By D. Kaihenneh Sengbeh

Every year, Unification Day (May 14) comes and goes, leaving us still disunified and disintegrated as a people and nation. This year’s observance fell on Sunday but is celebrated on Monday (May 15). Our celebrations have always been cosmetic: meeting in the bars and on the beaches to show off our wealth, or prowess of buying and drinking more beers and stouts, while others barely can afford a morsel of food. That isn’t unity.

We’ve used the Day to further tear each other apart — fighting and abusing each other at drinking shops or breaking people’s homes in neighborhoods with our deeds. We’ve torn each other apart in gossip corners, on the airwaves, on the pages of newspapers, and on social media or other online platforms. That’s divisiveness. No, we haven’t used it to dialogue, to reach out, to reconcile differences in our communities or homes, or make peace with or between our next-door neighbors. We’ve been selfish, mean, and greedy.

Yes, we celebrate the day, and proudly wish people “Happy Unification Day” but we haven’t reflected on the purpose for which President William V. S. Tubman’s Administration set aside this Day. After all, who cares?! It’s just another holiday to “boil” and “do our thing”. We’ve lost the sense of purpose of the National Unification Day.

Now, let’s go back a bit. History tells me that between 1822 and 1861, thousands of blacks (mostly former slaves) were relocated from the West, particularly the US, to the settlement in Liberia.

This influx of people (Americo-Liberians), we’ve learned, came with wealth, power, and influence. They exercised control over the indigenous (original Liberians), creating a feeling of animosity and exclusion from the native inhabitants. President Tubman, Liberia’s longest-serving leader and the father of modern Liberia, decided to address the social and political imbalance between the Americo-Liberians and the indigenous Liberians.

Tubman introduced his National Unification Policy, which featured among other things an extension of the vote to women and to the country’s indigenous people. That was unification – giving marginalized women and indigenous people a voice and a space in the country’s governance. Tubman, in solidifying his unification drive, appointed individuals hailing from different counties as superintendents (his direct representative) to other counties. Should President George try that today, it would be one of the biggest political clamors in the country.

Unification Day was first proclaimed as a national holiday on May 14th, 1947. As a way of recognizing the benefits that Tubman’s Unification and Integration Policy brought to the country, an Act was passed in 1960, declaring May 14th as National Unification Day throughout the country. That is why the holiday is proclaimed by the President of Liberia a few days before May 14th each year.

In a recent proclamation, President George Weah noted that the government adheres to the principles of justice, equality, fair play, and equal opportunities for all, regardless of tribe or clan, section, creed, religion, or economic status so that Liberians might be united in a consolidated whole.

However, decades after decades, it has always appeared to me that we are window-dressing national unification – I mean a waste of time, energy, resources, and national revenue when we pause to observe a holiday that seems to be making no impact. It appears like wasting water on the dog’s back in an effort to get it wet when the water slides off to the ground.

As government and people, we haven’t carved any actual events and programs across the country to commemorate the true meaning of Unification Day – to break the chord of disunity and embrace the spirit of the actual national fraternity. It is either me, myself, and I, or nobody else. We’ve cripplingly missed the mark.

We haven’t deeply reflected on why this day? Maybe, we haven’t profoundly understood where we are as a country – our backwardness – and how can we move TOGETHER with a national patriotic slogan of unity that identify us as we move forward. On our lips, we’ve lied unconsciously each time we recite the national pledge: “…one nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” How can we shout at the top of our lungs “in union strong success is sure” in our national anthem when we have never been united in our homes, communities, churches, mosques and political parties and…. I will argue that the road to national unity and integration has not been taken.

So, it’s only always another wasted stay-home day. No benefit to Liberia.

This year, Unification Day should be more crucial to us than ever before. It is a year of general and presidential elections, and you don’t want to argue with me about how our division will further deepen. Look across the political parties and national politics. See the political divides, the lies, the dirty politics, the character assassinations, the deception, and false promises built on counterfeit premises. Yes, politics is like that in most cases, but ours is worst and strikingly disuniting.

Believe me or not, we are divided! We need a united country more than ever to confront our current economic pinch. Who told you we can’t?!

Dialogue and reconciliation can help. Let’s talk about the burning issues, get them off our chests, and find the right solutions for them as a team. Let this other Unification Day leaves behind a mark of unity in our lives, in our communities, with our neighbors, in our homes, and in our nation. Indeed, we must grow as people and as a nation. Then, we can laugh together when we look back at where we’ve been. Sure, we can’t continue playing with national unification on our lips, when our hearts and plans are dirty. Then you will compel me to call it a paradox of unification.