Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
MONROVIA, LIBERIA – A former head of the Political Science Department at the University of Liberia, political science lecturer Alaric Tokpa has asserted that President George Manneh Weah is a dictator.
Appearing on the local radio station OK FM on Thursday, Prof. Tokpa, a prominent former national student leader alluded to the Weah administration’s handling of the ban on students’ politics at the state-run University of Liberia as an indication that the country has slummed back into a dictatorship.
In the governance process in its immediate past history, Liberia experienced heightened dictatorship during the regimes of former presidents Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor, both of whom were booted out of power, with the former being killed in a rebel war waged by the latter, who is serving a 50-year jail sentence for war crimes and crimes committed against humanity during neighboring Sierra Leone’s civil war that lasted for 10 years.
Professor Tokpa maintained that dictatorship is already established in the country, saying, “there is no pretense that there is dictatorship in Liberia. There is dictatorship in Liberia, George Weah is a dictator.”
Said Prof. Tokpa: “A very, very dangerous dictatorship has already appeared in Liberia. Sufficed it to say, integrity institutions with commissioners that have tenure were created by the Comprehensive Peace Accord of Accra in 2003 – if you have a leadership that interferes with the tenure of such organizations or have the intention to interfere with the tenure of such institutions that is a dictatorship.”
He added: “If you have a government that arrogates power and resources onto itself – if you have a government that begins to interfere with the free practices of the press that we fought for in this country along with journalists, that is a dangerous dictatorship. If that is not a dictatorship, I do not know any other way in which to describe a dictatorship.”
He accentuated that if there is a government that interferes with the democratic rights of students to practice their politics with the intention of proceeding to interfere with the rights of political parties, as he believes the Weah-led government is doing, “we will challenge them – that is a government that wants to create a situation in which the one party dominant state will exist.”
“In the one party dominant state, one or two political parties may be allowed to exist, but they will be there to justify the continuous existence of the dictator as president of the country,” said Prof. Tokpa, adding, “I can assure you, if this trend is not stopped, political parties in this country will be denied the opportunity to participate in any coming elections.”
‘Gov’t interfering with students’ politics’
He insists that there is a dangerous dictatorship that is threading a very bad path in the country, adding that the interference with university students’ politics is just the beginning of a process that will lead into the interference of students’ politics all over this country and eventually the political parties will be affected.
He made it clear that he is opposed to the decision to ban students’ politics at the University of Liberia, stating, “they may call it suspension, it is actually a ban.”
“I am opposed to the decision because it has devastating consequences – and that is just the beginning – Liberia will see more of such actions in this country – and this government is not well advised to move in that direction. It will not be able to bear the consequences,” he said.
Professor Tokpa is of the belief that when the Weah-led government succeeds in banning students’ politics at the University of Liberia, it will proceed to do likewise in other universities and secondary schools.
“Eventually, this government will abrogate the right of controversial political parties to exist – and you can be sure that Liberia will not take kindly to that,” said Prof. Tokpa, who averred that this is the actual plan behind the UL administration’s action to suspend students’ political activities on its campuses.
Responding to a question from his interviewer regarding the action of the UL administration being a suspension and not a ban as he’s termed it, Prof. Tokpa wondered who gave the UL administration the right to suspend political activities of students at the state-run university, pointing out that men like himself are those who have what he calls the authority to define the language of the discourse at the university.
“It is a tendency for dangerous dictators to use fine language in which they couch what the public did not suspect at very unacceptable actions on their part; eventually the action and the intention are very different. It is not a suspension, it is an effective ban,” Prof. Tokpa maintained.
He accused government of interfering with students’ politics at UL, saying, “you cannot interfere with the right of our children to move freely, to express themselves – because in the first place, the University of Liberia Students Union, the Liberia National Students Union, even the all-powerful Student Unification Party of the University of Liberia, these are institutions that stood up to fight for the democratization of this country in pre-war years, during the war years and in the post war period. What gives anybody the right to reward them with ingratitude? This is ingratitude!”
