WE AGREE: BIGOTRY CANNOT BUILD LIBERIA

LIBERIA MUST REJECT the poisonous politics of tribe, religion, fear, and manufactured division before the country once again sleepwalks into another dangerous season of emotional manipulation disguised as democratic competition. Musa Hassan Bility may have sounded the alarm, but the truth he touched belongs far beyond one politician, one party, or one county. It is a national truth Liberia has postponed confronting honestly for decades.

EVERY ELECTION SEASON, whenever governance failures become impossible to defend, whenever corruption becomes too visible, whenever poverty deepens beyond explanation, and whenever citizens begin demanding answers, certain politicians suddenly rediscover tribe and religion. They lower their voices inside communities, revive old suspicions, and present fellow Liberians not as citizens, but as threats. Fear becomes their final political refuge when competence abandons them.

THAT IS LIBERIA’S oldest political disease, and sadly, one the country continues to recycle with frightening consistency. Instead of interrogating why roads remain impassable, hospitals remain broken, schools continue collapsing, and youth unemployment keeps suffocating the future, national conversations often descend into tribal arithmetic and emotional division. Failed politicians understand this weakness perfectly. They know frightened citizens are easier to manipulate than enlightened citizens demanding results.

AND SO THE same destructive script repeats itself endlessly. When leaders cannot defend economic stewardship, they manufacture ethnic tension. When they cannot explain national decline, they invoke regional loyalty. When they cannot account for corruption, they suddenly wrap themselves in religion and pretend divine endorsement for political ambition. The tragedy is not merely that politicians deploy these tactics. The greater tragedy is how often the public rewards them.

BUT LIBERIA’S SUFFERING has never truly been caused by tribe or religion. Liberia has suffered because of greed without shame, leadership without competence, power without accountability, and politics without conscience. No tribe destroyed Liberia alone. No religion ruined Liberia alone. Bad leadership did. Corruption did. Dishonest politics did. Until the country accepts that painful truth, the republic will continue treating symptoms while protecting the disease itself.

THE PAINFUL IRONY is that Liberia remains one of the most publicly religious societies in Africa while simultaneously becoming one of the most morally contradictory politically. Politicians quote scripture fluently while defending corruption aggressively. They pray publicly while looting silently. They invoke God before elections and abandon godliness immediately after assuming office. Religion has increasingly become political decoration rather than moral discipline.

AND TRIBAL POLITICS is no cleaner. The same politicians preaching tribal solidarity to struggling citizens often live comfortably among people from every tribe once power and privilege arrive. Their children attend the same elite schools. They conduct business across ethnic lines. They socialize freely in spaces untouched by the tribal fears they preach publicly. Yet they return to poor communities weaponizing identity because division remains politically profitable.

THAT HYPOCRISY MUST be exposed relentlessly. Liberians must begin asking harder and more intelligent questions. Who built roads, not who shares your surname? Who protected public resources, not who speaks your dialect? Who governed responsibly, not who worships in your church or mosque? Who united the country, not who inflamed emotional grievances merely to preserve relevance and power?

A MODERN DEMOCRACY cannot survive indefinitely on emotional tribal mobilization while competence remains secondary. Countries do not develop because citizens vote emotionally. Nations rise when leadership is evaluated through stewardship, discipline, integrity, vision, courage, and measurable delivery. Liberia cannot continue reducing elections into tribal census exercises while expecting national transformation afterward.

THE LEGISLATURE ITSELF increasingly reflects this dangerous erosion of principle. Loyalty is too often transactional. Conviction has become negotiable. Alliances shift overnight depending on opportunity rather than ideology or national interest. Public service is gradually becoming less about service and more about survival, positioning, and access to power. That culture is morally exhausting the republic.

AND PERHAPS MOST dangerous is the growing normalization of fear-based politics among younger generations who should instead inherit a more mature democratic culture. If Liberia fails to intentionally reject identity manipulation now, future elections could become even more divisive, toxic, and unstable than previous ones. The country cannot continue gambling recklessly with emotional fault lines history has already shown can become dangerous.

THIS IS WHY Bility’s warning deserves serious national reflection beyond ordinary partisan interpretation. “Never again” cannot merely become another attractive political slogan repeated during speeches and forgotten after elections. It must become democratic discipline. Liberians must refuse politicians who rise by dividing citizens against one another. The country must reject leaders who exploit tribe because they cannot demonstrate competence.

LIBERIA BELONGS EQUALLY to all its people — not selectively to tribes, regions, religions, or political camps. And until the nation finally learns to elevate competence above tribe, integrity above identity, stewardship above fear, and vision above manipulation, national progress will continue moving far slower than the enormous potential buried within the Liberian people themselves.