A VIDEO ON Saturday, September 17, 2022, surfaced on social media, and in just seconds, it went viral due to its scary contents in a purported newscast presented by a white man, who did not identify himself, nor the news platform on which the newscast was being presented.
BESIDES, THE NEWSCAST contained a single story that revealed that former Liberia Peace Ambassador and current President, George Weah, and his government are training an armed group with an aim to hijack the results of the 2023 elections to remain in power amidst predictions that he is likely to lose the elections. The video spread like wildfire as friends, politicians, journalists, and others shared it.
IN FACT, ARGUMENTS have ensued in many quarters over the authenticity of the video, whether or not it is fake or real depending on who the arguers are and their political affiliations because after all, one’s views on issues depending on where he or she sits, and with whom they sit.
Already, the Ministry of Justice has since debunked the video and described it as a fake.
LIBERIA’S INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS have also dissociated themselves from the video and similarly described it as fake.
HOWBEIT, THE LATEST video, whether real or fake, has brought fresh memories of the rumors of war that permeated the entire Liberian society during the late eighties and early nineties when the defunct National Patriotic Front of Liberia of jailed former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who had left the Doe’s government after being accused of embezzlement, assembled a group of rebels in Cote d’Ivoire, mostly ethnic Gios and Manos, who felt persecuted by Doe.
THEY LATER BECAME the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, NPFL that invaded Nimba County on 24 December 1989.
THAT INVASION EVENTUALLY turned into a full-scale armed rebellion that lasted for nearly fourteen years.
APPROXIMATELY TWO HUNDRED thousand innocent people were reportedly killed in cold blood and others forced into exile.
LIKE THE VIDEO currently being doubted, debated and condemned, those rumors about the coming of the rebels at the time were similarly doubted, condemned and debated, but later turned out to be the reality. While we as well condemn and doubt the latest video and its contents, we are also cognizant of the adage that where there is smoke, there is fire.
IS SOMEBODY OR a group somewhere with a sinister motive, but want to blatantly accuse the Liberian Leader falsely or use him as a scapegoat to make him unpopular ahead of the 2023 elections?
DOES PRESIDENT WEAH, who has not thrown any journalist or opposition politician in jail, have any intention to bring armed rebellion against his own people because he wants to remain in power?
IS THE CURRENT video being circulated an extension of unsubstantiated claims linking the President to the defunct MODEL rebel group?
WHILE THESE QUESTIONS still remain unanswered, let’s be reminded that armed rebellions have in no way done any good to this Country. They only brought backwardness, underdevelopment and abject poverty. So whether or not the war video is fake or real, let us replace the negative thoughts of war with the positive thoughts of peace and prosperity.