He said it is the democratic rights of students guaranteed by the Constitution of Liberia and also guaranteed by the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) of Ghana, and as a signatory to the CPA, he and others are moral guarantors, who have the responsibility to defend such agreement and defend the Constitution of Liberia as well.
By relying on the university’s Handbook to suspend students’ political activities, he further accused the government of colluding with authorities at UL indicating that the Handbook is subordinate to the country’s Constitution, and that it is only an administrative regulation that is being manipulated with the approval of the Weah-led government.
The Administration of the University of Liberia on 11 January 2019, announced with immediate effect, the suspension of all student groups and campus-based political activities on all its campuses until further notice.
The UL administration said at the time that its reliance to suspend students’ politics on it campuses was based on the university’s Student Handbook, specifically rules 9, 10 and 11.
Rules 9, 10 and 11 of the UL Student Handbook: “No student shall for any cause whatever insult, assault or batter teachers, staff, fellow students and other university personnel or visitors to the University campus. “Insubordination shall not be tolerated, hostile and disrespectful behavior towards university authorities, government officials, visitors or university personnel and the use of provocative, abusive or other obscene language on campus, whether against government officials, university employees, other students or otherwise, is prohibited. The penalty for violation shall range from warning and suspension to expulsion as the gravity of the case might warrant.”
But prof. Tokpa counter argues that “Nobody should pretend that an institutional handbook is above the Constitution of our country.”
“Tugs”
He intimated that no student community can carry on violence if it is not provoked.
“What are the circumstances under which violence are being carried out? I am not here to discuss those particular conditions, but I do know there have been recent interferences, because tugs have been sent to that university to oppose actions of students – and when you see government using tugs to interfere will university students’ politics, those same tugs will be the members of the death squad tomorrow. We’ve got to be very careful,” he said.
The political science lecturer warned that both in Latin America and all over Africa, experience tells him that like the way the Weah regime is proceeding by interfering with university students’ politics and using tugs at some point, care should be taken that these very tugs are not turned on the student community as members of death squad, recalling that “after all, who killed Wuo Tappia, former president of the University of Liberia Students Union? Who killed Momolu Lavala, former chairman of the all-powerful Students Unification Party at the University of Liberia? Who killed Tonien Richardson? Who Killed Galawolo?
He said these slain student leaders, who he implied were killed by past governments were not the true enemies of Liberia, rather those he referred to as the hands that are presently interfering with the democratic rights of students to freely practice their politics are the real enemies of Liberia today.
He clarified that while he was not encouraging the engagement of students in violence on the university campus, the UL has certain kind of semi-autonomy, asking why government should send agents to confront students when they are engaged in democratic practices.
“I am not justifying violence in the student community. Nevertheless, I do know that there is a tendency for authorities at the university to want to negotiate everything on their terms,” he said.
He wonders why should negotiations of every situation involving students’ interests always evolve and succeed to conclude in the interest of the administration or the government.
“Without the student community, there is no need for a university. Without the student community, there would not be school administrators – and most of these actions they take to justify their salaries,” declared Prof. Tokpa, who said as a matter of fact, it is very clear to him that anytime a university leadership or administration goes at length to interfere with students’ democratic practices, they are doing so with the approval and support of the national administration.
“If students are so provoked in a community that they consider their own sanctuary, do you think they will not react? Of course, they will react,” he said.
Universities ought to be out of the reach of government, according to Prof. Tokpa, who intoned that the university community is like a sanctuary where government is not supposed to interfere with students’ political activities.
“If you take particular cases you will find that at any one point in time, if the particular students, who are being interfered with, have engaged in any acts that they consider violence, they have been provoked,” he emphasized.
He said students have the right to advocate for their own interest. But they have the right also to advocate for the interests for their parents, indicating that their parents are the ones who sustain and educate them.
So if their parents are affected, they are directly or indirectly affected. Therefore, it is the students’ responsibility as the conscience of this society to stand against the wrongs in this society.
