 years of civil carnage that occasioned our latest internal strive borne by ethic divide and horrible divisive propaganda, Liberians are still determined to be under one banana tree.
This is why the statement made by Mr. Cyril Allen riles me to my bones, because I am of the conviction that people like Mr. Allen who served as one of the key operatives to unleash on Liberians the lizard that later grew into a dragon, are not ready to repent for their sins.
Liberia is for all Liberians. Be you Native, Americo-Liberian or Congau. When we get used to the concept that we all belong to one Banana Tree and that we all ride in the same boat heading towards a common destiny, the better will be our journey towards the promised land of good governance, gender equality, quality and affordable education and basic social services provision for all devoid of sex, tribe and station in life.
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