Hear Prof. Tokpa: “This is the situation here; Martin Kollie, for example, has been recently elected as head of the all-powerful Students Unification Party – he’s being a young man that has been very, very vocal – what is it that he has said in this country for example, that undermines the interest of this government or that undermines the popularity of Mr. George Weah that his cheering squad is so concerned about? If a young man advises government to do the right thing, if that government succeeds to do the right thing, who takes the credit? For example, isn’t that Mr. Weah?”
Reacting to concerns that university students’ political activities must only be restricted on the campuses of the UL and not cross over to national politics, Prof. Tokpa, who was one of five students’ leaders of the Liberia National Students Union (LINSU) sentenced to firing squad by the military government in January 1982, but who were later reprieved following incessant public outcry, said “that is unacceptable. Nowhere in the world, are students to go under such a restriction.”
He pointed out that the problem in Liberia is that the university community is seen as an establishment that should produce service workers, adding that the university community is generally viewed as a somewhat conveyor belt that should not process students to be critical but just process human beings that will become service workers for a system that is not serving the people of Liberia.
On the other hand, he said, there is a critical sector of the university that believes that when things are not right in society, efforts ought to be made to give society an understanding of the right direction.
“If we do not do this, we reverse the gains of the democratic struggles of this country,” he warned.
Prof. Tokpa propounded that as a matter of fact, it is true that even when political parties could not stand up to the dictatorship in the 1980s, it is only the student community that stood up, reminding Liberians that it is it through these efforts which was based on sacrifices of lives that eventually made it possible for a woman in the person of former president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and a footballer in the person of current president Geroge Weah to become presidents of Liberia respectively.
“Without the effort of the student community that may have not been possible. We know that in history certain developments may otherwise take place. But what we do know is that what really took place is that students struggled for the democratization of this country. In my view, I strongly believe they should not be rewarded with ingratitude. This is ingratitude, and it is wrong,” he lamented.
‘Lift the ban’
Prof. Tokpa then called on the UL administration to lift the suspension placed on students’ politics at the government-run institution.
“They should lift that ban now or else the ban will be eventually lifted. Whether they like it or not. The student community has the responsibility to do so,” he said
He said government needs to work with the student community in such a way that the tension and violence are reduced – “and the way to do that is to stop outside interference,” he cautioned.
“Gov’t is paper tiger”
He dispelled the widespread notion that former students’ leaders like him are those inciting violence on the campuses of the UL, stating that “if I were inciting violence on the campus of the university, this government would be running away now – because it’s just a paper tiger.” (Paper tiger is an idiomatic expression meaning a person or thing that appears threatening but is ineffectual}.
Referring to the government, Prof. Tokpa said “when you know that when the consequences of your action is that you will be pushed, you do not stand over a valley,” interpreting his analogy by stating that government’s alleged action to interfere with university students’ politics which he disagrees with, has devastating consequences.
He said in spite of well-advised suggestions for the Weah-led government to have brought together stakeholders and not just surrogates or puppets of President Weah to sit down and fashion a realistic and workable national plan for this country, same was ignored and a development plan that he said was forced, was crafted.
“Because initially, the government did not intend to work on plan. Because characteristically, such institutions don’t work on plan, they work on expediency.”
However, he stated that to have the development plan is one thing and to implement it is another thing – “so, let the government concentrate on the implementation of the Pro-poor Agenda that it says it has developed,” he said, adding that government should take its Pro-poor Agenda from theory into practice.
“We all have ears. We can see, we can feel. If the country sees the government moving in the right direction, nobody will even have to pronounce it on radio or sing in song. People will know.”
“We feel the hunger all around us. We see the rise in prices. We hear commentaries from even supporters of this government,” said Prof. Tokpa, adding, “in the first place, the greatest enemies of this government are within the government – and sooner than later, the government will come to realize that.”
Prof. Tokpa says government is frantically searching for enemies, stating that when a leadership is in haste to search for enemies, it can easily mistake its friends for enemies and its enemies for friends.
Giving indications that government is searching for enemies he said, “They are attacking the media. They are attacking the student community. Look at the way in which even the Vice President has been stripped of some of her responsibilities. Look at the way in which integrity institutions were attacked in recent times, in terms of denying commissioners tenure. That is not necessary.”
